With roles in The Dark Tower and Thor: Ragnarok, Idris Elba is making up for lost time
IDRIS Elba has taken the long hard road to Hollywood success but he is not caught up in the trappings of fame or grander life that comes with that.
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IDRIS Elba is a movie star. A commanding presence. He has gravitas. Charisma. Exudes power. He’s electric. He’s got that ‘it’ factor …
The way directors talk about Idris Elba, you’d think he was born into movie stardom.
But it took the 44-year-old Brit seven years to go from a bit-part on Absolutely Fabulous to scoring his breakout role in HBO series The Wire — just prior to which he’d been sleeping in his van on the streets of New York.
Even after The Wire, it took another five years for his movie career to pick up pace with American Gangster and RocknRolla leading into Thor, Prometheus and Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom.
RELATED: Dark Tower errs on the side of brevity
Which makes one think, does Elba ever wonder where ‘it’ was when he was desperately looking for work all those years?
“I’m still sitting here wondering what ‘it’ factor are they thinking about now?” he says, more mystified than rueful. “Not much has changed with me apart from the opportunities I’ve had, and I’m thankful for that. I’m no cooler than I was when I was a 15-year-old snotty little kid in school, you know.
“But I’m definitely more grounded than I imagined I would be when I was dreaming of being a successful actor. You think about a grandeur life and all the trappings of fame but in actuality, once you’re in a position where you are a successful actor, those things are far away from you — if you choose that.
“And I’ve chosen to not be the ‘it’ man ... Although people think that I am, I’m certainly not really.”
Though reviews have not been kind, it’s unsurprising to find Elba and that commanding presence of his uniformly singled out as the best thing about his new film, The Dark Tower.
Based on the eight Dark Tower novels and assorted short stories by Stephen King, this sprawling fantasy world bewildered filmmakers considering an adaptation for a decade.
The story goes something like this: Roland Deschain, The Gunslinger, roams Mid-World driven by vengeance and the urge to protect. The target of his rage is The Man In Black, a devilish sorcerer who has already laid waste to Mid-World and now has designs on destroying our world.
To do so, he must fell the Dark Tower — a kind of meeting point of dimensions. And the powerful psychic abilities of a young boy in Brooklyn, Jake, might help him to do that, unless The Gunslinger can protect the boy and save the Tower.
With Danish director Nikolaj Arcel in the hot seat and Ron Howard (who once had plans to direct himself) as executive producer, cameras finally rolled on The Dark Tower in South Africa in April 2016. Matthew McConaughey plays The Man In Black, first-time actor Tom Taylor is Jake and Elba is The Gunslinger.
While Elba has done his share of fantasy/sci-fi and blockbusters, from Star Trek Beyond to Pacific Rim, The Dark Tower had a different feel.
“Thor, Pac Rim ... they are a different brand of film,” he says. “This is an iconic character, but it doesn’t have the same sort of approach. It’s very much a character-led film, I think, looking at the human stories as well as the adventure.”
For Elba, the fun lay in making this fantastical world seem grounded: “To make something ‘Oh it could never happen’ real — I love that,” he says.
Elba says he “attempted to read” King’s books while shooting, but he took most of his lead on the world from Arcel.
“Nik is the holy grail of The Dark Tower series,” Elba says. “So I leaned a lot on him. I stayed away from the internet, if I’m honest, because everyone has an opinion about what this film should be and whatnot. And we obviously can’t fulfil everyone’s wishes.”
Staying away from the internet is probably a good life rule in general, Hit suggests.
Elba laughs. “That’s funny. Yeah.”
Whatever world an adventure might be set in, it’s hard to imagine this particular leading man not knowing what to do with a character like Roland.
An angry, vengeful, tormented man driven to protect the vulnerable and save the world? That also describes John Luther, the detective Elba plays in the much-loved and praised BBC crime drama Luther.
“The parallels if anything are that they both err on the side of good but don’t mind having a little bit of evil in them,” Elba says. “But I don’t think Roland is as calculated in his journey as Luther is. Or as conflicted.”
While King didn’t have an official role on the film, the author was given veto powers, including script sign off. Before giving the script his approval, King told Entertainment Weekly, he “took a pen and cut Roland’s dialogue to the bone”.
“The less he says, the better off,” King said. “Idris Elba can act with his face. He projects that sense of combined menace and security.”
Asked if King’s edits resulted in Elba wandering the desert for three months not saying a word, the actor laughs.
“Erm, let’s just say Roland is economical — emotionally and everything else. I think that’s good because it gives us room to grow into Roland.”
Elba says it was more about “eyebrow” than “face” acting, but either way, playing the strong, silent type suits him.
