Benedict Cumberbatch sorry he 'upset people' with comedic non-binary role: 'It backfired'

Actor Benedict Cumberbatch said he's "had to apologize" galore times for playing a nonbinary quality arsenic a gag successful the movie "Zoolander 2."

Variety reported connected however Cumberbatch, champion known for playing Doctor Strange successful Marvel movies and the titular detective successful "Sherlock," cringed astatine having played a non-binary manner exemplary named "All" successful the "Zoolander" sequel.

In the 2016 comedy, the 2 main characters, played by Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, conscionable the quality named "All" and instantly person questions. The character, with shaved eyebrows and an androgynous appearance, is asked by Stiller’s character, "So… are you, like, a antheral exemplary oregon a pistillate model?"

"All is not defined by binary constructs," Cumberbatch’s quality replies.

Benedict Cumberbatch arrives astatine the 28th yearly Screen Actors Guild Awards astatine the Barker Hangar connected Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022, successful Santa Monica, Calif.  (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

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"That’s cool, I don’t similar labels either," Wilson’s quality says. "But I deliberation he’s asking, ‘Do you person a blistery canine oregon a bun? You person a wiener oregon a ‘vageener’?"

This and different awkward moments featuring this quality were condemned by wide critics.

"I’ve had to apologize for that rather a lot. It’s a hard 1 to speech about," Cumberbatch told Variety. "I emotion that radical of radical and it was the accidental to benignant of beryllium portion of thing [in Zoolander] that the archetypal clip astir was iconic and I was a immense instrumentality of. But it got analyzable and it got misunderstood and I upset people. I respect that, truthful I astir apt wouldn’t bash that again now."

As Variety noted, a petition was circulated astatine the clip and had gathered 25,000 supporters calling to "Boycott 'Zoolander 2' for its violative practice of non-binary individuals!"

The movie "Zoolander", directed by Ben Stiller. Seen here, Ben Stiller (as Derek Zoolander).  Theatrical merchandise September 28, 2001. Screen capture. Paramount Pictures.  (CBS via Getty Images)

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"Cumberbatch’s quality is intelligibly portrayed arsenic an over-the-top, cartoonish mockery of androgyne/trans/non-binary individuals," the petition said. "This is the modern equivalent of utilizing blackface to correspond a minority."

The petition went connected to argue, "If the producers and screenwriters of Zoolander wanted to supply societal commentary connected the beingness of trans/androgyne individuals successful the manner industry, they could person approached models similar Andreja Pejic to beryllium successful the film. By hiring a cis histrion to play a non-binary idiosyncratic successful a intelligibly antagonistic way, the movie endorses harmful and unsafe perceptions of the queer assemblage astatine large."

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Variety besides recalled erstwhile Cumberbatch said successful 2022 of the part, "In this era, my relation would ne'er beryllium performed by anybody different than a trans actor." 

He added, "But I retrieve astatine the clip not reasoning of it needfully successful that regard, and it being much astir 2 dinosaurs, 2 heteronormative clichés not knowing this caller divers world. But it backfired a small bit."