Nearly a decade after he appeared as a caricature of a non-binary person in Zoolander 2, Benedict Cumberbatch has once again apologized for playing the role. The star, who is also known for Sherlock and Doctor Strange, talked about his Zoolander 2 character, a model named “All,” during a recent interview with Variety.
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“I’ve had to apologize for that (role) quite a lot, so it’s a difficult one to talk about,” he said. “I love that group of people, and it was a chance to be part of something that, the first time around, was iconic, and I was a huge fan of, but it got complicated.”
Benedict Cumberbatch then noted that he wouldn’t be again selecting an offensive role like that.
“It got misunderstood, and I upset people, and I respect that,” he noted. “So I probably wouldn’t do that again now.”
Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, and Penélope Cruz starred in the film with Cumberbatch. Despite its hype, Zoolander 2 failed at the box office, securing only $56.7 million on a $50-55 million budget. It was also heavily criticized, receiving only a 22% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
During a January 2022 appearance on Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series, Cumberbatch admitted the offensive Zoolander 2 role “backfired a little bit.”
“There was a lot of contention around the role, understandably now,” Cumberbatch explained to Cruz. “And I think in this era, my role would never be performed by anybody other than a trans actor. But I remember at the time not thinking of it necessarily in that regard, and it being more about two dinosaurs, two heteronormative clichés not understanding this new diverse world.”
Cruz encouraged him by stating it was “funny” what he did with his Zoolander 2 role.
Critics Created a Petition to Boycott ‘Zoolander 2’ For Benedict Cumberbatch’s ‘Offensive’ Role
A petition was started after Cumberbatch’s role in the film was revealed. It demanded that people boycott the movie for its “offensive representation” of non-binary individuals.
“In the Zoolander 2 trailer, an androgynous character played by Benedict Cumberbatch is asked by Zoolander and Hansel if he is a ‘male or female model,’” the petition’s description read. “And if they ‘have a hot dog or a bun.’”
The petition organizer further pointed out that Cumberbatch’s character is clearly portrayed as an over-the-top, cartoonish mockery of androgyne/trans/non-binary individuals.
“This is the modern equivalent of using blackface to represent a minority,” they wrote. “If the producers and screenwriters of Zoolander wanted to provide social commentary on the presence of trans/androgyne individuals in the fashion industry, they could have approached models like Andreja Pejic to be in the film.”
The organizers wrote the producers hired a “cis actor” to play a non-binary individual in a “clearly negative way.” They then added that the film endorses that are both harmful and dangerous perceptions of the LGBTQ community at large.