The Idris factor
From drug barons to world leaders, Idris Elba’s acting career is as varied as it is fêted. Next up: a survival film alongside Kate Winslet. Rosamund Dean speaks to the Londoner who shows no sign of slowing down (no matter how much he might want to)
Rosamund Dean meets the actor, DJ, kickboxer – and homebody
Iassume I know what to expect from Idris Elba, the magnetic, gravel-voiced, charismatic Londonboy-done-good. Swagger and charm, and a bit of a flirt. Although he’s too busy to meet in person (locked in the edit for his directorial debut, Yardie), I imagine the Elba effect can’t be contained and will fire out of my phone like a glitter cannon at an arena gig.
But, when he answers the call on a Monday night from his London home, he sounds tired. I ask how he is and hear a disheartening long exhalation. “I’m okay. I’ve had a long day. It’s raining. I’m just looking forward to going to bed.” He adds, apologetically, “It’s just one of those Mondays.” Part of me admires his openness. I imagine the Elba I’ve seen fired up as a young Nelson Mandela in Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, or swapping smart dialogue with Ruth Wilson’s sexy psychopath in BBC One’s Luther (for which he won a Golden Globe in
2012). The man who became a professional kickboxer for a Discovery Channel documentary airing next year, or the dude dancing behind the decks in his incarnation as DJ Driis. So I’m surprised when he tells me, “I wouldn’t say I have much of an outgoing personality.” Really? “Yeah, I’m pretty shy. It’s interesting how people describe me because I’m not Mr Life Of The Party. I’m a bit of a homebody if I’m honest. But I’m never at home.” A homebody who’s never at home? That’s quite sad. “It’s not meant to be sad,” he laughs, “it’s just when people describe me I think, I’m not that fun, and I’m not that cool.” I’ve heard he’s perfectly capable of being the life and soul. “I can be,” he confesses. “I have partied. But
people get disappointed when they meet me because they expect me to be really confident and exciting and I’m like, ‘Nah I’m going home now.’”
AS MUCH AS ELBA, 45, CLAIMS NOT TO BE CONFIDENT AND EXCITING,
further evidence to the contrary comes in his new movie we’re here to discuss,
The Mountain Between Us, a romantic drama in which he stars with Kate Winslet as the only survivors of a plane crash on a freezing mountain.
“We shot in extreme conditions [in British Columbia],” Elba explains. “It was -38 degrees. I’ve never felt anything like it. Kate and I definitely didn’t have to act cold.” The chemistry between him and Winslet is so hot you’d have thought they could just sizzle their way off that icy mountain. “Kate and I didn’t know what to expect from each other, but it turned out to be one of my favourite collaborations,” says Elba, the tiredness now dissipating. I tell him it’s refreshing to see a lead couple about the same age, rather than a fiftysomething romancing a 28-year-old. “We both come with life experience, to say the least,” he laughs, “like our characters do. And that’s great because you don’t have to make that shit up. Kate and I talked about all the times that we’ve fallen in love, and what those feelings are like. I wanted it to be relatable. Of course, it’s a survival movie, and what’s the plausibility of two people landing on a mountain? Making love, and all that? We wanted to make it realistic. It was an interesting therapy session for me.”
Another refreshing thing about the film is that there is no reason for Elba’s character to be black: Michael Fassbender and Charlie Hunnam were in talks about the role before Elba. He says, if a character is written as a black man, it’s often a stereotype. “I avoided being stereotyped from a young age because I didn’t want to play one character for the rest of my life. I don’t just want to play bad guys, or the funny best mate. I was lucky because I was part of a young set that were breaking through at a time when producers would actually say, ‘I want a black guy for this character’ [even if it didn’t state it in the script]. Chiwetel Ejiofor was coming up at the same time. Back then, if you hadn’t been to drama school, you weren’t getting anywhere. And here I was, no knowledge of Shakespeare but I was going up against all these boys from drama school and getting work.”
