BENEDICT ON PLAYING REPRESSED GAY ROLE

WASHINGTON: Benedict Cumberbatch spoke about his role in ‘The Power of the Dog’. His character grapples with sexuality in an era and place that emphasises binary gender roles and expectations. “He had this burning love affair in his youth, which wasn’t tolerated and allowed, couldn’t be spoken of and the tragedy is what twists him into this sort of form of masculine toxicity,” he said, as per People magazine. The character’s toxic masculinity made him project “hate on the world, and for the world, hate on him, and his sense of loneliness and jealousy is exacerbated by that.” Of the time period, he said, “I think it speaks to a time of intolerance and a lack of acceptance where people couldn’t live any kind of their authentic self. Queer men had to bury that and cloak it in masculinity.”