据英国媒体报道，英国演员“卷福”本尼迪克特·康伯巴奇最近引起了加勒比岛国巴巴多斯的注意。据该国相关组织表示，康伯巴奇的祖上有人是奴隶主，后人需要为此做出赔偿。
 

据英媒《每日电讯报》报道称，在奥斯卡获奖电影《为奴十二年》中，康伯巴奇扮演的种植园主备受好评。然而现实却很伤人，在18-19世纪期间，他的先人曾在巴巴多斯经营奴隶种植园。
 

In the Oscar-winning movie 12 Years a Slave, Benedict Cumberbatch played a plantation owner to great critical acclaim. It was also close to the bone, his ancestors having run a slave plantation in Barbados during the 18th and 19th centuries.
 

如今，康伯巴奇家族可能面临巴巴多斯方面的法律诉讼，该国曾宣布将寻求奴隶主家庭的赔偿。
 

Now, the Cumberbatch clan faces the prospect of a legal battle with the island state after it declared it was seeking reparations from the families of slave owners.
 

*close to the bone：剑桥词典的解释为“If something you say or write is close to the bone, it is close to the truth in a way that might offend some people.（如果说出来或写出来的东西 close to the bone，即可能很贴近事实而冒犯到某些人。”

 

报道称，康伯巴奇的“第七代曾祖父”于1728年购买了巴巴多斯岛上北部名为Cleland的种植园。直到100多年后奴隶制废除前，种植园里曾有250名奴隶。据说种植园让康伯巴奇家族小有财富。
 

The seventh great-grandfather of the Oscar-nominated star bought the Cleland plantation in the north of the island in 1728 that was home to 250 slaves until the abolition of slavery more than 100 years later. The slave plantation is reported to have made the Cumberbatch family a small fortune.
 

那么康伯巴奇家族的后人需要被追偿吗？巴巴多斯的加勒比共同体大使、也是该国赔款事务相关负责人David Comissiong在回答这个问题时说：“这是最初阶段，我们刚开始，这段历史的很多情况才刚刚被揭露出来。”
 

When asked if descendants of the Cumberbatch estate would be pursued, David Comissiong, Barbados’s ambassador to the Caribbean community and deputy chairman of the island’s national commission on reparations, said: “This is at the earliest stages. We are just beginning. A lot of this history is only really now coming to light.”
 

报道称，当19世纪30年代奴隶制废除的时候，康伯巴奇家族得到了英国政府给予的数千英镑补偿金，相当于现在的100万英镑。当时英国政府贷款支付了各地奴隶主的相关费用，直到2015年才最终偿还完毕。
 

Cumberbatch’s ancestors were paid thousands of pounds in compensation when slavery was abolished in the 1830s, a sum now worth in the region of £1 million. The British government at the time took out a loan to pay off slave owners across the Empire, a sum that was only finally paid off in 2015.
 

据英媒报道，“卷福”本人曾在哈罗公学上学，目前尚不清楚其家族的钱财是否对他的学业有帮助。作为女演员Wanda Ventham的儿子，“卷福”自己曾表示，母亲不鼓励他在演艺生涯中使用真实姓名，担心其家族与奴隶制的关系会让儿子面临赔偿问题。
 

It is unclear if the family money helped Cumberbatch, who was educated at Harrow School. He is the son of the actress Wanda Ventham, who, he said, had encouraged him not to use his real name in his acting career because she was concerned that he could face claims for reparations over family links to slavery.
 

背景阅读：
 

电影《为奴十二年》于2012年拍摄制作，根据所罗门·诺瑟普在1853年所著同名作品改编完成。原著讲述的是诺瑟普的个人经历，当时其奴隶主叫威廉·福特。电影中福特的角色由康伯巴奇扮演。
 

The 2012 film 12 Years Slave is based on the 1853 memory of the same name by the former slave Solomon Northup, who was at one time owned by the plantation owner William Ford, a historical figure represented on screen by Cumberbatch.
 

此前，康伯巴奇还在电影《奇异恩典》中饰演过小威廉·皮特，电影讲述1807年英国废除奴隶交易的历史。康伯巴奇本人曾说，他出演这个角色是为了替自己的家族先辈道歉。
 

Cumberbatch has also previously played William Pitt the Younger in the film Amazing Grace, about Britain's abolition of the slave trade in 1807, a role the actor has suggested he took by way of apology for his family history.
 

综合来源：天空新闻，每日电讯报