Idris rubbing ‘Elbas’ with his Cape fans

LEGENDS ALL: Idris Elba, centre, on stage at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, flanked by singers Abigail Kubeka, left, and Dorothy Masuka, right BRITISH actor Idris Elba is causing a stir in Cape Town.

Not shy to mingle with his fans, the bearded star made a surprise appearance on stage at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival and posed for photographs at a gym and a party in the city.

Elba, known for his role as Nelson Mandela in the film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, is acting in a sciencefiction horror movie being filmed in the city.

Events management company espAfrika posted an image on Facebook of Elba at the festival on Friday, saying: “What a surprise by Festival Director Billy Domingo! Idris Elba is in the building.”

Fists clenched, Elba posed for a photo last week with Rowan Katzew, owner of the Top Primate martial arts gym on the Foreshore.

In another snap published on Instagram, he rubbed shoulders with DJ Kyle Cassim at a party in Clifton. “When @idriselba walks into the dj box and says he digs your music — one of my own songs — I literally nearly died,” the DJ posted.

Elba is not too shabby behind the decks himself and loyal fans on the dance floor know him as DJ Big Driis.

Elba will play the role of Roland Deschain, the gunslinger in The Dark Tower, based on the series of novels by Stephen King, the first of which was published in 1982.

Matthew McConaughey will join him on set as the Man in Black, the villain.

Cape Town's Moonlighting Film Production Services is working on the movie, which is already in production.

The actor and his daughter, Isan, 14, cancelled a visit to South Africa late last year when Isan failed to meet immigration requirements passed into law earlier in the year. — Staff Reporter