Elba man on the rise despite rough times
‘Luther’ star tells how his new TV series brought his east London youth memories back – and why he still loves DJing
become. “All I was told was that it was a cop serial drama about wire-tapping in Baltimore. That could be one of 50 shows,” he says. “When I got there I started to understand the undercurrent. As the show went on the writers realised they could take the wiretapping bollocks off and get to the bottom of what was really going on [in the US], but initially it was: ‘We’re the drug dealers, yeah? And those are the cops? Cool’.”
Stringer Bell meant Elba’s days of living in a van and foraging for parts were over. In the 13 years since he left The Wire, he’s appeared in, or lent his deep, mellifluous voice to, no fewer than 32 films, on top of his work for television.
In the next few months alone, Elba is juggling Guerrilla with the lead role in blockbuster The Dark Tower, based on Stephen King’s dark fantasy series, and a supporting part in Marvel romp Thor: Ragnarok , in which he reprises his role as Norse deity Heimdall.
Meanwhile, the fragrant office we are sat in is where Elba is casting Yardie , an adaptation of Victor Headley’s cult 1992 novel about a Jamaican drug dealer in London which will be his first film as a director – a challenge he’s relishing. “As an actor, usually I can speak on acting, maybe story and that’s it,” he says. “Now I’m sculpting this piece of art from every angle.”
Somehow, alongside his relentless workrate as an actor, producer and now director, Elba also finds time to pursue a career as a club DJ.
But while it would be easy to see the appeal for him of playing the odd celebrity party or Ibiza residency, he is doggedly doing it the old-fashioned way: his current tour will take him to such unglamorous places as Exeter’s Lemon Grove, a student union bar not usually patronised by people who have starred in films opposite Beyoncé.
“There was a time when I was getting celebrity DJ gigs and getting paid lots of money,” he says, “but I don’t want to do that. I love playing house music and I love the culture. That’s why my DJ gigs are massive for me. Very different from The Dark Tower or Guerrilla, but they’re on a par in terms of my real life and what keeps me inspired.”
The ever-changing list of things that keep Elba inspired means he has built up a body of work so varied that he is never sure where people recognise him from. It might be from the television, a blockbuster, his DJ booth or somewhere else entirely.
“I don’t walk around as an actor,” he says. “I act when I’m being paid for it, the rest of the time I’m just being me. When I’m in Hackney there’s still guys who go: ‘All right, Idris… Holly Street, yeah?’?”