“Someone will always hate what I say. There’s always going to be somebody spitting blood about my wooden-faced, toffee-named, crappy acting.”
In the last few years, Benedict Cumberbatch has really made a name for himself. He played Khan in the most recent Star Trek movie. He provided the voice of Smaug the dragon in the most recent Hobbit movie. And, as depicted above, he plays the titular character on BBC’s Sherlock. You could say that all three of these characters have a similar misanthropic edge to them. Maybe Cumberbatch just has a natch for those kinds of roles.
Suddenly stepping into the limelight, Benedict Cumberbatch has come into quite a bit of fame and, presumably, a fair bit of fortune. However, when you choose to step into the public eye, you have to understand that you will be viciously scrutinized for everything that you do. It’s one of the sacrifices you make when you step into a public role, like that of an actor, athlete or politician. Nothing you do will ever be good enough for everyone.
I’ve experienced this myself, on an understandably much smaller scale. Even if you are generally received as being stellar at what you do, even if nine out of ten people are floored by your talent, there will always be that one other person who will call you “wooden-faced” or say that you are “crappy” at your job. You can’t please everyone all of the time, so you really shouldn’t let the haters get you down. Someone will always hate you, rightly or wrongly.
And perhaps that is one lesson that we should all take from the iconic character of Sherlock Holmes
“I am very flattered. I have also become a verb as in I have cumberbatched the UK audience apparently. Who knows, by the end of the year I might become a swear word too! It’s crazy and fun and very flattering.”
Get out there, do what you do best, and accept that not everyone is going to love you. Now, if you’ll excuse me, the game is afoot.
So too when fame and fortune lead to criticism you must learn how to react to it. If you engage, you are seen as defensive and if you don’t you are seen as how they wish you to. Double edged sword, but you must be comfortable with how you present yourself to the public.
It has always amazed me at what comes out of people’s mouths that are public figures or people in important positions in the business world. Filter people filter, should be written on a card and given to anyone in politics, management, the media or acting. Take your time, think about what you are writing or saying any you may not be the trending item on Twitter or become a hashtag.