Benedict Cumberbatch is at Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival this week for the MENA premiere of John Crowley’s tragic romance We Live In Time, starring Garfield and Florence Pugh, which he exec produced under his SunnyMarch banner.

After hitting the red carpet in the port city of Jeddah on Monday evening in the company of Garfield, Cumberbatch was in the spotlight in his own right in an on-stage conversation today.

One among 30 conversations by A-listers this festival, Cumberbatch’s talk was by far the best attended so far, with fans of his performances as Dr Strange in the Marvel Cinematic Universe filling the auditorium.

“These are big sandpits. They’re grand gestures. When they’re really good, they carry something of the Zeitgeist,” he said of Marvel productions. “They speak to us of our culture. They’re kind of myths of now, and they are so much fun to do, and then the wealth of talent you’re surrounded by is truly awe inspiring and a little humbling and scary,” he said.

Beyond being daunted by the scale of the sets, mixing “tangible 360 degrees stuff” with the green screen, Cumberbatch admitted to being initially overwhelmed by Robert Downey Jr., when he first found himself face to face with him as Tony Stark on Avengers: Infinity War.

“It was just looking at Robert Downey, Jr. and, ‘How does he do it?’ It’s extraordinary, and there is a way that he does it, and I learned that, and it’s incredible. But also, to watch him with Tom Holland, who was hot off the success of the first Spiderman film, and they were bam, bam, bam.”

Cumberbatch finally got into his groove on set when he started having fun and upped the banter with Downey, adding an unscripted “douchebag” to one of his lines, in response to the insults his character had been on the receiving end of until then.

“The best stuff on those huge canvases, things with a huge amount of responsibility and expectation of all these amazingly devoted fans, is to play and have fun and be free, to keep it alive and keep the breath in it, keep it from becoming stale and readable.”

Describing Steven Strange as “a very complex man”, Cumberbatch suggested the character had more to give.

“He’s dicing with something that could destroy him, and pretty much everything. And yet, he’s not a god. He’s not been bitten by radioactive spider. He hasn’t got a load of nanotech that his billions in selling, or his father’s billions selling arms as bought him,” he said.

“He’s a swat. He’s an academic. He’s just got a really fierce brain, but he is motivated by needing to control certain things at any cost, and that always comes at a cost. So, I’m interested to see what those costs continue to be, how it wears on him and how he needs to adapt to keep evolving and be what he needs to be in that universe, and how it affects him. There’s a lot more to play with it is very exciting.”

Cumberbatch also touched on his early years, reminiscing on his early initiation into acting at top UK public school Harrow, under the tuition of late renowned drama teacher Jeremy Lemmon, who also mentored the likes of Richard Curtis, before turning his attention to his Oscar-nominated roles in The Power of the Dog and The Imitation Game.

The actor said he loved receiving the nominations but did not get too worked up about winning the final prize.

“It’s very nice, but for me, it’s just about the quality of the work, and if it leads to more opportunities and great filmmakers because they’ve seen your work, because it’s been feted or talked about in the conversation that happens around this kind of time, then great,” he said.

“Other than that, I can take it or leave it. To be honest, it means a lot to be included, and I respect that, but the value for me is that it brings me into close contact with my collaborators and with the people whose shoulders I’m standing on or have stood on, a chance to thank them, to acknowledge them, and also to meet and watch the work and celebrate the work of fellow artists, fellow actors, musicians, writers, directors, producers. You know, it’s about that sense of community.”

Asked from the floor whether his near 100 roles had left a mark on him personally, Cumberbatch said he worked hard to stay grounded.

“It’s very important to hold on to the things that help you understand who you are as you evolve through life, as a human being, and outside of your work, and especially in my line of work, and especially with the kind of focus that it gives you,” he said.

“This isn’t a very natural thing, you know what I’m doing right now, talking to all of you, but the person in here, that’s carrying this through to try and communicate to you, is someone who’s tied to people that they’ve known for a long time in their life, tied to family, tied to children, tied to things that keep me grounded. I’m not afraid to tackle darkness or difficulty or the less attractive sides of the human condition as long as I know there is space to take that off and put that on, and if I feel safe doing that, then I’m good.”