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. He revealed that in 2004, he was with friends in South Africa when they were robbed and abducted by six men. Eventually, Cumberbatch and his friends were tied up and made to sit execution-style before the men finally fled.

Cumberbatch said of the experience, “It gave me a sense of time, but not necessarily a good one. 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.”