Idris Elba sparked a fan frenzy with his recent Golden Globes selfie with Daniel Craig, so Event asked the actor to spill the beans on his plan for world domination. And it wasn’t what we were expecting…
Idris Elba is careering across a crowded dancefloor. Agitated and sweaty, he’s very much the worse for wear as he lurches into a pack of unsuspecting clubbers. No one dares push back. It takes two bouncers, both bigger than the muscular 6ft 2in actor, to calm him down and get him to leave the club.
Minutes later Elba barrels back through the door and repeats the routine. Then again. And again. But this isn’t the latest action movie from the man who’s been tipped to take over as James Bond when Daniel Craig hangs up his Walther PPK next year. Rather, we’re in an Ibizan nightclub, and Elba’s playing it for laughs in his role as Charlie, a hapless DJ who was ‘big in the Nineties’ but has now fallen on hard times.
Idris Elba has been a favourite to replace Daniel Craig as Bond since 2014. There’s been a growing clamour for the first black Bond, but his odds on joining Her Majesty’s Secret Service seem to have faded over the past few months
It’s an unexpected departure for Elba, who made a name for himself as Baltimore drugs kingpin Stringer Bell in the acclaimed TV series The Wire, and has gone on to earn four Golden Globe nominations for his alpha-male roles in everything from Thor to Pacific Rim.
Event has been invited on an exclusive set visit to the new eight-part Netflix comedy Turn Up Charlie. Elba, who DJs in real life under the name DJ Big Driis, plays the lead character, a middle-aged man living with his aunt in London and spinning cheesy disco tunes at weddings – and forced to make money as a male nanny for the adolescent daughter of an old friend, who happens to be a huge superstar DJ.
‘Charlie goes through the D-class DJ entrance in Ibiza,’ Elba says, explaining the scene being filmed. ‘A gig here and there if you can get it. On the bad end of the drugs. Just trying to live. We hope that we strike the tone of what Ibiza is really like for the DJ who isn’t paid much and is trying to get back into the scene.’
Being a bit-part player doesn’t much suit Charlie. Similarly, many Elba fans might think a light comedy role is an uneasy fit for one of our most powerful actors, a man once voted the sexiest alive by the Ameican celebrity magazine People, and who has become a star on both sides of the Atlantic by dint of gritty roles in Luther and Mandela.
‘It’s healthy to have a balance of stuff,’ Elba tells me when we pick up our interview a few months later in a London members’ club. The actor is dressed in a patterned McQueen coat and red beanie, and alternates between yawns and shots of black coffee as he battles the effects of late nights and jet-lag. ‘Luther is on one end of the spectrum, being really dark. But I wanted to have a shot at portraying DJs, because I love that world.’
We last saw Elba on TV at New Year, a long way from Ibiza, on the trail of a gruesome serial killer as the perennially embattled DCI John Luther in the disturbing BBC thriller
It’s a passion project for Elba – as well as co-creating Turn Up Charlie, he’s co-executive producer on the show, which also stars Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly) and Angela Griffin (Coronation Street, Lewis). ‘This is quite English humour with a lead actor who doesn’t normally do much comedy. It makes for a more interesting career.’
We last saw Elba on TV at New Year, a long way from Ibiza, on the trail of a gruesome serial killer as the perennially embattled DCI John Luther in the disturbing BBC thriller. He’ll appear next on the big screen in Hobbs And Shaw, a high-octane spin-off from the Fast And Furious blockbusters, alongside fellow tough guys Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. His character is the superbly named Brixton Lore, ‘ex-MI6 agent, international, cybergenetically enhanced terrorist leader and a criminal mastermind’.
In real life, the one secret everyone wants Elba to divulge is his classified knowledge about the next Bond. Last year he tweeted ‘My name’s Elba, Idris Elba’, along with a moody selfie. And then at this year’s Golden Globes, he and Daniel Craig mugged for the camera together. Was that a bold way of announcing he’d like his own licence to kill – or a playful two fingers to the perennial Bond rumours? ‘Nah, we just did it on the spur of the moment, thought it would be a laugh. It was a selfie. Didn’t realise it would be picture of the year.’
