Now that British actor Benedict Cumberbatch is starring in a 12-week run of the play "Hamlet" in the Barbarican Theater in London, he has made one very important and special request from his fans.
He made a video shot just outside of the theater's stage door, and revealed the "cameras and red lights" he saw from the audience's side while he was performing on stage.
"It may not be any of you here but it's blindingly obvious," he told fans, according to BBC, adding that it was pretty "mortifying" to be filmed in that way.
Cumberbatch's superstar status is undeniable, given his stint as the title character in the popular television show "Sherlock," as well as his riveting performance as math whiz Alan Turing in "The Imitation Game." One of his upcoming movies is Marvel's "Doctor Strange," wherein he will play the mysterious Dr. Stephen Strange.
It comes as no surprise that tickets for his "Hamlet" play are hard to come by, with 100,000 advance tickets for the show sold within minutes of its release from August last year. In fact, BBC reports that some tickets are going as high up as £650 on secondary-ticketing sites.
Cumberbatch is undoubtedly happy and touched with the response from fans, but he cannot help but make a plea in the video clip, which was recorded after his "Hamlet" performance: "I can't give you what I want to give you which is a live performance that you'll remember, hopefully, in your minds and brains whether it's good, bad or indifferent, rather than on your phones."
"There's nothing that's less enjoyable or supportive as an actor on stage experiencing that," he added.
Cumberbatch said that he is willing to have his picture taken with fans after the show and outside of the auditorium, so there is no need to take snapshots of him in the midst of his performance. The popular actor has no social media so he asked fans once again to share the video on their personal social media accounts to help spread the word.
"What I really want to do is try and enlist you. I don't use social media and I'd really appreciate it if you did tweet, blog, and hashtag this," he said.
Cumberbatch is actually not the first actor to have encountered difficulties with fans while performing on stage. James McAvoy scolded a fan back in 2013 after he caught the audience member filming his performance of "Macbeth" at Trafalgar Studios.
On the other hand, Kevin Spacey was distracted by a ringing phone during his performance of Clarence Darrow at London's Old Vic theater. "If you don't answer that, I will," he even said.
