30 Days Couple Challenge - #16

Day 16: Favorite villain pairing


Lucrezia and Batiatus, Spartacus

I don't ship villains. Hero/hero or villain/hero, sure. But not villain/villain. Most of them simply aren't interesting enough. They are bad and they are there to make the hero(es) miserable and that's it. So, I chose a couple that had at least some redeeming qualities - they actually loved each other, no matter with whom they slept. Sure, Lucrezia had feelings for Crixus but Batiatus was her endgame. He was the one with whom she decided to die. I hated them so much - but I admired what they had together.

( Remaining days cut! )

Interview with Una Stubbs

There's a short interview with Una Stubbs, Mrs. Hudson in Sherlock: link. Loved this: "It's clear that [Mrs. Hudson]'s grown from a slightly barmy plot device into a clucking mother figure, someone who is there to take care of two adult male detectives who are as peerless at investigating wrong doing as they are domestically challenged." DOMESTICALLY CHALLENGED! LOL! I love that description!

In the interview itself, I loved these parts:

Squid Ink: One of the recurring themes in this season of Sherlock is how protective Sherlock and Watson are of Mrs. Hudson and how, in turn, she reflexively mothers them.

Una Stubbs: I really like Benedict and Martin. They're lovely men. We all get on so well together. But it just started evolving like that. That's how I'm used to being with my three grown-up boys. There's a scene in the very last episode [of this season] where we're in Mrs. Hudson's kitchen, and I said [to Benedict] "You know what? My boys, when they come round, they go straight to the fridge." So that's how he played the scene.

(...)

SI: The story goes that you've known Benedict Cumberbatch since he was little. True?

US: Yes. I worked with his mother [actress Wanda Venthem]. We used to sit chatting in the park and I'd be with my children and she'd be with Benedict. So I knew him as a little boy of about 4. Very polite. A lovely boy.

SI: Did you ever have to remind him that you'd known him since he wore short pants?

US: He'd already been told by his mother. He was very pleased to see me and then we had a laugh about it. He said he remember standing, waiting hour after hour, while his mother and me gossiped and he said he remembers being so BORED. [in a complaining voice] "C'mon, Mother!!"

That's so incredibly sweet! I remember Benedict Cumberbatch mentioning that he had known Una Stubbs since he was little and that she was like his real mother on the set, mothering him even when it was not needed :P

Also, unrelated to said interview, I came across this review of Scandal in Belgravia: link. And it has the best description of John Watson I've ever come across: "Dr. Watson is usually a step behind Holmes in deduction, but a step ahead in common sense." That should be John's motto!

Benedict Cumberbatch on the many Sherlocks who are

Very long and very in-depth interview with Benedict Cumberbatch for Metro: link.

Of course, people are very excited about Sherlock Holmes right now — from your series to the films starring Robert Downey Jr. to the new TV series coming to CBS called “Elementary,” starring your one-time co-star, Jonny Lee Miller.

There’s room for all of us. It’s like “Hamlet” — there can be more than one going on in the world at any one time. It’s a classic role. I think all of us on that list are fortunate enough to have a varied enough career so that we’re not all just being defined by that one role. So bring it. Bring it. [Laughs.] Just bring it.

It will be fun to see what Jonny does with it, and I love what Downey Jr. does with it. I think he’s reinvented it for a younger generation in the cinema and created a fantastic sort of action-thriller franchise out of the original stories in a way very true to the original, even as they’re updating it. There are kind of polarities but I genuinely really enjoyed — I haven’t seen the second one, actually, I was very busy when it came out, but I’m dying to. I’m friends with Jared Harris, we’ve worked together, and he played Moriarty [in the Sherlock films], so there’s a lot of cross-fertilization going on — Jude [Law, who also starred in the Sherlock films] is best friends with Jonny, and all that crap. So we’re all fine.

I want it as an excuse to just knock on Downey Jr.’s door because I’m staying quite near his office in Venice [California, while Cumberbatch is filming “Star Trek”] and I just want to knock on the door and go, “I think we should have a cup of tea. We should maybe have a cup of tea and talk about this. It’s quite an odd moment in pop culture. Actually, it’s an excuse to talk to you, really, on my part, because I’m a huge fan. Hello!” [Laughs.] Just do that.

He's so incredibly sweet. And fanboyish when it comes to RDJ! But it really feels a bit incesty, doesn't it? Benedict and Jonny were together in Frankenstein, Benedict and Jared Harris were together in To the Ends of the Earth. Jude Law and Martin Freeman were together in Breaking and Entering. And Jonny Lee Miller and Jude Law are best friends... LOL! They're like one big family :P