Idris Elba On 'Luther', Why He Will Never Play 007, His Career Defining Role, Ghana + DJing

From New York to the world, subscribe now to the Hot 97 YouTube channel. It's Ebro in the Morning with Laura Stiles and Rosenberg. Ladies and gentlemen, I mean, he's the sexiest man alive. Some people say still. His name is Idris Elba. Give it up. He's on Ebro in the Morning with Laura Stiles and Rosenberg. I mean, look at this guy. I'll still take that title. Thank you. I'll take it. So you don't feel any type of way that they've moved on? I think it's Michael B. Jordan now. No, that's amazing. But it does say alive. You know, sexiest man alive. So as long as I'm alive, I'm clutching. I'm clutching onto it. In the theaters right now, a lot of people, including in my household, My Lady Jazz loves Luther, bro. Loves Luther. Put me on. I missed the series. So this is a series that you were on on BBC early on that you have now brought the movie to us. Yes. The Fallen Son. Yeah, man. The TV show we did for like 10 years, five seasons, 10 years. Anyone that loves it has a dark side to their personalities. We just say that. Shout out to Jazz. Yeah, there's definitely something going on. But yeah, I mean, the true core fans are really excited about the full length feature, which I am too. It took a long time to come. And I'm just going to say this off the bat, because I know this question is probably going to come. Am I going to play James Bond? No. Am I going to play Luther for five pictures? Yes. Wow. Now, the last time you were here, I asked you about the James Bond thing off the air. I think it was. Yes. So I wasn't actually prepared to ask you about that because I knew the answer was Luther. I already knew that because I think you told me that, but we didn't talk about it on the air. So I wasn't even going to go into the... Because Luther is yours. Yeah. This is not you stepping into some sort of, you know... It's the perfect storm. You know what I mean? Because, you know, as much as I'm complimented by the idea of playing James Bond, I always knew in the back of my head that Luther can take that same real estate. You know, big character, central position, you know, fighting bad guys. But Luther has, from what I know of the two seasons that I've watched, Luther, it's deeper than just fighting bad guys. Luther's got his own demons from early on that he's been dealing with. The breakup with his wife from the first couple of seasons. Well, she died. And she ended up dying, which is... Spoilers. Well, yeah. So, but also just all of that, right? And then some of the relationships that Luther even had with the criminals that he's been chasing down. He's a very complex character. You know what I mean? He will go, you know, the full mile to catch someone, even if that means breaking the law himself. Yeah, you're upset. Luther's... Not you. I don't know you like that, but Luther's obsessed. He's like one of those detectives that gets thoroughly obsessed with the case and goes off the deep end. Absolutely. And that's what the film now allows us to go wider and bigger and more international and, you know, just try a different sort of landscape all together. I'm excited for it. So if I didn't follow the series, can I watch the movie and still be good? Absolutely. Yeah. That was actually one of the challenges is to find a way to be loyal to the, you know, day ones and then, you know, introduce some new day ones to the movie. You know what I mean? And it is a challenge, but the film opens with a sequence that allows you to get some backstory and then launches you. So if you don't know anything about Luther, you still can get in. And I'm guessing if you're a hardcore fan, there'll be little things that happen throughout the movie where you're like, oh, then a regular person may just not take anything from it at all. Yes. There's some Easter eggs like that. Yeah, for sure. There's characters that have lived the span of the season, the TV show that, you know, get introduced into the film. So, I mean, I'm hoping that people go back and go, okay, we'll watch season one. No, if you're looking for an episodic TV thing right now, like if you ran through some of the other things that are currently hot and you want to go back and watch something, Luther's one of those things that you can spend time on and dip in, dip out. And it's just consistently good and a consistent storyline so far for myself. I appreciate that. And Idris, I was looking at your filmography earlier. You have such an interesting career because I feel like most people in the U.S., of course, know you originally as Stringer Bell on the Wire, right? And that's obviously seen by Americans as your moment. But you'd already been in the game for a minute by then. Was that your first break or did you have a big break in your career prior to that in England? Yeah, I mean, like when I think about it, I started acting since I was like 20. I'm 50 now, that's like 30 years. So in my first five years, I had a couple of big breaks. I had a kid's show straight out the back where I was playing a 16-year-old kid and I was 20. I was in this TV show. What was it called? I'm just kidding. I don't know if I want to tell you. I'm not ready for them YouTube clips to come out. But it was a great show. And for me and my mom and my dad and my family, that was a big break. That's life changing. And then I did a soap opera in England, which I can tell you called Family Affairs. I did a soap opera. That was a big break for me. Anyone that comes from the soap opera world that ends up in television is probably more experienced than most actors. Why do you say this? Just because the turnover is amazing. It was an everyday soap. You're working five days, six days a week and you're shooting all the time. You get a new scene, you have to learn it on the spot. And then it could be high emotion, low emotion. It is the quickest way to cut your teeth as an actor. So I did that. And then I did a TV show called Ultraviolet, which I actually made