British actor Benedict Cumberbatch revealed in a recent interview of his traumatic experience in South Africa eight years ago when he and two friends were kidnapped whilst driving to the set of To The End Of The Earth (2005) by six armed men.

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In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Cumberbatch told of how changing a flat tire on desolate road just North of Durban turned into a living nightmare.

 "It was cold, and it was dark. I felt rotten. We were wary because that's a notoriously dangerous place to drive," he told the trade publication. "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".

The 37 year old was correct, they were sitting ducks, but he couldn't have imagined the events that followed. The three men were tied up and thrown into a car, "They were like: 'Look down! Look down! Put your hands on your head! Look at the floor! And they started frisking us and said: 'Where's your money? Where's your drugs?" recounted Cumberbatch. "And at that point, this adrenaline of fight or flight just exploded in my body. I was like, 'Oh f--k, we're f--ked."

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The captors eventually let the men go as randomly as the ambush itself, dumping them on the side of the road still tied up until a stranger discovered them. "I looked into this black man's face, and I cried with gratitude," he added, "F*ck it. If that's a cliché, I don't care".

The Star Trek actor also spoke of how he felt afterwards - "It really, really enriches your values in life, further adding "it's incredibly important".

The British actor is enjoying an incredible few years workwise as he stars in three critically acclaimed films 12 Years a Slave, The Fifth Estate and alongside Meryl Streep in August: Osage County.

Watch the '12 Years A Slave' trailer: