Want a new pal, Idris? Tell them you’re a god!
THOR star Idris Elba, who finds hi mself unexpectedly hurled into the awards season race, told me how he bonded with the young star of a film about child soldiers — thanks to his role as a Norse god.
The London-based actor, who also had success late last year with the Luther two-parter on BBC TV, plays the ruthless but charismatic leader of an African rebel unit in the Netflix movie Beasts Of No Nation.
It features first-time actor Abraham Attaah as Agu, a schoolboy who sees his family killed, and later comes to look upon Elba’s ‘Commandant’ as a father figure.
So it was also important that Abraham, who was discovered by director Cary Joji Fukunaga playing football in Ghana, ‘love, respect and admire Idris,’ Elba told me.
‘Not for vanity’s sake, but because Abraham had to understand that the boy he was playing had to love, admire and respect Commandant.’ Elba laughed, and then recalled their discussion.
‘There we were all being serious about the film, then Abraham looks me over and said: “Oh, you are the one from Thor. I know you!”
‘ So, he i dolised me as a Hollywood actor, and we had to utilise that so that he’d idolise me as an army leader.’ In the Thor and Avengers: Age Of Ultron films, Elba plays the all-seeing guardian Heimdall.
Beasts Of No Nation went on limited release in cinemas in the U.S., and opened on one screen in London.
Yet in its first week of being streamed on Netflix, it was seen by more than three million people.
The central performances by Elba and Abraham have attracted high praise — and awards heat. Elba is up for a Golden Globe award at Sunday’s ceremony, and he’s sure to get a lot of attention at the Bafta-LA tea party at the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills tomorrow.
Both he and Abraham are also in the running at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Independent Spirit Awards.
Fukunaga’s film is harrowing, but also gripping as it explores how the young Agu tries to survive, both physically and morally, as he’s exposed to all the degradation and hell that war brings.
It’s certainly not a comic-book story like Thor.