It's true. But don't panic yet. Benedict Cumberbatch is alive and well. But the harrowing tale of his violent abduction sent shock waves throughout the internet last night. When someone in R29 HQ screamed, "Wait, Benedict Cumberbatch was kidnapped?" and there was a fit of fainting and weeping that could only be rivaled by a pack of corset-wearing Victorian ladies. That's what usually happens whenever anyone mentions His Holy Name. But yes, according to a recent interview in The Hollywood Reporter, he of highest cheekbones and boldest brow was once held at gunpoint and briefly kidnapped in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Though it obviously turned out okay, it was a traumatizing experience, and he still tears up telling the story. "I was scared, really scared," he explained. "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." The assailants bound the group and put them in the back of their truck, and drove off. Eventually, the captors let Cumberbatch and his friends go, tossing them randomly onto the ground, still tied up, in the middle of nowhere. It was a total stranger that saved them. "I looked into this black man's face, and I cried with gratitude," then adding, "F*ck it. If that's a cliché, I don't care."
In typical Cumberbatch fashion, the interview is full of enticing mystery and smart, serious, very un-Hollywood commentary — not to mention some "speculative sh*t" on the subject of two of his equally mysterious characters, Sherlock Holmes and Julian Assange. Read it, and prepare to fall even more deeply in love. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Photo: via The Hollywood Reporter.