Idris Elba
Idris Elba
Idrissa Akuna "Idris" Elba, OBE is an English actor and musician. He is known for playing drug baron Russell "Stringer" Bell on the HBO series The Wire, Detective John Luther on the BBC One series Luther, and Nelson Mandela in the biographical film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. He has been nominated four times for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Television Film, winning one, and was nominated five times for a Primetime Emmy Award...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionTV Actor
Date of Birth6 September 1972
CityLondon, England
I still sing on bits and pieces. Singing's something that I love to do, but it's not something that I pursue as a career.
It could be Grammy night, Oscar night, whatever - I don't feel the pressure to be there.
If I was gonna go to jail, I don't want to go to jail for stealing a bottle of water. I'll steal that $20 million. At least then it was worth it.
I tend to stay away from the comics.
I was into Spider Man when I was a kid and that was the only comic I've ever read.
Every single film I've done, it's about the character.
Some directors hand over portions of their movie to their head of department to the point where it's like, "I'm not going to talk to you about the costumes, but I'm going to let you talk to the expert." Rather than, "You want to talk stitching, let's talk stitching. You want to talk grade of leather? Let's."
The directors [who know every detail] make films that are complete, basically.
Television is where I cut my teeth.
I've got two smoking guns that just look incredible, and I love to pull them out whenever I can.
One of my first jobs was in a soap opera, five days a week. And what I found is, although there are different directors coming in and different crews, you just lived in your character. It's the nature of the story, the ongoing story, and it can get deeper and deeper.
You're directing a movie, but you are at the head of a ship of people, a whole fleet of people. And being able to manage that - being able to handle yourself as a director being a leader - that's massively important.
The audience loves it when you pay attention to details.
In some countries, no one knows who Idris Elba is.