Highlights
- Benedict Cumberbatch opens up about his kidnapping ordeal and the lasting impact it had on him.
- The radio show’s staff and hosts mocked Cumberbatch after he revealed his kidnapping story.
- Cumberbatch also shares a separate dangerous experience when he got lost in the Himalayas.
Benedict Cumberbatch was once the victim of a terrifying ordeal, which, as he’s called it, has left a lasting impact on his psyche.
The actor, universally known for being the Marvel superhero Doctor Strange, is often seen on and off-screen as an imposing presence that is not easily shaken. However, one fateful day changed all of that when he and a group of his comrades were ambushed in a foreign country.
The Power of the Dog actor rather uncharacteristically opened up about his brush with h*ll in an exclusive interview with Sway’s Universe radio show. Shortly before Cumberbatch recounted in depth the violence he was subjected to, instead of sympathy and compassion, he was initially met with mockery on the set of the interview.
But what happened to Benedict Cumberbatch that left him so shaken up that he admitted to crying after it happened? And why are fans then and now calling out the radio show for inappropriately handling the situation?
Benedict Cumberbatch’s infamous 2009 guest appearance on Sway’s Universe has gained significant attention in recent years due to Cumberbatch’s harrowing story and the inappropriate way the radio show’s staff and hosts conducted the interview.
The segment began with the host’s namesake saying that before his appearance on the show, he was researching Benedict Cumberbatch online, and he stumbled upon an article that relayed how Cumberbatch was once a victim of a kidnapping.
Shortly after Cumberbatch admitted that the story was true, a clapping track was played overhead, and Sway began to laugh.
The radio show’s other host, Heather B, then abruptly stated: “Are we really clapping for that?” before she too began to laugh.
Sway then lightly scolded one of the show’s staff members for playing the clapping track by reiterating that Cumberbatch’s life was once on the line.
Benedict Cumberbatch looked quizzically at the staff member before saying, half humorously: “He’s obviously not a fan of mine.“
Although the atmosphere was awkward, Cumberbatch began to recount what happened to him…
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It all started in South Africa in 2005, during a tour of the country with his fellow co-stars of the BBC miniseries To the Ends of the Earth, Theo Landey and Denise Black.
As the trio was headed back to their lodgings after a scuba diving excursion, they suddenly stopped when a tire on their vehicle went flat.
What made the situation even more vexing was that the place in which their vehicle had a flat tire was along a dangerous stretch of road that criminals liked to frequent.
As Benedict Cumberbatch and the others attempted to fix the tire, they were surrounded by a group of men who held them at gun point. The criminals then bound their hands with their shoelaces and forced them into the trunks of their cars.
At the time, as Cumberbatch relayed on the radio show, he was basically “just a kid,” and his two comrades were adults. He added that usually, kids were taken away as collateral by South African kidnappers, and most of the time, it didn’t end well for the victim. Benedict Cumberbatch added that one’s life is cheap in that country and that it was a terrifying ordeal for him.
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He then mentioned that after being held captive for two hours, an experience the actor said was prolonged because neither he nor his co-stars had any cash to give, they were eventually let free.
In his 2016 interview with Vanity Fair, Cumberbatch delved deeper into his experience, stating that the kidnappers dropped them off at an undisclosed location where they were found by women who were locals in the community.
He added that in the years after his kidnapping:
I was definitely more impatient to live a life less ordinary. I wanted to swim in the sea that I saw the next morning. If you feel you’re going to d*e, 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 first again. It is, in a way, a new beginning.
In 2013, The End We Start From, actor relayed to The Hollywood Reporter his thoughts at the time of the kidnapping:
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 r*ped or m*lested or just tortured or toyed with in some way, some act of control and savagery.
Benedict Cumberbatch’s Life Was In Danger Again When He Got Lost In The Himalayas
Benedict Cumberbatch’s horrific kidnapping ordeal was not the only time his life was on the line on foreign soil.
When he was nineteen, the Power of the Dog actor fought for survival after a grueling trek in the Himalayan mountains.
Speaking to Vanity Fair in October 2016, Cumberbatch stated that he and three of his closest friends decided to climb the Himalayan Mountains on a whim.
Benedict Cumberbatch relayed that the climb was so wearying that two of his friends bowed out before they reached their desired destination.
The Imitation Game star then said that halfway during the days-long trip, when he went to sleep, he would experience something extraordinary:
I started to have really weird, f**ed-up dreams, and felt things were happening in my sleep. I wasn’t sure if I was conscious or awake.
Benedict Cumberbatch added that he considered quitting, but his innate desire for adventure won, and he and his friend decided to continue the ascent up the treacherous mountains.
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What happened next was genuinely terrifying, as the two would soon find themselves out of food and water, and later, they got lost.
After a few more days of trekking aimlessly, the duo stumbled upon a river, which they followed and later led them down a brutal trek until they reached a thinly dense forest with log cabin homes a short distance away.
Similar to his harrowing trip to South Africa, Cumberbatch was rescued again by the town’s inhabitants.
Source: NewsFinale
