When Benedict Cumberbatch Got Abducted

And complained so much they stuck him in the trunk

Mystery Mob!!

Have you ever experienced a life-or-death situation and came out of it with an eager-for-thrill-seeking attitude? Have you ever been carjacked and held at gunpoint? Have you ever been cast as a Marvel Superhero? 

If you answered yes to any of these, then you have something in common with Benedict Cumberbatch! 

We sat down with the Sherlock actor this week and spoke with him about this life-changing event…yeah okay, can’t lie. We don’t yet have the clout to book Cumberbatch. (YET!) But we did do some wonderful internet research on the incident.

Before we dive into this week’s Nibble, let’s quickly answer Wednesday’s whodunnit riddle: 

A businesswoman was stabbed while on a trip to Canada. The suspects are Mason, Mary, Bryan, Lily, Alexandra, and Patrick. Written in blood on the woman’s calendar are the numbers 3, 4, 9, 10, and 11.

Who is the killer?

Answer: Mason! If you correspond each number with a month of the year, the first letters spell out MASON. M(arch)-A(pril)-S(eptember)-O(ctober)-N(ovember). Hope you had fun deducing! 

Now, back to Cumbersnitch. (and yes, I found a wonderful Benedict Cumberbatch name generator...)

A blown tire on a dangerous road

In 2004 in South Africa, Benedict Cumberbatch and his two co-stars of BBC mini-series To the Ends of the Earth, Theo Landey and Denise Black, had a break from shooting. So naturally, they spent the weekend scuba diving. 

After a few days watching little fishies in their natural environment, the three drove home. 

It was late at night. On an unfamiliar road. 

A tire blew. 

Cumberbatch sets the scene:  

“We were in South Africa, in KwaZulu-Natal, this amazing district north of Durban. It was cold, and it was dark. I felt rotten. We were wary because that’s a notoriously dangerous place to drive. Then, poof, the front-right tire blows. So we got the spare, but that meant getting all of our luggage out. We were like sitting ducks, adverts for — not prosperity necessarily but materialism.”

It’s here that the story heats up!

Afraid of the dark

In the darkness, Cumberbatch and his friends removed the flat tire. Six armed figures appeared. (That’s 6 people with guns, not figures with 6 arms!!)

The gun-toting figures began to shout and frisk the three actors. Again, Cumberbatch ruminates on the event: 

“They were like: ‘Look down! Look down! Put your hands on your heads! Look at the floor! Where’s your money? Where’s your drugs?’ - when he told the tale in an interview, Cumberbatch admitted to smoking a bit of weed in the car at this point - ‘Where are your weapons?’”

The armed men tied the three actors’ hands behind their backs using shoelaces and made them crouch on the ground. Then they forced the three actors back into the car. 

Where’s the morse code when you need it?

They drove into the night with their abductees in tow. 

It was at this point that Cumberbatch apparently complained about his limbs losing sensation from being tied up...so much complaining that they yanked him out of the backseat and chucked him into the trunk. (an all-time complainer flex right there. Good on him, really.)

(The Brits say “boot” instead of “trunk” — which is why this beautiful gif was used. You’re welcome for the fun fact.)

After driving “to the middle of nowhere” the armed men tossed all three actors out of the car and onto the ground. 

Still bound, and with blood trickling from a head wound, Cumberbatch was close enough to squeeze Denise Black’s hand. He recalls wishing that he knew morse code at that point, so that he could tap messages to her. And in an odd moment of logic winning over emotion, he recalled thinking: 

"Hmmm, that would be fucking irritating and useless if she didn't know it, too."

While Cumberbatch was wondering whether he and his friends would be beaten, killed, or educated in morse code, the assailants...simply left.  

A new outlook on life

The actors eventually untied themselves and wandered along the highway until they stumbled across some local women who lent them their phones to call for help.

Cumberbatch noted that trauma had an odd effect on him. Rather than hiding away, the incident intensified his need for adrenaline-filled adventure.

 “I was definitely more impatient to live a life less ordinary,” he says. “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. It is, in a way, a new beginning. But we were on our way back from the first weekend of a scuba-diving training course, so it wasn’t as if I was insular before that. I think it just made me run at it a bit more recklessly.”

(He’s since said that this feeling has passed. He’s not so reckless anymore.)

Deeper scuba dives: 

What a tale, eh! Check out some interviews below where good ole Cumbersnoodle recalls the event:

• A 2016 Vanity Fair profile dove into the incident

• Cumberbatch also mentions the incident in a Guardian interview

As always, 

Stay ‘spicious 

-Andy & Mark

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