We’ve met a few times before, which perhaps explains why the often-wary Elba today indulges yet more questions about Bond. He’s been a favourite to replace Craig since 2014, after leaked documents from Sony revealed that Amy Pascal, co-chair of the company, said: ‘Idris should be the next Bond.’ There’s been a growing clamour for the first black Bond, but his odds on joining Her Majesty’s Secret Service seem to have faded over the past few months, with Bodyguard’s Richard Madden now the favourite to take over.
Elba with James Bond star Daniel Craig at the Golden Globes in January. ‘It was a selfie. Didn’t realise it would be picture of the year’
Today, Elba seems keen to distance himself from the intense speculation. ‘Bond is one of the biggest franchises in the world, and for that reason, whoever ends up playing it, lives it. You’re THAT character, and known as that character for many, many years. I’m creating characters now that can still live alongside Idris. Not ones that take over me and solely define me.’
It sounds as categorical a denial of the rumours as he’s ever given. He tells me he’s more excited about another action role – more anti-hero than hero. ‘The Hobbs And Shaw character Brixton Lore is brilliant. Awesome. I’d love to see that franchise up and running, but it wouldn’t define me,’ he says adamantly.
For now, we’ll take his word as his bond.
Elba grew up as the only son of Ghanaian mum Eve and Sierra Leonean dad Winston, who worked all his life at Ford Dagenham. The young Elba’s chances of becoming a Hollywood star seemed improbable when he briefly joined his dad on the car assembly line. But in the late Nineties, Elba booked a one-way ticket to New York to try to make it as an actor. His gamble eventually paid off when his American accent, honed during visits to the city’s bars, convinced The Wire’s creators he could play the shrewd, business-minded gangster in the cult TV series.
He has since starred in Ridley Scott’s American Gangster and Prometheus and has had roles in Star Trek and the Avengers movies. Last year he directed his first film, the gangster thriller Yardie, while his Sky sitcom, In The Long Run, was inspired by his childhood in Hackney, east London.
These days he rubs shoulders with royalty. Last May, he and his fiancee, Sabrina Dhowre, were guests at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding. After the service at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, Elba had his own starring role, spinning tracks such as Never Too Much by Luther Vandross for the likes of Serena Williams and Prince Charles – his friends William and Harry made a special request for him to DJ at the reception.
Idris Elba and fiancee Sabrina Dhowre. Elba proposed to his girlfriend Dhowre last year on the stage of the Hackney cinema he went to as a child
Elba described the wedding as ‘a beautiful experience’ and ‘one of the highlights of my life’. So, being on first-name terms with the Princes, presumably DJ Idris gave Harry mate’s rates for the wedding?
‘Ha ha! No, I didn’t charge.’
Rather conveniently, he maintains he can’t recall many of the other songs he played. ‘I honestly can’t remember, but it was a very good night. It was nice to see them happy.’
Would he consider that his most high-pressure DJ gig to date?
‘No, definitely not. I was among friends. Pressure comes more in the form of headlining small, specific clubs, where people know exactly what music they like.’
Elba received his OBE from the second in line to the throne in 2016. He’s now an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust – he says it’s his way of repaying his debt to the charity that enabled a working-class kid from east London to gain entry to the National Youth Music Theatre when he was 16.
The Hackney boy made good says he has a similar work ethic to Harry and William. ‘They work really hard. I guess they get it from their mother and father. It’s part of their life, to give back. And they do encourage my opinion. If there’s something they want to get me involved in, they’ll definitely ask what I think about it.’
It’s not just the young royals turning to him for tips. Elba is often the voice of reason in Turn Up Charlie, which leads to an endearing relationship with the girl he’s responsible for looking after. Does this kind of grown-up role appeal to him as a 46-year-old father-of-two, who proposed to his girlfriend Dhowre last year on the stage of the Hackney cinema he went to as a child?
‘No, that’s not it. What’s interesting about it is that my character isn’t paternal. He’s a man-child. Which I feel I am a bit – I can relate to that,’ he smiles. ‘I’m a dad, a parent and I love my kids. But there are parts of my youth that I feel like I haven’t quite lived out – and I will!
‘The whole “30s is the new 20s” thing – that’s all true. Young people seem to be younger for longer. And people in their 40s still seem to be doing things they were doing in their 30s. I think that’s OK.’
