Sep 18, 2013 Idris Elba is two decades younger—so. A DJ, and a drama student, until the money to pay for school ran out. Now, in lieu of a better option, he works here, on the night shift, welding side. Idris Elba and his wife, Sabrina Dhowre Elba, are launching a $40 million fund to help others in rural and poor areas suffering from COVID-19. Regina King, Idris Elba, LaKeith Stanfield, Jonathan Majors and more will star as Western outlaws in the new JAY-Z-produced movie, The Harder They Fall.The first trailer for the upcoming Netflix original was released on Thursday (June 24). Idrissa Akuna Elba OBE ( / ˈɪdrɪs /; born 6 September 1972) is an English actor, writer, producer, rapper, singer, songwriter, and DJ. He is known for roles including Stringer Bell in the HBO series The Wire, DCI John Luther in the BBC One series Luther, and Nelson Mandela in the biographical film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.

I DON’T EVER STOP. NOT BECAUSE I’M GREEDY OR ANYTHING, BUT I’M ALWAYS CREATING, DEBATING WITH THE PART OF MY BRAIN THAT IS DORMANT. IDRIS ELBA

Nov 05, 2014 Here's How Much Idris Elba Hated Shooting Thor 2. Idris Elba is doing everything that he can to get kicked out of Marvel’s exclusive club. Recently, he let it slip that his Thor character would.

Whatever its constituent parts-talent, sure; charisma, definitely—the combined quality Hollywood moguls and gossip columnists used to refer to as “it”-ness (as in, “So-and-so has it”) remains ineffable, mysterious, almost occult in its indescribableness. Whatever “it” is, Idris Elba has it in droves. Enough to fill a room, a movie, a long-running series, a planet probably.

Whether he’s on set, at a party, or at the Met Gala, which he co-hosted this past May, and even when surrounded by all the sparkliest stars in heaven, it is his gravity that draws all the eyes, his dusty baritone all the ears, and his easy, frequent laughter, more of the same. In person, the Hackney-born Elba, 43, seems taller than his 6’3″ frame, even a little hunched to get through doorways, to hear us Lilliputians.

Onscreen, Elba’s presence is greater still. Which is probably why directors so love to restrain it, to set an obstacle course for him to shine through. As the legitimate-facing member of a Baltimore gang in HBO’s The Wire, his Stringer Bell was always torn between the straight and outlaw worlds, left exposed to the slings and arrows of both, and unable to find comfort in either. Then again, as the long-suffering but brilliant detective on the BBC’s Luther, Elba seemed hardly ever able to sleep. His John Luther was haunted by the ghosts of personal tragedy and by the very real criminals tearing London to bits around him. But, by far, the worst of all lots assigned to Elba was that of the warlord commandant in Cary Fukunaga‘s Beasts of No Nation. Running a child army in a chaotic war through some unnamed African state, Elba’s unnamed character was heavy on the Colonel Kurtz scale, oversaturated by the horrors around him and within him, a force. But it was the ease with which Elba inhabited him, the natural command he filled him with, radiating at times with the kind of quirky charisma of a mystic guru or a cult leader, that made the performance something altogether new. As if that weren’t enough, Elba nearly died during production when he slipped walking behind a waterfall and only lived to tell about it because a security guard caught him.

With all this suffering around, it isn’t hard to see why fans are clamoring to have Elba finally let loose, to see him indulged, to watch him turn that charisma up to 11 and be cast as the next James Bond—fingers crossed. In the meantime, he is loading up on fantasy and CGI, playing the squid-y antagonist in Star Trek Beyond, and the gunslinger Roland Deschain in an adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower books, out next year, as well as reappearing as Heimdall in the next Thor installment. Also in the works is Aaron Sorkin‘s Molly’s Game, not to mention a bubbling DJ career, and even a fashion collection, in collaboration with Superdry. It’s a lot. But as Elba tells his pal and director of the recent The Jungle Book, Jon Favreau, he’s got a lot more where that came from.

IDRIS ELBA: Hello, Jon. What a nice surprise.

JON FAVREAU: Well, I fancy myself the modern-day Andy Warhol, so Interview magazine… How are you doing down there?

Idris Elba The Tower Movie

ELBA: I’m good. We’re making a very big movie, and I’m doing long hours, shooting guns and whatnot. I’m enjoying it.

FAVREAU: When I worked with Daniel Craig [Cowboys & Aliens, 2011], he said that dressing up and playing a cowboy is universal, not just an American fantasy. Is it something that was appealing to you?

ELBA: [laughs] Yeah, I mean, I used to watch Bonanza. Do you even know what that is?

FAVREAU: Yeah. I guess it took a while for our programs to get to you, because that was before my time.

ELBA: [laughs] Bonanza, man. I’ve always wanted to try the whole cowboy feel and look, so when I took this role, I was wondering, “Are we going to bring that to life in this character? Is he a real cowboy?” And the answer was no. We had to reinvent that a little bit because the world—it’s quite a fantastical world and we aren’t making a Western. But there’s definitely some characteristics from those great cowboy movies, the Sergio Leone movies and all. I was definitely drawn to it. I’ve got two smoking guns that just look incredible, and I love to pull them out whenever I can. [laughs]

FAVREAU: I remember the books, and what was cool about it was Stephen King really deconstructed the mythology. So you got all the cool gunfighter stuff, but it felt fresh and new and sci-fi, post-apocalyptic—a little bit ahead of its time actually.

ELBA: It’s exciting because it doesn’t feel like it comes from any other source. It’s not an existing group, like the Marvel films. It feels very original. The guns and fights are really essential to the story, but our director, Nikolaj [Arcel], isn’t overcooking it.

FAVREAU: You’re probably a really good judge, because you’ve worked with such wonderful people before. I was just going through the list—Ridley Scott, Ken Branagh, Guy Ritchie, Guillermo del Toro … These are guys I have a lot of respect for. What common thread do you see in all these wonderful directors that makes a director strong?

ELBA: The most important thing, which I always look for, is their 360 vision of their film. By 360, I mean every moment has been imagined once or twice, if not 50,000 times, within their heads, from performance to art direction and whatnot. It’s been a master class for me. Working with Guy on RocknRolla [2008], he was embedded in every single detail of the film. You could literally spin him around in a blindfold and stop him somewhere and say, “What about this?” and he’ll go, “Ah, that’s this.” And you’re the same, and Ridley was exactly like that. Ridley would almost sort of cut the film [Prometheus, 2012] while he was watching the takes. Sometimes he’d do a full retake, and sometimes he’d go, “I just want to do this moment here.” But I think the common denominator is that everyone really understands you. 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. 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.

FAVREAU: And then, of course, with Luther and The Wire, you’re dealing with so many hours of entertainment that you’re not going to have that same intense collaboration with one single person. It becomes more of a collaborative sport. I know The Wire better than I know Luther, but there was a trem

Idris Elba The Real Money Jar