AUTHOR
Kevin Fallon
Legions of girls are obsessing over British Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch with a devotion typically reserved for boy bands and Biebers. What’s behind their intense devotion—and equally rabid backlash?
“Throw your boobs in the air if you want some cumberlovin.”
—@Cumberbitches, October 8, 2010
Do any of those words make sense to you? They might, if you’re among the almost 37,000 members of “the most glorious and elusive society for the appreciation of the high cheekboned, blue eyed sexbomb that is Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch,” star of the BBC series Sherlock. That “society” is the legion of inordinately dedicated fans of Cumberbatch, a group whose adherents have labeled themselves the “Cumberbitches” and who have launched a Twitter profile, Facebook page, a Pinterest handle, and countless Tumblrs in honor their beloved star.
Their adoration is expressed as hyperbolically as it is earnestly. He’s “the biggest thing since Jesus. I mean, you know, since the Beatles,” writes Alexandra Sokoloff, author of the bestselling crime thriller Huntress Moon. One Tumblr user, who calls herself “Cumberqueen,” calls him “a chunk of raw ginger.” His most dashing smiles and candid moments are captured in .gif form on Tumblrs including “League of Cumberbitches” and “Cumberland.” But despite the plethora of Web shrines curated for the star, the question likely lingering among most of uninitiated is: who is this guy?
Benedict Cumberbatch is a 36-year-old British stage and screen actor. His star has been steadily rising across the pond over the past decade—thanks to his performances as Stephen Hawking in the BBC telefilm Hawking and as the leads in the hit miniseries To the Ends of the Earth and The Last Enemy—while supporting roles in films including Atonement, The Other Boleyn Girl, and War Horse began putting him on the radar stateside. But it’s his role as Sherlock Holmes in the BBC series Sherlock, which began airing on PBS in 2010, that’s served as his American breakout.
In Sherlock, Cumberbatch reconceives Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s oft-portrayed sleuth icon as a modern-day technophile, supplementing his “elementary” skills of deduction with email, texting, GPS, and laptops. The role fits Cumberbatch like a herringbone deerstalker. The actor’s natural ability—with his tall, slight frame; distinct, crisp accent; piercing eyes; and unruly mop of curls—to play posh misfits lends itself to an adorably awkward, amusing, and almost Aspergian performance in the lead role. His Holmes is a “misanthropic genius who doesn’t gladly suffer fools,” The Daily Beast’s Jace Lacob wrote when the series premiered in the United States two years ago.
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