Benedict Cumberbatch Abduction Near Death(Photo Credit –Wikimedia)
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Before his Marvel fame and Sherlock stardom, Benedict Cumberbatch faced a nightmare most wouldn’t dare envision. Back in 2004, while filming in South Africa, the Hollywood star found himself in a life-or-death situation. And his mind went to some terrifying places.
“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,” he said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
The English star wasn’t overstating. The location was KwaZulu-Natal, a treacherous region north of Durban. Cumberbatch and his co-stars, Theo Landey and Denise Black, were returning from a scuba diving weekend when catastrophe struck. A tire burst on a dark, cold stretch of road. While they scrambled to fix it, they were jumped by armed men.
Tied with their own shoelaces. Crouched on the ground. Gun pointed at them. No one spoke. No one moved. Then things got more sinister. Cumberbatch was thrown into the trunk of a car. That’s when he thought it was the end.
“I was scared. Really scared,” Ben said. “I kept asking, ‘Are you going to kill us?’” But instead of killing them, the kidnappers suddenly ditched the trio on the side of the road and vanished. Local women found them shortly after and got help. That moment—seeing a human face, knowing he was safe—broke him. “I cried with gratitude,” he confessed.
The experience rattled him deeply but also shifted something inside. After that, every feeling came back stronger like the sun on his skin, a beer in his hand—it all felt new.
“I wanted to swim in the sea that I saw the next morning. If you feel you’re going to die, you don’t think you’re going to have all those sensations again—a cold beer, a cigarette, the feel of sun on your skin. All those hit you as firsts again. He called it a kind of awakening. “ It is, in a way, a new beginning,” he said.
This was all prior to his fame. Before Sherlock and before the red cloak and sling ring in Doctor Strange. Back then, he was just another actor on the grind.
But that one night changed everything. Now, with major roles under his belt and more to come, Cumberbatch is everywhere. But behind that cool, composed sorcerer is someone who once thought he wouldn’t live to see another day. And who now knows the value of one more sunrise!
