Justin Theroux defends Benedict Cumberbatch’s Zoolander 2 character

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

There's an online petition going around calling for a protest of ZOOLANDER 2 and Paramount that claims Benedict Cumberbatch's androgynous model character All, who briefly appeared in the first trailer, is “harmful and dangerous” to the transgender community. During a conversation with The Wrap, screenwriter Justin Theroux responded to the boycott, and said the Cumberbatch scene was taken out of context.

I don’t even know what to make of it, because it hurts my feelings in a way. I take great care in the jokes I write, and the umbrage being taken is out of the context of the scene. I wish people would see the movie first. Satire is a thing that points out the idiots, and we went through it on ‘Tropic Thunder’ with the ‘R’ word.

The goal was not to mock or be cruel to the mentally challenged, but exalt in the stupidity of people who use that word. I’m all for letting words be ugly when the target is correct. With social media and all the rest of it, people’s issues need to be heard…at the end of the day people are looking for bandwidth. People are looking for places to inject their voice. But our target is not, and never was, to disenfranchise anyone.

Although I don't have a problem with the character, I'm also not transgender, and I can still see why people might be upset. But I also think some just can't take a joke, and have to make a big deal about anything they deem to be not PC. What do you make of the controversy surrounding Cumberbatch's character?

ZOOLANDER 2 opens on February 12, 2016.