A very thoughtful Ben gave us his views on love this weekend. Not a rehearsed statement, no, it was spontaneous. It began by placing himself in his Sherlock character’s view of love and then it morphed into his own view on the subject. Ben thinks Sherlock sees love as a ‘secret thing’. He reminds us that JOHN [note here that Ben changes from the formal ‘Dr Watson’ to the intimate ‘John’ on this subject] questions him on this, saying John reminds him that love is a good thing to be ‘out’ in the world. Oh lord, the implications both of the characters and their real life are overflowing here. Note how Ben is totally focused, leaning forward, full steady gaze off into the back of the audience. He’s in reflective mode. Words he uses: ‘Unabashed’, ‘open’, ‘not something to be embarrassed about’ all mean the same thing in this context; unashamed. He adds ‘deeply private’ [with the caveat of ‘obviously’ added] as a qualifier hinting at his need for privacy but also to illustrate that there are levels to this issue and one is to be open and unashamed, the other is to keep a layer of love deeply private. Ben has always had difficulty disassociating himself from his characters, especially where Sherlock is concerned, and here it’s apparent that his own views/experience of love is driving the answer about Sherlock.
In context of the preceding comments, and then the proceeding, we get a glimpse of something. I’ve discussed the preceding in an earlier post. In the proceeding Ben is asked by the interviewer about Ben’s influence on his character of Sherlock. Ben laughs and says he doesn’t have much influence at all, as Mofftiss have a firm control there. He touches his ear and covers the side of his face closest to the interviewer with his hand; guarding. He’s aware he has more influence than he’s admitting, but given the laugh and the statement about the writers, he’s keeping this fact close to his chest. [Did the writers know? And if they did was it a problem?] He then jumps from saying ‘I’ and using first person to ‘WE’ and he keeps this up for the duration of the topic. He cannot separate himself and Martin when discussing the show. [He does this a lot] He says Sherlock is in Mofftiss’ blood then adds ‘obviously it’s in our blood too now.’ But he reminds himself that the show and the interpretation of the characters firmly belong to Steven and Mark, as he repeats 3 TIMES, ‘them’, ‘them’ ‘them’. That is a mantra he has adopted to discipline himself, indicating an inner conflict. His power over the character IS limited and he and the writers may not agree on that character. [Similar indication to Martin’s use of the word ‘if’ regarding the ending montage in TFP….Martin is more subtle and succinct]
Ben finally ends this segment of the talk with a joke that falls a bit flat. He suggests Molly and Mrs H could hook up. A few fans gave a whoop, but he knows it’s fell flat indicated by giving a bit of a waffle then some awkward body language; he sits up straight in the chair, shakes his head then bends down saying ‘he’ll get into trouble now’ but he won’t, we all know that, as does he. It’s an awkward exit to the subject. He adds the summation about the writers and the show being a mash up of a game plan, happenstance and retro-fit.
As a therapist I would have made notes on his words re Sherlock’s version of love, one which he plays out exquisitely, verses his verbal description of Sherlock’s inability to love. A huge dichotomy there. Plus his use of synonyms for ‘unashamed’ when saying what love should be. Sherlock isn’t ashamed, maybe John struggles in that regard but not Sherlock. He’s just silent on the subject verbally and emoting love non-verbally in everything he does. So I would ask why he needed to reiterate the point that love shouldn’t be kept secret? What love is secret?
Ben finds it difficult to separate himself from Sherlock, and also to separate Martin/John from the equation. And due to his speaking style, over talking, he reveals things to the listener. Taken as a whole, his public statements have caused huge confusion and division in the fandom, both about Sherlock and about himself. Ben is far more John Watson in real life than Sherlock Holmes. But…they have always said that haven’t they?
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