A kidnapping attempt in South Africa in 2005 inspired actor Benedict Cumberbatch to “live a life slightly less ordinary,” he said. At the time, he had no idea he was going to be playing the roles of Smaug and the Necromancer in “The Hobbit,” arguably two of the most anticipated films in years. He was learning to scuba dive in South Africa while working on the mini-series “To The Ends of the Earth,” when he had talk his way out of a near-fatal nightmare.
On their way back to their hotel, the car of Cumberbatch, actress Denise Black, and a South African friend blew a tire. “The three of us were trying to change the tire,” he said. “These six men appeared suddenly from the eucalyptus plantation.”
“They said, ‘Put your hands on your head, don’t look at us,’ and were frisking us for drugs, money, weapons. Then they bundled us into the car,” Cumberbatch explained. The gunmen drove away holding them hostage. “I could see the headlight beams bumping over the dirt track and I thought of shallow graves,” the actor recollected. “By the end of the night, I was tied up next to Denise.”
Eventually, the car stopped. “They pulled over, pulled the stuff out of the car,” Cumberbatch said. “They dragged me up and put me in the boot [trunk] of the car.” But he thought quickly. “I argued my way out. I said, ‘If you leave me in here, it’s not the lack of air, it’s the small space. There’s a problem with my heart and my brain.’ I just tried to explain to them, ‘I will die, possibly have a fit, and it will be a problem for you. I will be a dead Englishman in your car. Not good.’”
The gunman left Cumberbatch in the trunk of the car while they had an argument about what to do. Eventually, they pulled him out, tied him up to his two friends, and fled. “So I kind of thank God I had the presence of mind to give them the idea that it would be better to keep me alive. And the other two hadn’t been harmed,” he said.
“It taught me that you come into this world as you leave it, on your own.”
For the full story by Benedict Cumberbatch written for The Prince’s Trust, please click here. Thanks to Alice Bennett to alerting us to this!
