PC Mode Off: 15 Celebrities In Trouble For Saying The Wrong Thing

Benedict Cumberbatch’s “Colored” Problem

Who’s under 90 years old and still calling black people “coloreds?” Benedict Cumberbatch apparently.

During an interview with Tavis Smiley in January, Benedict Cumberbatch — who was in 12 Years A Slave — used the word to discuss the problems British actors face:

“I think as far as coloured actors go, it gets really different in the UK, and a lot of my friends have had more opportunities here [in the US] than in the UK, and that’s something that needs to change.

Something’s gone wrong, we’re not representative enough in our culture of different races and that really does need to step up a pace.”

It sounds like Cumberbatch meant well, but one Tweeter pointed out that if Benedict had any black friends at all — including his co-stars — he would have dropped that outdated word from his vocabulary. The actor decided that being that out of touch was embarrassing enough to warrant an apology.