British star Benedict Cumberbatch has done such a fantastic job portraying the titular character in the television series "Sherlock" and fans from all over the world have celebrated his performance as the famed detective, but did you know that he almost passed down on the role?
"I was very wary having done roles which were challenging and terrific and, you know kept a good career going," he told CNN Talk Asia. "I was very wary about stepping into the limelight and the populist role like Sherlock Holmes but the minute I saw who was involved and read the script and the quality of it I thought I've got to do this."
The script was created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, who put a fresh spin to the characters of Holmes and his partner in crime, Dr. Watson (played by Martin Freeman), since they placed the duo in a modern setting.
Cumberbatch is extremely grateful for the role since it opened up new and exciting doors for him. He is now playing Hamlet in a London stage play, and has earned rave reviews as well for portraying the genius Alan Turing in "The Imitation Game." The only qualm he has on the success of "Sherlock" is that he is now being touted as a sex symbol.
"It's just truly strange," he admitted. "I've been around a while now before this face which I've woken up with for 38 years now, a little bit longer, and I just go that's the way I look and the first sort of few years of my career nobody sort of battered an eyelid."
"I didn't cause any stares, wasn't on the front page of any magazines or in polls or in calendars or on coffee mugs or god knows what else," he added. "And now it has just, yeah, it's gone a bit berserk. It's fun, it's funny and it's amusing. If you take it seriously I think you're doomed really."
Cumberbatch said that he always has a good laugh whenever people fall all over themselves when they see him in the streets, especially since he doesn't consider himself as someone extra special. "I find it funny," he said.
The only special people in his life right now are his wife Sophie and newborn son Christopher Carlton Cumberbatch.
"Sherlock" will return to the small screen with a special Christmas episode set in Victorian London, but the full fourth series won't even begin production until Spring 2016.
