Watch Benedict Cumberbatch coolly pound Captain Kirk into oblivion in the new Star Trek film, and you’d think not much could ruffle the classy Brit actor.
The previews show him effortlessly waging a one-man war against crew of the USS Enterprise with a stare that would make Blue Steel wilt.
But there is one thing that can catch him off guard and cause his stiff upper lip to tremble and cheeks to redden. His female fans.
While on the Graham Norton Show in the UK, the debonair Cumberbatch wilted when Norton brought up the subject.
Scroll down to watch the video – the embarrassing stuff kicks in at the 13-minute mark
Norton asked Cumberbatch if he knew what his fans called themselves.
Cumberbatch knew but wasn’t prepared to go there, trying to fob Norton off with the limp answer “Cumber-collective”.
Norton and Cumberbatch’s Star Trek co-star Chris Pine, who was also on the show, pressed him further and made him squirm as they revealed his fanbase call themselves the “Cumberbitches”.
Look up the term and you’ll see whole sites overflowing with love for Cumberbatch – and some very disturbing fan art.
Cumberbatch, who is by no means a Brad Pitt kind of star, rose to fame as the oily cad in the 2007 Brit period drama Atonement but it is his starring role in Sherlock that brought out the sexy in him.
When Peter Jackson announced Cumberbatch would be playing Smaug in The Hobbit, it sent the fans into a frenzy and resulted in Smauglock – a half-dragon, half Holmes creature that speaks to a weird longing within certain kinds of fan.
Cumberbatch himself is certainly wary about his new-found popularity. He told the Huffington Post recently:
“It will bring a new level of scrutiny, investigation into the personal or private, which I’m getting used to. It’s not all roses, but it’s ok. It would be churlish to say I wasn’t aware of the reality of it, but there are ways of sidestepping not courting it. I’m interested in it being about the work, but I understand why people are obsessed with the personal as well. It doesn’t mean you like it.”
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