Call Me What You Like

Star Trek Into Darkness star Benedict Cumberbatch has revealed that co-star Chris Pine managed to trick him into covering his face with sun tan lotion to protect from ‘dangerous’ lasers.

The 36-year-old tells Graham Norton on tonight’s chat show that Captain Kirk actor Chris and the film crew pulled the prank during filming of the JJ Abrams blockbuster after Benedict presumed the technology on set posed a healthy and safety problem.

“We were in a really futuristic laboratory with lasers that were trying to split a target smaller than a human hair to create a continual form of energy,” explains thesp Benedict.

“And I was like, ‘Wow, this is the real deal, what can’t we touch? What’s safe?’”

He continues: “I got on set and was told I needed to wear ‘neutron cream’ to protect me. I was gullible and did what I was told, it’s America and there is a lot of health and safety.”

Chris, 32 adds: “And we told him he had to apply the cream in dots all over his face and there he was doing this really intense scene with sunscreen spots all over him.”

Despite being fooled, Benedict – who plays baddie John Harrison in the new movie – managed to take the wind-up in good humour.

He says: “I should have known. They had me, completely had me. It was really very funny.”