Benedict Cumberbatch Doesn't Pay Much Attention To The "Sherlock" Fanfiction And Memes

Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Amanda Abbington, Mark Gatiss, and Steven Moffat discuss the fourth series.

Earlier this year, BuzzFeed UK spoke to the Sherlock cast. Here are the few non-spoiler things we learned.

1. Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) on the new episodes: "They catapult us into very new territory and explain a lot of long-thread story plot lines."

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“It’s worth the wait to see what happens in this series," he says. "It’s phenomenal."

2. Cumberbatch is also aware of, but does not actively look for, Sherlock fanfiction and memes on Tumblr.

buzzfeed.com / Via ccumberbitched.tumblr.com

“I go on the internet for normal reasons every now and again to research stuff or look up images or whatever it may be, and sometimes I just stumble across stuff and go…wow. And that’s it, I can't, because we've got our version. And this, in a way, in itself is slasher fiction.

"To look at slasher fiction of slasher fiction, your head just starts to spin."

3. He says there are a lot of people across all generations who don't continually obsess over the show yet still watch it, so it's important to consider those people too.

BBC / ohlookbenedict.tumblr.com / Via buzzfeed.com

“It's event television," he says. "The event for us is when it is broadcast, that's the event, the TX date. Everything else around it is fun and joyous and it’s great; it spawns a lot of really good creativity and a lot of idle time wasted rather beautifully, but at the same time we just focus on what we do, what originates all of those continued creations."

You can watch his full answer here:

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4. Amanda Abbington (Mary) says she tries not to follow the reactions to episodes online either.

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“Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t. I’m quite knee-jerk... I don't think. I say something and then I immediately regret and then I have to pay for it. So I have to now take a step back and don’t engage as much."

5. Sherlock creators Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat say they are not influenced by their fans when writing new episodes.

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Moffat adds that audiences still want the writers to remain in control: “They don’t really want you to listen to them, the truth is. They want to argue with it, and debate with it and all that. They don’t want to be in control of it. That’s not their objective.”

6. Martin Freeman (Watson) agrees with Gatiss and Moffat. He says that it's important not to pay too much attention to the internet when making the show.

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“The fandom of the show has to be led by what we’re doing as opposed to us being led by them.”

7. Freeman loved the Victorian Sherlock episode, and says that the show is at the stage where it can play with audience expectations.

Todd Antony / BBC/Hartswood Films/Todd Antony

"I think this show is now so established and so frankly loved by the people who love it – I’m sure there are people who hate it but the people who love it really love it – it can sustain playing with the audience a bit and playing with their expectations.

"I love being part of that. I didn’t see that coming, that there’s going to be a 19th-century one. And then I didn’t see that it wasn’t really a 19th-century one, it’s all in his mind. They’re having fun, Mark and Steven, they’re having a lot of fun pushing the envelope as much as they can without ruining the show.

"There’s only so much you can actually push this, before you’ve lost the essence of the show. It’s the challenge of changing it enough so people don’t get bored but retaining enough that what people liked about it initially still applies."

8. Cumberbatch says it took quite a long time to get used to playing modern Sherlock again, because his character in the Victorian episode was quite different.

Hartswood Films / BBC

"There was such an excuse for complete renovation and innovation with the Victorian Sherlock. I don’t know what the time gap has been. It’s been something like three years since we played ourselves fully in the 21st-century version we created.

“It took me a while to get used to it.”

9. He misses playing 1800s Sherlock, though: "I really enjoyed him, and who knows – maybe he’ll come back.”

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You can see his full answer here:

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10. Gatiss, who plays Mycroft in Sherlock, doesn't write all of his character's lines. His lines depend on the writer for the episode. He also jokes:

BuzzFeed UK

"I've written Episode 1. Steven has written Episode 2 and we've both written Episode 3 together. The whole thing is a cross-fertilisation, really."

11. Cumberbatch takes time to get through scripts.

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“You can’t help but read quickly because of how brilliant a page-turner it is...but you want your time. You’re only going to get that hit once.”

12. Abbington says Gatiss and Moffat tease scripts a lot: "They leave you waiting until the eleventh hour and then go ‘Oh here you go’ and you just grab it." Referring to the new episodes, she says:

BuzzFeed UK

“The beauty of Sherlock is that it is very funny and it is very dark.

13. In the new episodes Mary and John have a new baby daughter. They filmed scenes with both fake and real babies. Abbington is not fond of the fake babies:

Robert Viglasky / BBC/Hartswood Films/Robert Viglasky

There is always a fake baby nearby in case the real ones cry. “The fake babies are really heavy and incredibly ugly. It’s a really ugly baby. Martin was quite sweet with the fake baby. I didn’t like the fake baby at all. The fake baby terrified me.”

Freeman agrees: "There’s nothing more sinister than a fake baby, especially when it is convincingly fake."

Sherlock: The Six Thatchers is on BBC One on 1 January 2017 in the UK. It is on PBS Masterpiece in the United States (check local listings).