Cumberbatch, 37, who was in the town to shoot the 2005 miniseries "To the Ends of the Earth", recalled that the terrifying incident took place eight years ago, reported Us magazine.
"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 like sitting ducks, adverts for -- not prosperity necessarily but materialism. Six men emerged from the dark, demanding that we should give them money or drugs we might have with us," he said.
"I looked into this black man's face, and I cried with gratitude," he said.
Cumberbatch will next star in "The Fifth Estate", as Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
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