14 DAY TRIAL // Benedict Cumberbatch has seen his popularity increase exponentially in the last couple of years, but he’s still struggling to come to terms with just how famous he is. Now believed to be in the race for an Oscar for Best Actor, the actor is opening up in a series of interviews, touching on a variety of topics.
He sat down for a chat with Vulture mag, and among other things, he also explained one of the best viral photos of the year, coming from the Golden Globes 2014, which saw him dancing with Michael Fassbender, his co-star in the critically acclaimed “12 Years a Slave.”
You can find the photo in question attached to this article: it is important to see it to appreciate the Britishness / awesomeness of his explanation.
The famous dance-off
The photo popped up on Twitter without further comments, but we do know that it was snapped in one of the commercial breaks. What makes the Golden Globes such a fun awards ceremony is a certain air of informality about the entire affair, as well as the fact that booze is served and industry people actually mingle with each other, instead of spending the evening in their assigned seats.
So, this moment happened when 2 actors who worked together and are probably friends, got their groove on to whatever tune was playing, and there was a camera nearby to capture it.
Many people and media outlets refer it to as the “Cumberbatch – Fassbender dance-off,” and Cumberbatch takes slight offense with the term because it implies some sort of rivalry.
Cumberbatch is too posh for our celebrity culture.
Proof: “Everyone’s called that a dance-off. We were dancing together, as grown men should. There’s no ‘off’ about it. We were dancing ‘on.’ We were together, in perfect male harmony. We were grooving around and dancing back-to-back. It wasn’t like, ‘You go,’ ‘No, you go,’ ‘You throw your [expletive] down, I throw my [expletive] down’ — there was no competitive streak to it at all.”
He could be joking, but there’s a very solid chance he’s actually perplexed that people would call the moment a “dance-off.” He could be in earnest trying to explain why it was a dance “on” and not “off,” which is something that no other celebrity has done. It’s naïve and adorable and quite funny as well.
The Wit and Wisdom of Benedict Cumberbatch
The rest of his chat with Vulture is all those things, too. He talks about his famous BBC character Sherlock Holmes and how he never gets any with the ladies because he’s pretty much asexual. He talks about his famous roles and how he handles the degree of exposure that comes with them being embraced by a wider audience.
He opens up on privacy and how he’s having some issues surrendering a chunk of his private life to the public, because he is their “property” now. He talks about Shakespeare and what it means to him to be considered one of the hottest men in showbiz.
He approaches all these topics with honesty and charm, and a certain dose of naivety and humor. Benedict Cumberbatch gives amazing (and long) interviews, Oscar campaign or no Oscar campaign so, useless to say, you should check this one out if you’re a fan of his work and / or alien look.