Benedict Cumberbatch: I’m an ‘Idiot’ for Describing Actors as ‘Colored’

Word Failed Him

The Oscar nominee triggered a social-media backlash by referring to non-white actors as “colored,” but issued a fulsome apology in a bid to quell the firestorm.

European Editor at Large

Published Jan. 26 2015 11:18PM EST

Benedict Cumberbatch, the British actor who co-starred in the harrowing, Oscar- winning drama 12 Years A Slave, has issued a humiliating apology for using the word “colored” to refer to non-white actors on a PBS talk show in which he was discussing the fact that all this year’s Oscar

Tom Sykes

European Editor at Large

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Benedict Cumberbatch: I’m an ‘Idiot’ for Describing Actors as ‘Colored’

The Oscar nominee triggered a social-media backlash by referring to non-white actors as “colored,” but issued a fulsome apology in a bid to quell the firestorm.

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Tom Sykes