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Benedict Cumberbatch has revealed he had to be convinced to join the new Star Trek film because he didn't want to be typecast.
The Sherlock actor will play the baddie in Star Trek Into Darkness, the follow-up to 2009's Star Trek, but confessed he had his doubts because he didn't want to be another British star taking on the villainous role in a Hollywood movie, reported The Sun.
He said: "I am very aware of the English transition of an actor being from a different culture coming over and they are being like, 'God, this guy does theatre and c**p. We'd better give him the bad guy role and a cape and just make him be really horrible'."
However, the 36-year-old said director JJ Abrams showed him that his character had real "purpose".
Benedict said: "It was the pitch that JJ gave me, a couple of scenes to audition with and he fleshed out the whole world of the rest of the script, and there's a purpose and intention to his otherwise violent and pretty distressing actions that made it really intriguing. And I thought, 'Well, OK, there's a purpose to this man'."
The star also confessed he has never been a Trekkie.
"I watched it and I knew of it and I've seen pretty much every generation of it and I've seen some of the films, but I have never been an obsessed fan," he said.
Benedict will share the screen with Chris Pine, Simon Pegg, Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana in Star Trek Into Darkness, which is due to be released in May.
