Benedict Cumberbatch Recalls Horrific 'Near-Death' Kidnapping While Filming Abroad

Doctor Strange, The Imitation Game, Sherlock and more beloved projects almost never came to be—or at least, not as fans know and love them—thanks to a "near-death" experience for Benedict Cumberbatch.

The British actor is opening up about a terrifying encounter he had while filming for the BBC in South Africa in the early aughts, where he and his friends were abducted, bound and ultimately abandoned.

The story came out while chatting with Variety, as Cumberbatch mused on the passage of time and the impact having children had on his sense of "mortality." Of course, little else can emphasize your mortality like a kidnapping.

It all went down in 2004, while filming the miniseries To the Ends of the Earth. On the way home from a diving excursion, one of the tires on his group's car blew out, and after pulling off to the side of the road, six men robbed and abducted them, according to the actor. They were driven around for hours before being let out, tied up and seated "execution-style" before the suspects eventually fled.

“It gave me a sense of time, but not necessarily a good one,” Cumberbatch admitted, revealing that the experience left him raring to go, "turbo-fuel[ing]" a life of extreme sports. "I was throwing myself out of planes, taking all sorts of risks," he recalled, having realized he "could die at any moment."

“It made me impatient to live a life less ordinary, and I’m still dealing with that impatience.” Now that he has children depending on him, though, the adventurous nature appears to have receded a bit, admitting that being a parent "sobers you."

"I’ve looked over the edge; it’s made me comfortable with what lies beneath it. And I’ve accepted that that’s the end of all our stories.”

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