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Benedict Cumberbatch explains how a near-death experience changed his outlook on life

By Dan Heching, CNN

(CNN) — Benedict Cumberbatch has played a superhero involved in some precarious situations, but it turns out the actor has also experienced an actual life-threatening situation in his past.

In an interview with Variety published this week, the “Doctor Strange” star revealed that in 2004, he was with friends in South Africa while shooting the BBC miniseries “To the Ends of the Earth,” when they were robbed and abducted by six men after their tire blew out on the side of a road. Eventually, Cumberbatch and his friends were tied up and made to sit execution-style before the men finally fled.

“It gave me a sense of time, but not necessarily a good one,” Cumberbatch said of the experience. “It made me impatient to live a life less ordinary, and I’m still dealing with that impatience.”

He also explained how the harrowing encounter spurred him to try extreme things to get his adrenaline up.

“The near-death stuff turbo-fueled all that,” he said. “It made me go, ‘Oh, right, yeah, I could die at any moment.’ I was throwing myself out of planes, taking all sorts of risks.”

“But apart from my parents, I didn’t have any real dependents at that point. Now that’s changed, and that sobers you,” he added, in reference to his wife and three sons. “I’ve looked over the edge; it’s made me comfortable with what lies beneath it. And I’ve accepted that that’s the end of all our stories.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Cumberbatch reflected on his abilities as an actor, and responded to his Marvel Cinematic Universe cohort Tom Holland crediting him with learning how to cry on command, obliquely referencing some of his past traumatic experiences.

“There is that method, but it’s a mistake to think you can force it. That’s a dead end,” he said of the technique touted by Holland, which involves breathing through the diaphragm while manipulating the muscles used to laugh. “You have to really put your mind somewhere so you can respond to the moment. And that can mean drawing from your own life story or just your imagination.”

“It’s harder when you’re very young. I’m 48, so I’ve lived a bit of life,” Cumberbatch added. “I’ve experienced loss, I’ve experienced pain, I’ve experienced some of the very worst, as well as the best.”

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