Benedict Cumberbatch, star of ‘The Imitation Game’, told Out Magazine that he would fight religious extremists “to the death” in order to defend gay rights.

Benedict Cumberbatch currently stars in the upcoming biopic about Alan Turing, a British mathematician who is known as the father of computer science. In 1952, Turing was prosecuted after authorities discovered that he was having a relationship with a young man. Turing fell victim to horrific anti-gay laws at the time, and was forced to take estrogen to curb his libido in a procedure called chemical castration. Turing died from cyanide poisoning two years later – police determined his death as suicide.

Talking about the modern horrors that LGBT people face in some countries, Cumberbatch said, “People are being beheaded in countries right now because of their beliefs or sexual orientations. It’s terrifying. It’s medieval — a beheading! I’d take up arms against someone who was telling me I had to believe in what they believed or they would kill me. I would fight them. I would fight them to the death. And, I believe, the older you get, you have to have an idea of what’s right or wrong. You can’t have unilateral tolerance. You have to have a point where you go, ‘Well, religious fundamentalism is wrong.'”

In the interview, the star also pointed out homophobia that remains in Hollywood.

“We all know actors who are [gay] who don’t want to talk about it or bring it up, or who deny it,” he said. “I don’t really know what they do to deal with it. Human rights movements and sexual and gay rights movements have made huge social progress in the last 40 years, without a doubt, but there’s a lot more work to be done.”

The Imitation Game is out on November 14.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5CjKEFb-sM