Despite having two children of his own, 17-year-old Isan and four-year-old Winston, from previous relationships, Elba doesn’t claim to be any kind of expert on parenting. Isan has accompanied him to various red-carpet events, but he stops short of offering her advice on the pitfalls of millennial life.
‘Mmm, no,’ he says, but adds that via the Golden Globes organisation ‘she’s now an ambassador for mental health and how it affects young people’. Still, he admits he’s powerless to police her use of Instagram and Facebook. ‘It’s hard. I think my daughter knows that it’s dangerous. But she’s addicted, like most teenagers are. But there’s not much I can do as a parent – she’s a 17-year-old, I can’t take her phone off her.’
When he’s not filming, Elba is now based back in the UK while his daughter is in the US, which presumably can’t help. He’s just returned from Hawaii, where he filmed Hobbs And Shaw, is about to start filming series two of In The Long Run, and is right now pulling evening shifts in a recording studio making music. It’s a gruelling schedule. No wonder he looks weary and is slumped in his chair.
We talk about the long-rumoured Luther movie and he brightens. ‘It’s really close. I can say that with all confidence. Is there a script? Almost! It’s really, really close.’
Elba as a DJ in his new Netflix series, Turn Up Charlie. The film is on Netflix from March 15
And if you thought the TV series was dark, Elba says the film will be even more disturbing. ‘What’s great about the writing is that Neil [Cross, the creator and screenwriter] finds ways to make the simplest of things that we all find creepy – someone sleeping under our bed, someone creeping behind us on the bus, flies in the window – new and dramatic. It’s like The Shining – put a man in a hotel, going crazy, he starts to see things. It’s that tone, it’s that simple. It’s not aliens or witchcraft. It’s bad guys who do bad, horrible things. And this one guy who is prepared to do anything to stop it. If the movie does see the light of day, you’ll get an upgrade in terms of the scale and the escapism that Luther can bring.’
Elba left the UK to find work as an actor but returned for family reasons. ‘I came home because my father became sick. I found that I wanted to live and do more because I went through the trauma of watching someone I love die.’ Winston Elba died of lung cancer in September 2013, aged 72. It spurred his son into action.
‘I came home and – boom! – I had this new lease of life with work. The opportunities were here. I set up my office in Soho within two weeks. Then sold two TV shows within five weeks. I’ve got nine staff running around doing music, film and clothing.’ Elba now presides over a mini-empire that includes a record label and club brand (7Wallace), a clothing line (Shoot The Rehearsal), a film and TV production company (Green Door Pictures) and a stake in a bar at London’s Waldorf Hotel.
Tough guy Elba’s comedy gold…
Desmond’s ‘This was probably the first black sitcom that got the humour right, and that didn’t feel cringey. It was a slice of Afro-Caribbean/UK relations and it hit the mark.’
One Foot In The Grave & Mr Bean ‘The characters of Victor Meldrew (below, Richard Wilson with Paul Merton) and Mr Bean were hilarious. Victor Meldrew was so stuck in his ways – and Mr Bean? He was awesome!’
One Foot In The Grave: ‘Victor Meldrew was so stuck in his ways… He was awesome!’
Absolutely Fabulous (in 1995, Elba starred in an episode playing a male escort). ‘One of my favourite programmes. The girls – Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley – were hysterical. They broke the mould: female heroines who were amazingly funny.’
Spitting Image ‘I actually learnt a lot about politics from this. Thatcher and her Cabinet – you knew the names of all those people because of Spitting Image. And the humour was satirically spot-on.’
He saves the biggest surprise for last, revealing that he’s just finished filming the role of Macavity, the villain in the forthcoming big-screen version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats – where he gets to sing a show tune for the first time. It’s his second feline role, following his take on Shere Khan in 2016’s The Jungle Book.
‘Ahh…’ he says, squirming. ‘I’ve never sung show songs like that. I had a good time. I didn’t hate it, let’s put it that way. But it was hard work. It’s motion-capture, so you’re covered in little dots. It’s hard to gauge how real your performance is. But it also encourages you to use your imagination.’
The film, directed by the British Oscar-winner Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech, Les Misérables), has an impressive cast, including Jennifer Hudson and Taylor Swift.
‘It’s a great time if you’re in this industry and you’ve got ideas,’ the go-getting, hard-charging Idris Elba concludes with a grin.
‘Turn Up Charlie’ is on Netflix from March 15