The man of the moment, Benedict Cumberbatch ( The Fifth Estate, The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug ) opens up about the night when he and some friends were abducted at gunpoint in South Africa in 2005.
Cumberbatch is THE new leading man, everyone wants him and he seems to be everywhere and with reason. He is one of the most talented and versatile actors in Britain. We can probably call him hot and not only because of his looks.
In an revealing interview by Stephen Galloway of The Hollywood Reporter, Cumberbatch uncharacteristically talks about this very emotional and disturbing experience.
The actor talks about the night he, who was in South Africa filming To The Ends Of The Earth, and two friends were driving through the KwaZulu-Natal district, a dangerous place to be, and got a flat tire.
Having been forced to take all their luggage out of the trunk, after spending a weekend diving, they were in the process of changing the tire, when six men came out of the dark.
“They were like: ‘Look down! Look down! Put your hands on your heads! Look at the floor!’ And they started frisking us and said: ‘Where’s your money? Where’s your drugs?’ — we had smoked a bit of weed — ‘Where are your weapons?’ And at that point, this adrenaline of fight or flight just exploded in my body. I was like, ‘Oh f—, we’re f—ed!’ ”
Benedict Cumberbatch goes on to relate, with tears in his eyes according to Galloway, all the details of their ordeal. How, after he complained that his limbs were getting numb, he was yanked out of the car and thrown in the trunk.
When they finally came to a stop, in the middle of nowhere according to Cumberbatch, they threw him on the ground. The actor says he was terrified of being raped or molested.
“I was scared, really scared. I said: ‘What are you going to do with us? Are you going to kill us?’ I was really worried that I was going to get raped or molested or just tortured or toyed with in some way, some act of control and savagery.”
Eventually, just as they had appeared, the kidnappers left them and disappeared without a trace. Cumberbatch was thankful to be alive.
“It really, really enriches your values in life,” he says. “It’s incredibly important.”
After accusing Galloway of being “one of you guys” in other words, journalists, who Benedict Cumberbatch is not a fan of, he told of how a complete stranger reached out to help him.
“I looked into this black man’s face, and I cried with gratitude,” he recalls before returning to what he said about enriched values. “F— it. If that’s a cliche, I don’t care.”
Cumberbatch insisted that this last part of his story be printed, and the fact that he cried from gratitude at the stranger who came to his aid in those terrifying hours.
There are many other topics discussed in this insightful piece, you can read the complete Stephen Halloway interview with Benedict Cumberbatch here .