Benedict Cumberbatch revealed that his ranch training for The Power of the Dog came in handy when faced with a real-life emergency.

The Brit star, who is up for a best actor nod at this year’s Oscars for his role in the Jane Campion-directed Western appeared on The Graham Norton Show and told the host about spending two months in Montana to experience just what life is like on a ranch.

“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,’” he explained.

“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 Doctor Strange star then recalled how he got the chance to put his newly acquired skills into action when he spotted a scared family stuck in a field of cows.

“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,” he said.

“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!”