HIS FIRST ACTING PAY CHEQUE WAS FOR A PART IN
1990s SITCOM 2POINT4 CHILDREN. “This was when they used to literally write a cheque and send it to you, and the BBC cheques were massive,” he laughs. “So
I got this huge cheque in the post and I was like, ‘Fucking hell. This is my money. And this is for acting! Are you joking?’ I had done so many different jobs, so to get that much money for one thing was incredible.”
What advice would he give his younger self now? “Save your money. I was not used to having money so I was
“Kate and I both come with life EXPERIENCE. That’s great because you don’t have to MAKE that shit up”
“Gender EQUALITY is so important. I’ve worked in this industry for so long and I’ve seen INEQUALITY”
just loving it and spending it, living cheque to cheque. When you’re 10 years old and you dream about being an actor, all you dream about is being a superstar. But, for me, if I choose a lane, I stifle my creativity.”
Elba headed to America and, in 2002, landed the role of drug baron Stringer Bell in The Wire, starring opposite fellow breakout star Dominic West. The Wire ran for five seasons over six years and is regarded as one of the finest TV shows ever made – making stars out of its British leads. So it came as a surprise to Elba when – spoiler alert – Stringer died in season three. Elba found out when reading the script, before anyone had broken it to him. “I was pretty upset,” he says. “I thought, ‘Now what do I do?’ And post-the Wire, I did have a career but… to be honest, it’s 12 years since I left, and it’s only in the last six years that I’ve felt like my career has got back on a track of cool, interesting work.”
He’s certainly a bona fide film star now, moving seamlessly between blockbusters like Thor (the third instalment of which is out this month), The Dark Tower and acclaimed small-budget projects like Beasts Of No
Nation. His fifth project of the year is Molly’s Game, Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut in which Elba stars alongside Jessica Chastain. And then there’s Yardie, about a young Jamaican man in 1980s London. Elba has a supporting role as well as directing, and shooting the film in London meant coming home after a peripatetic lifestyle over the last 15 years. “I’m a world citizen,” he says, “but I love London. This is where my heart is. I’ve spent less time here because of work but that’s changing over the next year for me. I’ll be home a lot more.”
THE DESIRE TO SPEND MORE TIME IN
LONDON IS PARTLY ABOUT FAMILY. Elba is incredibly close to his mum, Eve, who went with him to Buckingham Palace to collect his OBE (for Services to Drama) last year and sometimes travels with him for work. “She came to South Africa when I was making Mandela and to Ghana for Beasts Of No Nation,” he says. “She was so proud to be part of that process.” His three-year-old son (with make-up artist
Naiyana Garth) is named Winston after Elba’s father who died in 2013. He also has a daughter, Isan, with first wife Hanne ‘Kim’ Norgaard. She’s 16 now, and was his date at the 2015 Oscars. Last year Elba gave a speech in parliament, in which he said: “Diversity in the modern world is more than just a skin colour: it’s gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, social background… British TV is awash with low-level sexism… We need to educate ourselves out of it.” I wonder how having a teenage daughter shapes his view of the world.
“If you mean, am I sensitive to feminist views? Then, yes, for sure. I have a 16-year-old daughter. I’ve got no choice! But I wouldn’t describe myself as a feminist.” He pauses. “It’s an interesting question,” he continues. “I mean, if I delved down into it, I’d probably have to say yes, because gender equality is so important. I’ve worked in this industry for so long and I’ve seen inequality. We need to make sure that female writers and directors are given just as much opportunity as the men.”
I consider the sensitive father, campaigning for diversity, reconciled with the charmer we’ve seen Dj-ing his way around music festivals, grinning in adverts for everything from Purdey’s energy drinks to Jaguar cars and smouldering as a certified sex symbol. So perhaps I didn’t get the swagger that I expected, but I got more than that. Vulnerability, thoughtfulness and a passion for equality. Even at the tail end of ‘one of those Mondays’, Idris Elba has me charmed.
The Mountain Between Us is released on 6th October