Reality Ensues

[john_amend_all]

I was finding this BBC article on the return of Sherlock moderately interesting (not least because of the 7-minute prequel episode with an amusingly Blinkesque moment).

And then...

Perhaps the only awkward moment during the screening was when writer Caitlin Moran, who chaired the Q&A, asked the leads to read out a piece of fan fiction, where fans write dialogue online for their favourite fictional characters.

This particular piece of writing featured the lead-up to an erotic scene between Sherlock and John, but it backfired somewhat as both actors looked awkward reading it out on stage.

Moran apologised profusely for asking them to do it, and Cumberbatch added: "Fans can do what they like but that [a love scene between them] is ludicrous in our universe, so sorry to be all 'eeurgh' but his nibs ain't doing that."

It's such a seductive meme, in our various quiet corners of the Internet, to think that of course the actors in our favourite shows would love our fanfic and share our 'ships. The ensuing dose of cold water in this case is, I think, a salutary one. I'd wonder what Moran was thinking, but it's probably a question best not asked.

(Of course, we can all go on thinking that the relevant actors would love our fanfic. Just as long as we don't put that notion to the test...)

[Goes back to writing Zoë/Isobel fic that had just better not be thrust at Wendy Padbury and Sally Faulkner with a demand to perform it in public.]

ETA (having watched the episode): Ah. That goes some way toward explaining why the topic of slashfic arose, at least.
This entry was originally posted at http://john-amend-all.dreamwidth.org/82141.html. Feel free to comment there or here.

Comments

[akashasheiress.livejournal.com]

Tbh I think Sherlock Holmes having love-scenes with anyone is sort of ludicrous, but of course you can't have contemporary telly without the hero having a ''girlfriend''.*

*Hey, they called her that on the show, so...

[john_amend_all]

Has this one had Sherlock in love scenes that weren't immediately undercut by the revelation that he was only doing it to extract information? I can't immediately think of one, but I haven't rewatched the episodes since the original broadcast.

[akashasheiress.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen an episode of Sherlock, so you might very well be right. But from what I understood from the interwebs, Irene Adler is repeatedly referred to as Sherlock's ''girlfriend'' on the show and is basically a River Song-type clone (in behaviour/characterisation).

[john_amend_all]

Irene only appears in one episode, and doesn't get so much as mentioned in the others. She certainly bears some similarities to the River type. And her one episode is written to give the impression that she beguiled him... until the climax of the episode, when he dismisses love as a "dangerous disadvantage."

Irene: Everything I said, it's not real. I was just playing the game.
Sherlock: I know. And this just losing.

[akashasheiress.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but you just know Moffat intended for them to be lying about their feelings, because he's nothing if not predictable in his relationship-writings (and I hear he used the Everybody Lives trope again, too). ;)

[scifi-mel.livejournal.com]

I must say on the whole I think that actors shouldn't know that fic exists and definitely not who we ship them with. Not that I really think that any of them are homophobic (most the opposite) just that you don't really want them to know you think of their characters that way. I remember it coming up at the pub with Pat Tallman (Lyta from Babylon 5) and she had no idea such a thing existed. She thought about it for a bit and then decided that she would never want to read it cause she'd just be thinking of the actors involved that were her friends and that would just make it "weird".

[liadt]

I agree, if I was an actor in something I would think the same thing. There's fic I won't write because the actor reminds me of someone in rl and it would be weird! I'd die of embarressment if my fic was shoved under the nose of an actor I like. Maybe Moran thought the actors would find it funny? What seems normal, unthreatening or fun in the fannish world can come over as the opposite to outsiders.

[john_amend_all]

I came across an account of the screening which implies she thought it would be funny:

Moran: That was so much funnier in my head.
Gatiss: That’s the point.

[liadt]

Oh dear, it sounds as she wasn't very good all the way through.

[john_amend_all]

From what I read on TV Tropes, the leads of Sherlock don't mind the idea that slash exists... but I think it's a long leap from there to insisting that they read it. Let alone perform it in public.

[scifi-mel.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing she'd read that too then and thought it be fun to see them do it. Maybe it was just a bad piece? ;)

[john_amend_all]

I wonder if she was aiming at mocking the fic (or the concept of slash in general) by means of a dramatic reading? If so, it doesn't seem to have come off.

[clocketpatch]

From what I've read of that particular event, the faux pas leading up to the reading were as follows:

* No attempt was made to inform the fic writer that their fic was going to be used for the Q&A, but the way the fic was presented gave the fic writer's name and implied that they'd sent it in for that purpose (the fic writer was, in fact, mortified and said that she never meant for the actors to see that. Apparently her and Moran have had a long discussion about it and apologizes have been made)

* Moran repeatedly told Freeman and Cumberbatch that the fic they were reading contained nothing untoward and kept telling them this even as the fic became more and more steamy. It's unclear whether or not the actual sex scene was included in the bit they were reading since they both put down their papers before reaching it.

I haven't seen the newest episodes of Sherlock or the Q&A so... yeah. But what I've read about it just sounds like awkward sauce for all involved.

[john_amend_all]

I haven't sought out the Q&A either, and the more I read about it on the Web, the less I'm inclined to.

The actual episode has its own poke at the fandom in the form of a stereotypical yaoi fangirl who ships Holmes/Moriarty, so I was wondering if that was the inspiration for Moran to bring the topic up.