When Covid-19 struck, where was Benedict Cumberbatch? Here’s why the Sherlock and Marvel star was on a tiny island in New Zealand

As the world was on the verge of coming to a complete standstill, Benedict Cumberbatch found himself safely tucked away in one of its most secluded corners. Earlier this year, a short film project took the actor to New Zealand’s Rakino Island – permanent population, 21 – which remains largely untouched by the modern world.

“There are no shops or any kind of logistical support, so it’s a pretty rare breed of person that lives there that’s really in tune with nature … It’s kind of magical and timeless in that way,” says the actor.

Cumberbatch spent time on the island free-diving for his role in the film –to launch Jaeger-LeCoultre’s new Polaris Mariner Memovox diving watch – an experience, the actor recalls, that turned out to be even more memorable than expected: “The miscommunication on this shoot was that I’d said I love diving, which I presumed would be interpreted as scuba diving, but it was actually free-diving.”

Cumberbatch had his first encounter with meditation in his early twenties, and it has since developed into an invaluable tool. “I fell in love with the practice and the mystery of it, and also the pragmatism of it, the routine of it, the discipline of it; and eventually I started to become a practitioner and went on retreats myself, sort of immersed in that process.”

Cumberbatch says these practices have been a tremendous help in his daily life. “The practice of meditation is about calming yourself and allowing a degree of grounding and stillness, and bringing back your focus to the breath, allowing for thoughts but not engaging in them,” he says. “[It helps to] calm yourself, make time stretch for a little bit longer.”