Idris Elba spoke to ITV earlier today.
Today’s This Morning hosts Rochelle Humes and Vernon Kay welcomed Hollywood star Idris Elba to the famous blue sofa to discuss his two new movies, turning 50, working with his wife and his new skincare brand!
Discussing his ‘genie’ type character in Three Thousand Years of Longing, Idris said, “Because he’s three thousand years old, he’s been there before English was invented, so we had to come up with an accent that sort of sounded like it could stand the test of time. We worked with a great phonetics person who helped me pull together this accent, and we pulled from Arabic and really old languages that don’t exist anymore… and it took about six weeks to perfect.”
On being comfortable with his fame and still getting ‘pinch me moments’, Idris admitted, “I still have those moments. I shot a film in Iceland and I looked around at all the snow and mountains everywhere and I was like ‘wow, this is my job’… so I always have those moments.”
Of his new thriller Beasts, based on a game reserve in South Africa, Idris revealed, “It’s a survival movie about this family… but there were no real lions, it was all CGI!”
Idris revealed how he might like to take a step away from some action movies for a while, stating, “More and more when I’m doing action scripts and I’m running around… [I tell myself] ‘OK, I’m going to do a film in an office next time’ because I’m just knackered! ‘Can I just play a fisherman please? Just sitting on his boat talking to his mate?’ But generally I like to do roles that I haven’t done before.”
When asked if a movie of TV show Luther was going ahead, Idris smiled, “Yes. It’s happened, we’ve shot it. We are editing it now and I’m really excited because it is a step up from the TV show and has a lot more scale…”
Speaking of his DJ career, Idris admitted that’s how he ‘re-sets’. He said, “I’m off to do some closing sets in Ibiza. But I’ve been DJ-ing since I was 14 years old, so it’s a natural place for me to reset… When I’m doing a lot of acting I’m being someone else, and when I’m DJ-ing no one cares if you can act. I’ve done four seasons in Ibiza, I love it.”
On working with his wife for their podcast, Idris confessed, “It’s different, Sabrina doesn’t come from an entertainment background but she’s really good at it. She’s great at talking, has a lovely voice and very investigative so it’s been a pleasure watching her and doing it. It’s about what makes partnerships work…we delve into places that are private, but it’s fun, it’s also therapy for us.”
Idris, who is also approaching his 50th birthday, teased how he might celebrate by saying, “I think I’ll just have some friends and family around… and wreck a hotel room in Dubai – joking! Am I worried about getting old? No, every day is my birthday.”
This Morning airs weekdays from 10 am on ITV/STV/UTV and ITV Hub
