Saudi Arabia Censors LGBTQ Scenes In Doctor Strange 2, Benedict Cumberbatch: It's Hard Not To Be Emotional

Benedict Cumberbatch (Photo: Reuters via ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Saudi Arabia has asked Disney to cut a scene that refers to LGBTQ from the latest Marvel film, Doctor Strange 2. As a player, British actor Benedict Cumberbatch said he was disappointed but not surprised.

"To be honest, it's hard not to get emotional about it," said Cumberbatch, who played the lead role in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. But it's, I'm afraid, an expected disappointment," he was quoted as saying by Britain's Press news agency. Association, Wednesday, April 27.

Disney has so far refused to implement the edits requested to allow the film to be screened in a religiously conservative Middle East where homosexuality can be a serious offence.

General Supervisor of Cinema Classification in Saudi Arabia, Nawaf Alsabhan, said the cut of the 12-second scene was related to the character America Chavez who is told to have two mothers. He insisted that the film, due for release next month, was not banned.

"Being in the Middle East, it's very difficult to go through something like this," Alsabhan said as quoted by ANTARA.

Cumberbatch says that "repressive regimes" are usually known as "exclusive". He argues that the prohibition of LGBTQ+ references does not seem to be in line with the global human experience as part of culture.

According to him, the characters who represent the LGBTQ+ community in the film are not only shown for formality, because America Chavez is adapted from existing comics.

"We've included him because of how great he is as a character. And that's just one aspect of his character. And that's how it should be," he said.

Cumberbatch is this year's Oscar nominee for best actor in The Power of the Dog. Previously, he also received an Oscar nomination in 2015 for The Imitation Game, which tells the story of a British wartime codebreaker named Alan Turing.