Benedict Cumberbatch

Doctor Strange might be the greatest hero of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its star Benedict Cumberbatch has taken a stand.  The actor is best known for playing ‘Doctor Strange’ in his own movie, then ‘Thor: Ragnarok’, and finally in the current box office champ ‘Avengers: Infinity War’.  And though he might command the powers to bend reality in the movies, Cumberbatch has decided to exercise his normal human powers to demand equal pay for his female c0-stars.

Speaking to Radio Times, he stated:

“Equal pay and a place at the table are the central tenets of feminism.  Look at your quotas. Ask what women are being paid, and say: ‘If she’s not paid the same as the men, I’m not doing it.’  I’m proud that [partner] Adam [Ackland] and I are the only men in our production company; our next project is a female story with a female lens about motherhood, in a time of environmental disaster. If it’s centered around my name, to get investors, then we can use that attention for a raft of female projects. Half the audience is female!

“The audience is there! It’s about facilitating platforms for talent. If you do that, the combination is combustible – world-beating. That’s what we want to do.”

It’s true that in Hollywood women tend to make much less than their male counterparts.  The powers that be seem to still consider female-driven projects as niche, but with Disney’s Marvel and ‘Star Wars’ movies, it is drawing a mixed crowd which is roughly half female.  Shouldn’t female actors like Scarlett Johansson, Zoe Saldana, etc. be paid a comparable amount to their male co-stars, if there are audience members that turn out just for them?

Cumberbatch has become quite the sex symbol in recent years, thanks to ‘Sherlock’ and the Marvel movies.  He has a ravenous following who refer to themselves as “Cumber Bitches.”  While he isn’t the obvious hunk standing shoulder to shoulder with Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, and Chis Pratt, he does have a certain appeal and isn’t above milking that in the same way that women are also used as eye candy in movies.

“If it’s good enough for Chris Pine [in ‘Wonder Woman’], it’s good enough for Benedict Cumberbatch!  Yeah! Definitely… with sexy screaming saxophone music in the background? Ha-ha-ha, yes! So long as it was fun. I’d have to be in good shape, though. Prepare.”

Would you like to see more of Benedict Cumberbatch without that pesky cloak of levitation getting in the way?

Cumberbatch can currently be seen in ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and while it hasn’t been officially announced, it is very likely that he will soon be heading up a second ‘Doctor Strange’ movie.