Benedict Cumberbatch took on the iconic role of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes in the hit series, Sherlock. The series also featured Martin Freeman as Dr. John Watson. This modern adaptation of the classic detective received critical acclaim and gained worldwide popularity. It also sparked a surge in creative fan fiction on the internet, with some of them exploring rather racy themes involving Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.
It turns out that both Cumberbatch and Freeman were well aware of these fanfics. The Doctor Strange actor revealed that he was weirdly flattered by how fans portrayed him in their imaginative stories and artwork. The fans also came up with creative art pieces when Cumberbatch was announced as part of The Hobbit trilogy.
Benedict Cumberbatch Was Weirded Out By His Depiction In Fan Fiction
With Sherlock becoming increasingly popular, both Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman became characters in several fan fiction pieces. While they initially remained oblivious to the internet world, Cumberbatch shared in an MTV interview that it was Freeman who introduced him to some explicit fanfics that he found on Tumblr.
Both actors chose to appreciate the creativity of such artists rather than taking offense. Cumberbatch revealed that he was flattered by the way fans portrayed his bodily proportions in the stories. However, The Courier actor did admit that some fan fiction explored rather twisted territory. The Power of the Dog actor told MTV:
“I’m ripped, doing something I wouldn’t normally do with my body, or having done to it, involving Watson. So that’s as far as I’ll hit about that one, but it’s all there on the Web if you want to find it. I was amazed at the level of artistry; people have spent hours doing it. And there’s some really weird cross-breeding stuff that goes on.”
Interestingly, the fan fiction didn’t stop with Sherlock. When the news broke that Cumberbatch would be playing the role of Smaug the Dragon in The Hobbit trilogy, fans took to the internet to create their dragon stories. The Black Mass actor shared with MTV:
“The news got out that I was playing Smaug in Hobbit and suddenly there were lots of dragons with purple scarves flying around so it’s crazy, it’s crazy.”
For his role in Sherlock, the War Horse actor won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Miniseries. Freeman won the Supporting Actor award in the same category.
Martin Freeman Later Revealed That Some Fan Reactions Made His Role Challenging
The third series of Sherlock was the most-watched drama series in the U.K. The fans were even more active and this proved to be somewhat challenging for Martin Freeman when he returned for the fourth series. During an interview with The Guardian, Freeman opened up about how fan reactions to the chemistry between Watson and Sherlock had made his role more challenging.
Some fans theorized that Watson and Sherlock were romantically involved, and they were utterly disappointed when the series didn’t head in that direction. Freeman told The Guardian:
“By the time we filmed the last ones there were some fans who were so adamant that John and Sherlock were gay, they knew it. And they knew that Steven [Moffat] and Mark [Gatiss] were going to write an episode where we held hands off into the sunset together. So when that didn’t happen, there was a chunk of people going, ‘This is betrayal’.”
However, Sherlock actress Amanda Abbington felt that the final series catered to much of the fandom stuff, rather than staying truthful to the original story. However, she later went back on this statement, tweeting that series 4 was spot on. Sherlock is now available for rent on AppleTV+.
