Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch is apparently the kind of friend you can count on, according to longtime pal Keira Knightley.
Speaking to Elle magazine, the 29-year-old actress, who stars with Cumberbatch in the upcoming film The Imitation Game , revealed that her friend and co-star once punched film critic Mark Kermode in the arm after he referred to her as “Ikea Knightley.” The Observer journalist also called Knightley’s acting “wooden,” MailOnline reports:
“When I saw him [Benedict] again, I said, ‘Did you punch a journalist?’ and he was like, ‘I f***ing did.’ Everybody needs a friend like that.”
Kermode took to twitter to downplay the scuffle with Cumberbatch:
Dear @independent : Benedict Cumberbatch did not punch me in the face. He punched me on the arm. In jest. It’s on YouTube. And in my book.
— Mark Kermode (@KermodeMovie) June 6, 2014
Dear @Independent . I have never “said something rude to Keira Knightley”. I have never met Keira Knightley. Your fact-checking is terrible. — Mark Kermode (@KermodeMovie) June 6, 2014
Cumberbatch has been busy as of late. As The Inquisitr reported, seasons 4 and 5 of Sherlock are in the works, with a possible one-off movie also possible. Benedict was also recently tapped by the BBC to read original 1944 Radio 4 news broadcasts as part of the 70th Anniversary celebrations of D-day. Cumberbatch re-enacted the 8 am broadcast, while actors Patrick Stewart and Toby Jones took part in the project, The Guardian reports.
Benedict is also being considered for a role in the Marvel universe, according to a Deadline report. Along with Tom Hardy, Cumberbatch is apparently in contention for the lead role in a planned Doctor Strange movie, focusing on the comic book character who is a “Sorcerer Supreme” and defender of Earth.
Cumberbatch will next be seen opposite Knightley in The Imitation Game, out this November. Benedict stars as Alan Turing, a British mathematician and computer scientist. The film focuses on the period of Turing’s life when he helped to crack the German enigma code during World War II. Knightley plays Joan Clarke, to whom Turing was briefly engaged, and also revealed during the interview that she was glad she didn’t have to kiss Cumberbatch during the making of the film.
The scuffle is only one incident among an interesting relationship that Cumberbatch has had with the media over the years. Most famously, Benedict held up handwritten signs to protest paparazzi filming him on the set of Sherlock in 2013. More recently, he was photographed eating lunch with napkins hiding his face, in a joking attempt to hide the fact that he is, indeed, Benedict Cumberbatch.
[Image via BetaBeat ]
