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Benedict Cumberbatch Coloured Actors Controversy

1,369 views · Published 28 January 2015 · 1:58 · Indexed 16 October 2026

Channel: Rock N' Roll True Stories · 2015 · Entertainment

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Verdict: Dumb made up controversy. The guy has friends who are people of colour. Media looking for controversy amid awards season.

"Benedict Cumberbatch had a brain fart. A brain fart that’s grown into a mushroom cloud of offence, conjecture and outrage. His crime? Saying the word “coloured” when referring to black actors during an interview in which – funnily enough – he talked about the trouble non-white British actors have breaking through in the UK.

He’s since issued an apology that was contrite, swift and hit all the right notes, and when you look at the context of what Cumberbatch said, you’ve got to give him a pass. Not only because every single person is capable of a foot-in-mouth moment, but because he was making a valid point that, instead of being focused on, will now be ignored.


Benedict Cumberbatch apologises after calling black actors 'coloured'
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This is what he said (minus the offending “coloured” bit): “a lot of my friends have had more opportunities here [in America] than in the UK, and that’s something that needs to change”.

In other words, one of the most successful actors of the last five years is calling for change in the clearly biased industry in which he operates. Cumberbatch was adding a rare white voice in support of the growing number of black actors who are trying to encourage change in a sector which sorely needs it, yet seems incapable of achieving it without relentless pressure and coercion.

It’s almost 30 years since Eddie Murphy used his Oscar speech to decry the whitewashing of the awards show and 13 since Halle Berry delivered a tearful acceptance speech that was dedicated to the black women who went before her without hope of recognition.

Things have hardly transformed since then, and the last three months alone show how far there is still to go. First the hacked Sony emails revealed senior Sony executives making racist jokes about Barack Obama. They were followed by Chris Rock’s extraordinary, repeated and unremitting assault on the lack of diversity in the industry. Rock said: “How many black men have you met working in Hollywood? They don’t really hire black men. A black man with bass in his voice and maybe a little hint of facial hair? Not going to happen. It is what it is. I’m a guy who’s accepted it all.”

Cumberbatch’s ‘coloured’ gaffe reveals just how white the film industry is
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Then there was the failure give Selma more than two Oscar nominations, though that was two more than any black people received in the acting shortlists, which were entirely white. Critics pointed to the fact that this might have had something to do with the fact the academy voters are 94% white.

Earlier this week hardly a ripple was caused by Viola Davis’s moving speech at the Screen Actors Guild awards in which she praised the creators of ABC’s How To Get Away With Murder for even entertaining the idea that the lead character could be a middle-aged, dark-skinned black woman.

Those are the moments that should be held up, analysed and rewound. Not a mistake that detracted from an issue that’s still not been remedied. On both sides of the Atlantic black actors have a whole slew of problems but to misquote Jay Z, Benedict Cumberbatch isn’t one." - The Guardian

Hey everybody i want to talk about the so called controversy surrounding Benadict Cumberbatch He was recently on the Tavis Smiley show and for those who don't know Tavis Smiley is an African American tv host who is left leaning and his audience is mostly left leaning and probably mostly African American as well and basiacally they were having a discussion about the opportunity that exists for minority actors and actresses and he said that in America they have great opportunities and that great but back home where he's from which i think is England they don't have the same opportunities it's a lot harder for them and he wisehes they had the same opportunities back home.

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