Julian Sands recalled the "hypernatural" experience of confronting human remains while mountain climbing, in an interview shortly before he went missing at the start of this year.
The British actor, 65, was confirmed dead on June 27, when Bernardino County Sheriff's Department announced human remains had been found in the Mount Baldy area of the San Gabriel mountains in southern California.
Julian, who stared alongside Helena Bonham Carter in A Room With A View, went missing on January 13, shortly after his 65th birthday, whilst hiking amid challenging conditions in the area.
Following the Warlock actor's sad fate being confirmed last week, Julian's final interview has been released, which poignantly see the late star reflect on his love of hiking and outdoor adventures.
"I’ve found spooky things on mountains, when you know you’re in a place where many people have lost their lives, whether it be on the Eiger or in the Andes," Julian told the Radio Times just a few months before he went missing on January 13.
"You may be confronted with human remains and that can be chilling. It’s not necessarily supernatural, it’s possibly all too natural – what I would call hypernatural.
"You’re in the presence of big nature and big nature is revealing itself in all its power. It can take us over a threshold of hypersensitivity into a realm of natural forces."
After over five months of searching for Julian, the dad-of-three's body was found and identified last week.
"The identification process for the body located on Mt. Baldy on June 24, 2023, has been completed and was positively identified as 65-year-old Julian Sands of North Hollywood. The manner of death is still under investigation, pending further test results," the Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said in a statement.
"We would like to extend our gratitude to all the volunteers that worked tirelessly to locate Mr. Sands."
Julian is survived by his son from his marriage to British journalist Sarah Harvey, wife Evgenia Citkowitz and their two daughters.
Elsewhere in his final interview, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo star dismissed the suggestion he was too old to continue climbing, but admitted he had changed some of his excursion plans.
He continued to muse how climate change had made certain rock faces more unstable, telling the publication: "If you don’t really have the desire, the focus for climbing a route, if you’re not absolutely committed, it becomes much more dangerous and it’s a much more deflating experience.
"Finding folk whose company I enjoy in such stressful and intimate conditions is not easy.
"The thing about climbing is, you’re always making plans and looking at routes – maybe you end up getting to 5% of all the things you plan to do."
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