“In real life I’m not really a big talker. I can chat and chat and chat, but I seem to be quite quiet mostly. Which isn’t too far from Roland — he’s not very chatty.”
As no big fan of guns, Elba has subsequently admitted to having a bit of a “clash of conscience” with his character in The Dark Tower. But he set those feelings aside in the understanding this was a world built out of King’s imagination. And besides, Wild West gunslingers look way cool.
“We’ve all seen a thousand cowboy films ... this isn’t anything like that, but it was a real great feeling to be in that costume, in that sort of swag and whatnot,” he says.
Did the cowboy swag give him instant swagger?
“I mean, you know, I’m pretty swagged out, so I don’t know if it gives me much. You know what I’m saying?”
He pauses, then laughs.
“No, I’m only joking.”
Elba went into the production “super-excited” to work with McConaughey, but won’t tell Hit too much about their interaction on set for fear of giving away plot points.
“He’s a great actor to work with,” he offers. “The casting is progressive and refreshing. I was very happy about the way it came together, definitely.”
When Elba says the casting is “progressive”, he isn’t just talking about the fact that The Gunslinger was depicted as white in King’s books.
“Just putting aside the race question or how Roland is depicted in the imagery, the film’s producers have stepped outside of all of that and gone for what makes it more interesting as a film interpretation. And that’s what I meant by progressive.”
After filming The Dark Tower, Elba returned home to shoot TV drama Guerrilla, about the British black power movement in the 1970s. From there he headed to the Gold Coast to shoot Thor: Ragnarok, then to Canada where the Aaron Sorkin written and directed Molly’s Game (opens November 23) shot back to back with The Mountain Between Us (October 12).
Another actor was in consideration for the latter film until he requested the survival tale be shot on a sound stage. At that, director Hany Abu-Assad turned to a ‘real man’ — Elba.
Elba and Kate Winslet play strangers forced to rely on each other when their plane crashes in a snowy, remote mountain range.
“Idris is a great actor, one of our best. He’s real, he’s emotional but he is also tough,” Abu-Assad says. “You believe that this actor can survive the mountains. You need a real man to carry this role. That is Idris.
“And he’s very handsome. He’s a movie star!”
Then, this May, Elba rolled cameras on his directorial debut, Yardie, the story of a Jamaican immigrant to 1980s London who is embroiled in a violent street war.
Throw in his sideline pursuits in DJing, designing clothes, adrenaline-charged TV specials and his role as father to 15-year-old Isan and three-year-old Winston, it has to be asked: Does Idris Elba have time to sleep?
“I’m gonna sleep when I’m dead, a lot, so I don’t really prioritise resting. Which is bad,” he acknowledges.
“I know I exhaust some people but it doesn’t really matter because I just love having a varied and interesting life. I like to keep learning. My job gives me so much opportunity it’s amazing — why not take that?”
THE DARK TOWER OPENS TODAY
THE RETURN OF HEIMDALL
The first thing drummed into actors at Marvel superhero camp? Do not speak about Marvel superhero camp.
So it was no surprise to find Idris Elba had precious little to say about Thor: Ragnarok when Hit spoke to the star in Queensland late last year, where he was once again stepping into Heimdall’s armour.
“I’m feeling good here,” he said. “Everyone’s really good; really nice people. Very cool set.
“I’m having a good time working with Taika (Waititi, director), he’s got a really interesting take on this film. It’s been good working with him and pulling Heimdall back as a character.”
Several rumours have surrounded the part Heimdall might play in Ragnarok: That he’s the keeper of the final Infinity Stone Thanos is chasing as the MCU heads into Avengers: Infinity War. Or that Hela, the Goddess of Death (Cate Blanchett) may kill him off, only to see him fight again in an army of the dead ...
What we do know from the Ragnarok trailer is that Heimdall leaves his post guarding the Bifrost to go into battle.
And while Heimdall isn’t renowned as one of Marvel’s more comical characters — “Heimdall isn’t funny. You haven’t heard Heimdall laugh or crack too many jokes,” Elba told Digital Spy — it’s hard to make a Taika Waititi movie without getting a funny moment or two.
“And I’m not spared,” Elba said.
While the actor was finding the Kiwi director’s accent “very funny and refreshing” on the Gold Coast set, he wasn’t yet ready to pronounce he’d mastered any Australasian vernacular.
“If you said to me ‘Do an Australian accent now’ it would sound Welsh. It’d be like, ‘Oh my God, that was not very good’. But I do find that when I’m speaking to people out here I end up emulating them a little bit. So I haven’t quite got to ‘G’day mate’, but I’m getting there.”
THOR: RAGNAROK OPENS OCTOBER 26
Originally published as With roles in The Dark Tower and Thor: Ragnarok, Idris Elba is making up for lost time
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