Benedict Cumberbatch saved a “petrified family” from a herd of cows.

The 45-year-old actor stars as cattle rancher Phil Burbank in the Oscar-nominated flick ‘The Power of the Dog’ and spent two months in Montana to experience just what life is like on a ranch.

Referring to director Jane Campion, he told ‘The Graham Norton Show’: “Jane encouraged me to stay in character. She was very secure about all the things I was insecure about and said, ‘Do whatever you have to do to feel ownership of this very different lived experience.’ So, I went off to Montana for two months to find out what it is like to live on a ranch and to experience all those things you see in the film. It was incredible and so far from anything I have ever done.”

The experience came in handy when the ‘Doctor Strange’ star saw the scared family and played a real-life hero when he managed to wrangle the cows away from them.

Benedict recalled: “I came back from shooting the film in August and we were off to the beach. To get there we had to cross a field and in the field was a petrified family who just couldn’t move, they were frozen because of a herd of cows with calves. I thought, ‘I can do this,’ and I just sort of parted the waves of cattle. The family was like, ‘That was incredible. Hey, aren’t you Sherlock?’ It was very un-Sherlock activity!”

The widely-acclaimed Western leads the nominations at the upcoming Academy Awards with 12 nods.

The movie earned nominations in the most prestigious categories, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor for Benedict Cumberbatch, Best Supporting Actress for Kirsten Dunst and Best Supporting Actor for both Kodi Smit-McPhee and Jesse Plemons.

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Benedict commented: “Whatever happens on the night the whole raft of those nominations are so richly deserved and obviously I am thrilled that the four of us as a cast are nominated. We are going to be awesome on that dancefloor – it’s going to be great no matter what happens.”

‘The Graham Norton Show’ airs on Friday 25th February BBC One 10.35pm and is available on BBC iPlayer.