SA Weekend interview: What makes Idris Elba Fast and Furious?
At 46 Idris Elba says he’s finally making his mark — on the small screen, as a Hollywood villain and DJing at a very royal wedding.
There is no stopping Idris Elba.
Whether it’s acting in Netflix comedy series Turn Up Charlie, DJing at the Coachella music festival, or appearing in the upcoming blockbuster, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, the irrepressible Elba is a man on a mission.
And, he recently got married to his Canadian girlfriend Sabrina Dhowre at a lavish ceremony at the Ksar Char-Bagh hotel in Marrakesh, Morocco.
The 188cm (6’2”) British actor has long been known for his workaholic ways and, at age 46, he feels he’s just beginning to make his mark.
“I’m very restless by nature,” Elba says.
“I have a very hard time sitting around and doing nothing. I’m always thinking about different projects or listening to music and wondering what I can do next. Life is for living, and I’m very fortunate to have a lot of opportunities to be creative and do interesting things. I love being busy all the time, that’s how it is with me. I have this desire to go out and accomplish as much as I can.”
Certainly audiences will be keen to see what Elba brings to the Fast & Furious franchise in the role of Brixton, the menacing villain who takes on Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, the highly anticipated spin-off of the multi-billion dollar franchise opening in August.
“It was a really cool film to make, working with Dwayne and Jason, who make high-octane films quite a bit, way more than me,” Elba says.
“My character is a mean motherf..ker, and I had a lot of fun playing him... David Leitch is a fantastic director. I was given free rein to make a character that hopefully sits in the zeitgeist of the Fast world.”
Elba also has the seal of approval from The Rock himself, who says that Elba “is the baddest villain the franchise has ever seen ... he’s a phenomenal actor who really brings a great weight and quality to the role – and a viability”.
Added Johnson: “If you have Hobbs and Shaw, two beloved characters within the Fast & Furious world, how do we create a villain who is formidable, viable, better, stronger, and more diabolical?
“I feel like we created that on the page, but then who is the actor who can actually bring that weight? And I’ve known Idris for some time now, and we felt like he was the perfect guy to come in and be our main villain ... there have been so many bad guys who we’ve had over the years. But Idris is the perfect guy.”
In the meantime, Idris Elba’s legions of fans can watch him in Turn Up Charlie, his new series, which is currently streaming on Netflix.
Elba plays the title role, Charlie, a down-and-out DJ trying to reignite his music career through the help of a now-famous childhood friend who has just hired him to serve as nanny for his precocious 11-year-old daughter.
With respect to his new wife, Elba met Dhowre in Vancouver, Canada, in 2017 while filming The Mountain Between Us and subsequently revealed that “falling in love while making a movie about falling in love is pretty special”.
This is the third marriage for Idris. He was wed to Hanne “Kim” Norgaard, with whom he shares 17-year-old daughter Isan, from 1999-2003, and to Sonya Nicole Hamlin for a brief period in 2006. He also has a five-year-old son, Winston, with ex-girlfriend Naiyana Garth.
THE INTERVIEW
Q: Idris, are you excited about being part of the Fast & Furious spin-off franchise?
ELBA: I really enjoyed this chance to work on a big action film like that because you learn a lot from that experience. Dwayne and Jason are masters of that genre and when you’re on a big set like that it gives you the feel for how that kind of a movie works. It’s one more step for me.
Q: You’ve stated many times previously that you have a lot of drive and ambition. Is Fast & Furious the kind of project that raises the bar for you?
ELBA: I’m constantly looking for new challenges and over the last few years I’ve been doing a lot of different kinds of work, directing my first film (Yardie) and now doing this new series (Turn Up Charlie). So I’m feeling very, very excited at this point with all these creative opportunities so I’m very happy with that.
Q: You have been a DJ since you were a teenager. Did that make getting to play a DJ in Turn Up Charlie all the more interesting for you?
ELBA: There was a lot about Charlie’s life that resonated with me. I’ve gone through some tough times when I was working a lot as DJ earlier in my career so I understand what he’s going through. But now with Coachella and a lot of other gigs I’ve been doing I feel like I’m really able to make the most of that work.
That’s important to me because music was my first love and it’s very different from what I do as an actor. That’s why I’ve been DJing more often in the last few years because I get so much pleasure and creative satisfaction from that. My ultimate ambition would be to direct a film in which I’m playing and do the score on top of it!
Q: You’ve also DJed at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding in May of last year. How do you get British royals and their friends dancing up a storm?
