Benedict Cumberbatch almost missed out on the role of Sherlock Holmes because he wasn’t sexy enough.
Although BBC bosses were impressed with his acting talents, show writer and co-creator Mark Gatiss revealed they wanted someone with more sex appeal.
The Sunday Mirror reports that when speaking at the Celebration Of Sherlock event in London last week, Mark said: "When we presented Ben on his audition day, everyone at the BBC agreed he’s definitely got to be in it. And then they went ‘We were promised a sexy one though.’
"And we didn’t say ‘yeah he is sexy’ we went ‘he’s very good isn’t he?’ And Benedict to this day doesn’t think of himself as sexy.
"His nose was entirely wrong apparently. We thought if only we could get the nose right we might have something. The truth is, this isn’t made up.
"But as he walked through into 221B Baker Street it all changed. He was a weird man a few minutes ago, a sort of ginger weird person. But that disappeared.
"It was the thing that suddenly worked with Colin Firth with Mr Darcy."
And it wasn’t just his looks, Benedict also had to tone down his posh accent to take on the leading role in ‘Sherlock’.
Mark added: "We consciously made him sound less Victorian – he speaks in quite a formal way.
"But we had fun making him say laterz. We make him play like a performing monkey."
Benedict Cumberbatch ‘not sexy enough’ for Sherlock
