Queue retribution from Benedict Cumberbatch‘s hoard of female admirers. In an interview with The Radio Times, war reporting veteran Michael Buerk has attacked celebrities for what he describes as “political grandstanding without experience“, singling out Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch and British acting icon Emma Thompson in particular.
In the interview, Buerk had this to say:
“As a superannuated war reporter myself I’m a little sniffy about celebs pratting around among the world’s victims. I hate it when feather-bedded thesps pay flying visits to the desperate to parade their bleeding hearts and trumpet their infantile ideas on what ‘must be done’. There’s only so much of the Benedict and Emma worldview you can take.”
Buerk perhaps singled out Cumberbatch on account of his political statement in October when performing in Hamlet at the Barbican. On this occasion, Cumberbatch stood against the government’s approach migration crisis by coming back onstage after finishing a performance to ask the audience to “fuck the politicians” and donate to Save The Children.
Emma Thompson, too, has always been an outspoken figure, most recently at the Berlin Film Festival when she claimed that Britain would be “mad not to” stay in the European Union.
Of course there is the argument that upon being given a platform, it is the duty of celebrities, actors, singers and writers to use it for the betterment of those not able to be heard without help. But what Buerk asks is this: is it not dangerous, if not downright destructive, for these figures of influence to preach their beliefs and philosophies without any real-world experience of which they talk?
#Peace.Love.MichaelBuerk
