Actor Benedict Cumberbatch expressed his support for abortion rights, he visited the Studio 8H to host Saturday Night Live. At the end of his hosting gig, the “Sherlock” star took the stage along with Canadian indie rock band “Arcade Fire” and other actors of SNL. Benedict, Kyle Mooney, Chris Redd, Cecily Strong, Alex Moffat, Chloe Fineman and Mikey Day wore a white t-shirt with 1973 written in blue and red on them.
1973 refers to the year when Roe V. Wade was finalised i.e. on 22nd January, 1973 and the T-shirts were worn to demonstrate solidarity with abortion and women’s issues in the wake of the bombshell leak of draft of the Supreme Court of United States’s decision which indicates that the historic Roe V. Wade will be overruled. In addition to this, Cumberbtach featured in a sketch which ridiculed American Supreme Court judge Samuel Alito’s draft opinion.
The sketch focused on “The Imitation Game” star and other male legislators creating laws which they know will dominate politics in future. During his opening monologue, Benedict also joked about another incident i.e. Will Smith smacking Chris Rock at this year’s Academy Awards. While talking about his film which was released on Netflix called “The Power of the Dog”, which earned him his second Oscar nomination in the Best Actor category, Cumberbatch told audience, “I didn’t win the Oscar, I was beat by Will Smith.” As the audience burst into laughter, Benedict made fun at his choice of words and quipped, “No, not physically”.
He then did a series of sketches for SNL such as one about a mother opening her Mother’s Day gifts and another based on a Blue Bunny ice cream focus group, Benedict’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness co-star Elizabeth Olsen also participated in one of the sketches. In the SNL episode, Arcade Fire was the musical guest and performed two tracks including “Unconditional I (Lookout Kid)” and “The Lightning”.