Cumberbatch: I DID consider housing a Syrian refugee, but...
BENEDICT Cumberbatch stunned his audience when he delivered a foulmouthed rant after his Hamlet performance at the Barbican, blasting the Government for agreeing to accept only 20,000 Syrian refugees over five years.
Now, two years after the outburst, the Old Harrovian claims he and his wife, theatre director Sophie Hunter, 39, were so committed to the cause that they considered housing refugees in their £2.7 million Hampstead home — but decided against it.
‘People were saying, “You’ve got a home, why don’t you house refugees?” And we did look into it.
‘But we had, then, a very new baby — maybe four or five months old,’ explains the Sherlock star, 41, referring to his oldest son, Christopher. ‘Maybe people had a point. I understand why some might think I should be housing people instead of complaining about a government not doing it.
‘ But I was trying to raise awareness that we can do more as a society. Because I do feel we are able to do more than just recovering bodies.’ Speaking to the Big Issue, the tireless thespian, now also a father to six-month-old Hal Auden, admits that despite the backlash he received for his nightly diatribes, he would do it again.
‘I’m a human being and it was a human crisis and I got over-excited and said things in a rather grand manner some nights,’ he adds.
‘You stick your head above the parapet and that happens.
‘But we raised money for children in need.
‘So I don’t regret doing it for a second, and I will do it again, even if it does put me in the firing line.’
Cumberbatch attacked the ‘ utter disgrace of the British Government’ for not doing enough just four months after receiving a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.
He shocked audience members as he shouted: ‘F*** the politicians!’ while pleading with them to leave donations in buckets to alleviate the crisis.