Aml Ameen

Becoming the Jamaican gangster in Idris Elba’s directorial debut

1 lived in jamaica

“I was teaching myself the accent, but it didn’t really latch on. So I decided to live in Jamaica for a couple of months. the key thing is specificity — modern Jamaican patois is not what we needed, it’s been Americanised. In Jamaica I was around people of the right era. A lot opened up their world to me — Sly and Robbie, some of the Marleys, a lot of different music artists.”

2 changed his perceptions

“In Jamaica I got into smoking weed. I’d never smoked weed in my life — I didn’t do drugs growing up. I smoked to understand the character, and to understand weed — how it can quell you but also make you tip-top suspicious. that was definitely a new experience. I came back to California, where weed is legal, but it was way too strong for me, so I thought, ‘I’m off it. I’m done.’”

3 learned to mc

the Mcing and Djing was the most challenging part of the movie. I had absolutely zero experience. Idris is a DJ and he’s very fucking good at it. He would show me how it’s done. But he didn’t want to intimidate me, so he put me in the hands of his MC friends. they gave me the calls of the time and these weird sounds I’d never heard. they really helped me get the style.”