10 Almost Unfairly Likeable Actors

By Audrey Fox /

5. Benedict Cumberbatch

Yeah, I know, everyone won't shut up about Benedict Cumberbatch these days. They want him cast in every project ever, and girls will gleefully line up to call themselves Cumberbitches (a name which even the man himself thinks is a tad derogatory). But hear me out: the man is talented. Yeah, he does the big budget films like Star Trek and The Hobbit, and of course he's Sherlock, but if you look at his work as a whole, it's incredibly multi-faceted and impressive. He was mind-blowingly awesome in Frankenstein, bringing a menacing physicality to the Creature and a detached sense of intellectualism to Frankenstein himself. But as talented as he is, he doesn't seem like he thinks overly highly of himself. After a past few years like he's had, he would be quite forgiven for developing a little bit of an ego, but he's actually quite self-deprecating and modest. He's got a certain sense of humor about himself and his work that make him endearing, despite the fact that he frequently plays rather unlikeable characters. Anyway, in conclusion, he's one of the very few actors that I trust to pick consistently good projects for themselves, and one of an even smaller number about whom I haven't read anything nasty to make me dislike them.