7 Things We Learned About Benedict Cumberbatch Today

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Today, the Internet was blessed with not one but two Benedict Cumberbatch interviews, one in New York and the other in FastCompany. Cumberbatch fielded even more questions from the press last night when he and his new fiancée Sophie Hunter made their red carpet debut together.

In case you don’t already know enough about “the Internet’s boyfriend” and star of the upcoming biopic The Imitation Game, here are a few more tidbits:

1. Cumberbatch really likes pisco sours: Enough to order “two or three” double pisco sours during the New York interview by requesting, “Doubles, motherf–kah!”

2. He wants to play someone dumb: After playing Sherlock (Sherlock), Khan (Star Trek Into Darkness), Julian Assange (The Fifth Estate) and Alan Turing (The Imitation Game), Cumberbatch is ready to play a meathead: “If anyone’s got any other stupid people I can play, let me know.”

3. He’s ready for his romantic lead: The closest Cumberbatch has come to seducing the ladies onscreen — not counting that dream sequence with Molly — was as the wolf in Penguins of Madagascar, in a sequence that ended up being cut. “I’ve never had a [Ryan] Gosling moment as a character. I’ve never been the kind of guy who’s made all the girls go gooey. I think it’s about time I did.”

4. But he doesn’t think Sherlock is a virgin (even though he’s called one on the show): “Yeah, I think [Irene Adler and Sherlock Holmes] were definitely at it after he ­rescued her from the beheading in Pakistan. I’m sure they were. I’m convinced of that.”

5. He does his research: Cumberbatch has a busy schedule ahead of him: He’s shooting Richard III for BBC over Christmas, filming the fifth season of Sherlock in January and then taking the stage as Hamlet — a show that sold out in one day — this summer. “If you looked at my desk upstairs in my hotel room, there are not one, not two, but four books on the plays I’m about to do. There are two Turing biographies. There is just a s–tload of other stuff on that on my Kindle. Because, of course, I’ve got time to sit down and f**king read everything! It’s ridiculous.”

6. He’s a little bit obsessive about his inbox: “I do get a panic attack when I look at other people’s phones and they have 1,200 emails. It really makes me go, ‘How do you swallow your food? I don’t understand how your body actually functions.'”

7. He was pleasantly surprised by the fan reaction to his engagement announcement: “It’s a crazy old love bomb to drop and the amount of love that comes back to you, that was the thing that [Hunter and I] are both just sort of bowled over by. It’s wonderful.”

Meet Benedict Cumberbatch's Fiancée Sophie Hunter

Sophie Hunter
Hunter poses in a photo shoot for Savoy Magazine on July 1, 2004.James Bareham—Corbis
VANITY FAIR, Romola Garai, Jim Broadbent, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, 2004, (c) Focus Features/courtesy Ev
Hunter (left) had a small role as Maria Osborne in the 2004 film Vanity FairFocus Films
ITV ARCHIVE
She played the character Tiffany Glass in the pilot for the TV series Mumbai Calling in 2007ITV/REX USA
Hunter and Cumberbatch met on the set of the 2009 film Burlesque FairytalesDouble Barrel Productions
'Enron' press night after party for the West End transfer at the St Martins Lane Hotel, London, Britain - 26 Jan 2010
Sophie Hunter was the associate director on Broadway's Enron. Here she attends the Enron press night in London on Jan. 26, 2010. Dan Wooller—Rex USA
Great Performances
Hunter (top left), played a witch alongside Sir Patrick Stewart's Macbeth in PBS' Great Performances: Macbeth in 2010.Thirteen Productions LLC
The Collective Dinner, London, Britain - 15 May 2014
Hunter and Cumberbatch started seeing each other sometime after Cumberbatch's split from designer Anna Jones in 2012. Here Hunter attends The Collective Dinner in London on May 15, 2014. Rex USA
Celebrities At French Open 2014 : Day 15
The very private couple was recently spotted together at the French Open on June 8, 2014 in Paris, France. Rindoff/Charriau/French Select/Getty Images

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Write to Eliana Dockterman at eliana.dockterman@time.com