'I was amazed at the level of artistry; people have spent hours doing it,' British actor tells MTV News.
By Kara Warner, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Benedict Cumberbatch
Photo: MTV News

British actor Benedict Cumberbatch is so hot right now. He is almost literally in everything, including last year's awards-season favorites "War Horse" and "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy," the hit BBC/PBS revival of "Sherlock" and two highly anticipated future blockbusters "Star Trek 2" and "The Hobbit."

Cumberbatch fans should be excited to see him reprise his role as the quirky and slightly sociopathic Sherlock Holmes when the second season premieres this Sunday (May 6) on PBS's Masterpiece. MTV News recently caught up with the very busy and talented actor, who attributes the show's success to its "extraordinary" and "very intelligent, very loyal" fans and promised that they won't be disappointed with the action that unfolds in the second season.

Speaking of those intelligent fans, we asked Cumberbatch if he was aware of the extensive collection of creative and explicit fan fiction that has surfaced online since the premiere of the show's first season.

"I am startlingly aware of it," Cumberbatch said with a smile. "I don't go seeking it, but Martin Freeman, who was an absolute luddite on the first series, suddenly came back from New Zealand having done a little radio short drama called "The Hobbit," he came back and he had this beautiful Mac [computer] with him and said 'Hey, look at this Tumblr.' And I said, 'What? Tumblr? What?' He knows more about it than I do and he was showing me some of them. Some of it is really racy, un-viewable even on MTV. It's cool."

The charming Brit went on to say that he is flattered by a few of the depictions he's come across and that he's amazed how much time some fans have put into their work.

"I suppose my bodily proportions are quite flattering. I'm ripped, doing something I wouldn't normally do with my body, or having done to it, involving Watson," he said cheekily. "So that's as far as I'll hit about that one, but it's all there on the Web if you want to find it. I was amazed at the level of artistry; people have spent hours doing it. And there's some really weird cross breeding stuff that goes on. The news got out that I was playing Smaug in 'Hobbit' and suddenly there were lots of dragons with purple scarves flying around so it's crazy, it's crazy."

Check out everything we've got on "The Hobbit."

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