Benedict Nation? Cumber Batches of Love?
The mania over the actor Benedict Cumberbatch, the former Dr. Who turned movie star and modern Holmes on “Sherlock” turned the sometimes staid PBS days at the TV Critics Association winter press tour into near ComicCon levels of fandom, complete with scores of young fans awaiting autographs, hugs and selfies with the star.
He was asked, during his press session for the new season of “Sherlock,” which attracted record numbers Sunday, how he felt about all this fuss.
“Guilt, first of all” he said. “Because I was late and I had to run past them saying, ‘I’m on a tight schedule. I’ve got to come back and see you later.’ They have to wait another three odd hours, so forgive me. It’s extraordinary.
But also: “a little bit unnerving,” he added. “I feel — not an onerous sense of responsibility, but I do feel that that has to be acknowledged, and I know that feeds the thing itself, but at the same time, I’m a human being. As much as I’m capable of, I’ve got to acknowledge with gratitude the fact that they are so supportive, loyal, and by in large, intelligent, and some of them normal, and committed to something that I really love doing and a character that I like playing, and other characters as well. So yeah.
“It means a lot to me. It means a hell of a lot to me. It also means a lot to me that there aren’t people camped outside [also] who will sit down, a family, cross generational, wherever they are in the world — and whether they’ll grumble and go ‘Well, I preferred [earlier ‘Doctor Who’ Jeremy] Brett’ or whether they’ll go, ‘He’s cool. He’s kind.’
“It’s that Sunday night feeling, that sort of around-the-television feeling — that’s the audience that I really I really get a kick from,” Cumberbach says. “One of the biggest thrills I had when the first season [of “Sherlock] launched was to look at the book sales shoot up … That makes me very, very happy.”
Cumberbatch says as far as being a fan, “I know what it’s like. I am a fan of Harrison Ford.”
Ford surprised the young actor by saying he was a fan of his work as well, which sort of floored Cumberbatch.
“That was an amazing moment,” he said. “That was genuine shock. It’s very back to front when you come here for the first time or when you meet people of that ilk, because, obviously, especially at my age, they’re my heroes. They’re the people I’ve been watching. I’ve been in their audience. And for you to realize that they’re now in your audience, for them to come up to you and go, ‘I really like what you do,’ it feels back to front. So I was just I was floored by that. I mean, he’s a huge hero. I’m just the right age for that, for Indy and Han Solo. And he’s a phenomenal actor beyond those as well. I followed him all through his career and his ongoing career, I should say. And to have that happen …I just sort of sat there going, ‘Wow. I don’t know who told you to say that, but it works. I’m very happy.’ No, it was genuine, and what a lovely thing to happen.”
“I first noticed something was odd when somebody that I’d asked for some chicken.” But the person waiting on him reacted with a gaping mouth.
“No, no. It’s there. It’s the chicken. It’s there.”
“And he went, ‘No, you.’
“’Me? I’m the chicken?’
“’No, no. The chicken’s there. You’re on television, aren’t you?’
“And I went, ‘Oh, yeah, sometimes. Yeah, I’m an actor.’
“He went, ‘Oh, my God, he’s an actor.’
“And that was it. I didn’t get any chicken for half an hour. He got all his friends out. We had a conversation about it. We took photographs over the chicken. I was getting really hungry for the chicken.
“So that was the first moment I thought, ‘Oh, yeah, Christ, I do stuff that people see.’ Since then, I’ve tried not to adapt my life too much. I value my privacy. I value quiet time. And I value sort of having space to think on my own and not feel too self conscious,” Cumberbatch says.
“It is odd. If you’re having a down day, that’s when it gets a bit particular when you have a camera thrust in your face or somebody wants to sort of have a chat that you’ve never met before, and you’re kind of like, ‘I’m having a really bad day’ and just, ‘I need to sort of get to where I’m going.’ That’s when it gets a bit particular. But people, by and large, have been really respectful of that.”
And when the session was over, he spent a lot of time signing autographs and dispensing the occasional hug to the long-waiting fans.