ELBA: All that sort of funk stuff era from the ’80s always gets people up. It doesn’t matter if you like trap [electronic dance music] or you’re 10 – you’re gonna like those songs.
Q: You’ve had plenty of experience as a father to your own daughter, Isan. How did you relate to what Charlie is going through in terms of his rapport with the bratty young girl he’s nanny to?
ELBA: I have never been as understanding as her parents are with her. As a father I’ve always made it a point to lay down certain rules of behaviour that can’t be crossed. But I’m a lot less strict than my parents were with me. I try to be a friend to my children and be the kind of father they can both respect and enjoy being around.
I also know that because I’m away a lot making movies and doing other projects that I have to make the most of every opportunity I get to see them. I need them to know how much I care about them and how much I love them. It’s important that they feel that and we can have that closeness.
Q: Your fame has skyrocketed in recent years. Does it ever seem slightly unreal to you?
ELBA: I’m still shocked by how I’ve managed to reach these great heights after 25 years of hard work and a lot of struggles during that time.
But it makes me want to work harder than ever. I still remember the bad times having to sleep in a van for a couple of months in New York and going to auditions in the morning and earning a little money DJing at night. It was tough to get any decent work because no one liked my accent (in the US). I didn’t really feel settled until I got The Wire (in 2002) and that changed everything.
Q: You work so much. Do you ever feel burnt out?
ELBA: I’ve become very good at managing my time and energy. I try to plan things ahead of time and then it’s just a matter of organising your schedule and doing one project at a time. As long as you love what you’re doing, it never really feels like work.
Q: You seem to be a very determined individual. What are the keys to being successful?
ELBA: You need to set goals, visualise them, and understand exactly what it is that you want to achieve. You have to visualise how you want to get to where you want to be and be very precise in your thinking.
I like to challenge myself also and face down my fears. I’ve had this need to make sure that I’m not being prevented from doing something out of fear. That’s why I’ve done a lot of challenges like racing cars or going back to kickboxing last year, which was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life.
Q: Acting seems to come very naturally to you. Is it the same way with DJing, which was your first job as a teenager before you ever started acting?
ELBA: I started DJing first as a way of making money and at the same time it was a way of expressing my creativity. Music is a universal language and a good DJ is someone who acts as a vibe-builder.
My challenge as a DJ is to go to a club or an arena, figure out the environment and the mood, and get the whole crowd turned onto the right frequencies. I want to be able to get everyone hooked on the beat and the mood so that people are going “Wow!”
Q: When did you first get turned onto music and what kinds of music first interested you?
E LBA: I grew up with reggae and dancehall, and I was always mixing cassettes with my favourite songs. But my parents loved calypso, blues, jazz and even country, so I always listened to everything.
Q: What do you like about DJing as opposed to acting?
ELBA: Acting is much more deliberate kind of work. You’re often on a big set and you’re waiting a long time between takes and it’s a different kind of creative experience.
As a DJ, you’re getting immediate feedback from the crowd, which, as an actor, is something you would only get in a theatre. I love being able to get everyone in a great mood and really into dancing. It’s a feeling like nothing else.
Q: How did you go from being a DJ to wanting to become an actor?
ELBA: I was inspired by Robert De Niro. I had skipped school one afternoon when I was 16 to go see Once Upon a Time in America. I was blown away by his performance.
The next day I told my acting teacher in school that I wanted to be like De Niro. My teacher, who believed in my talent, told me that it was important to pursue your dreams and that one day I would become a great actor. That was what set me on my way.
Q: What was your parents’ reaction to your decision?
ELBA: My father wasn’t that happy about it and he was worried that I would starve as an actor, and he told me to keep working as a DJ so I could at least earn a living. But my mother supported me.
Q: You’re a man famous for embarking on so many personal challenges. You love testing your limits and constantly setting new goals for yourself. What drives you that way?
ELBA: I think there’s so much we can achieve if we have the will to do it. I like to say, “Life is for living”. We all have a lot of dreams and desires, but we often don’t get to realise them. For a long time, I’ve believed in going out there and doing things instead of just thinking or wondering about doing them. Too many people think about what they want to do or who they would like to be instead of just being who they want to be. I like being able to go out and do all those things I’ve dreamed about.
Q: What inspires you to undertake so many projects and challenge yourself the way you did with your kickboxing training and professional fight?
ELBA: I think my imagination plays a big part in that. I was an only child and when you’re spending a lot of time growing up like that and you, you’re by yourself, you invent a lot of games to occupy yourself. That’s what stimulated my creative sense and my entire life has been a way of feeding my need to express myself.
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw is out August 1