a U.S. version. And it's about vampires. They made a film, the Ultraviolet series of films. And that was essentially my big break. That took me to basically America because I remember getting my O-1 visa when they asked me to be in the pilot for the U.S. version. I didn't end up picking up the show, but I got into the States that way. And that was in the late 90s. And then, you know, 2000 is when I got The Wire. So The Wire was definitely my biggest break. That was the one that put me on the map internationally and changed my life. When you look at The Wire, have you turned it on? When's the last time you... I haven't. I haven't seen it ever, really. I saw when HBO had a premiere in New York City around 2001, 2002. So you spent no time with The Wire? No. It's a whole different combo. You don't like watching the work, really, right? I don't. It takes me out of the job. You know what I mean? When I'm watching myself act, I'm like, ah, I don't like to see it. However, you know, when I talk to people about The Wire, I can have a conversation about it because I was there. I shot those scenes. So I have a different perspective. But watching it as a viewer... And is it tough for you to enjoy it just as a viewer, right? Because you're critiquing yourself. And what about Luthor, though? Which is, like, so your brand at this point in many ways. You also don't watch Luthor? It was tough. I saw the film. I saw the premiere in London. Did you like it? Did you like yourself? I loved the movie. I love myself. I was so good. I enjoyed the film. I mean, it is a film. It's exciting. It's great to see the scale. It's an incredible performance by Cynthia Erivo and Andy Serkis. Andy Serkis played Planet of the Apes. Okay. He played Caesar. He's an incredible actor. So the film was good to watch. But yeah, you know, Rose, that was me sitting in my chair, sweating my nuts off. Now, it seems, you know, so much was made of potentially you being James Bond, which was mostly the internet I don't think you ever really had or even tried to go that path, right? Like, that wasn't even… But it also makes me think that you're defining your own trajectory here, right? Like, you're really carving out what's Idris's. This is Luther's, me, mine. And I'm going to the next… We're going to do five of these. Like, this is going to be a new chapter in my book, but it's also a chapter I get to control the narrative. Absolutely. I would love to hear more about that as an actor with your levels of success deciding I'm going to take some control over the next chapter of my book. You know, just to be super clear, you know, to get to a position where I can say this is how… I mean, I'm not going to play James Bond. I'm going to play this guy. You know what I mean? To get to that position is a blessing. I'm super thankful. And it isn't one that's afforded to everyone for sure. I'll say that, you know, Luther is the longest character I've played. I've played him for 10 years over the season. So I feel very, very connected to that character. You know what I mean? And I feel like if I was going to, you know, choose one character to, you know, go into my twilight years as an actor, you know, say, let's say 10 years of me still acting, I could do Luther. What is it about that character that… I know you put time into it, but is there something else about the individual that you really love being able to do? I think that he's complex. He suffers with some mental strain that I think we all suffer. And he lives out his therapy through his work. You know what I mean? I relate to that as an actor. I relate, you know what I mean? Like, I wouldn't say that I have, we all have stresses, but I use my, I exercise my stresses through the characters I play. And Luther is the one character that I can really just let rip, you know, as an artist, as a, you know, as a, I don't know how to explain it. Just someone that's investigative. Me personally, I'm investigative in my mind. And when you're chasing in film, these characters that are super complex, like in this movie, you know, it takes a certain amount of brain power to do that, to pull that portrayal together. So I love playing him. Also, you know, he breaks the mold. You know what I mean? You know, he's a black detective, I guess, but, you know, and, you know, tortured detective is a mold we've seen before. But this guy, I think he breaks the mold. He seems original. You know what I mean? He's not a carbon copy of anyone else. There's no other Luthers with, you know, I don't know, James Bond or whatever. You've seen, you know, that spy character do incredible fighting skills and whatever. But Luther's not like that. You know what I mean? He uses his brain. And it's very, it is very cerebral. It's intellectual. It's very intellectual. Yeah. And so that's why I like playing him. And I know, I think that he's very well written, you know, Neil Cross is incredible writer of dark, you know, dark matter. Right. Like he also, with Luther, it's always relatable. You know what I'm saying? With certain other films, you know, the crimes are so like outside of the world, you know, it's like, oh, shadow governments and this, that, and third. But with Luther, it's kind of stuff that you actually can relate to. Um, Idris, you are, oh, Rosenberg, you had something? Yeah, but go ahead. Go ahead. No, I was just going to, I was going to jump right to, uh, where Idris is, uh, going for Coachella. You know, I've seen Idris rock at Coachella. I don't know if you guys know about this. This guy's gets on stage in the big dress and this big dress. We, we lost the big part. It was just dress now. Oh, now it's just dress? Dress. Yeah. I couldn't, I couldn't do the big dress anymore. You know, it was little dress, big dress. That's just dress. Um, when, talk about the DJ, because when I found out you was a DJ, I immediately was kind of like, ah, of course, man, celebrity DJ. Come to find out you've been DJing a long time. Yeah. He is a DJ. Before, before. By trade, you are an actual DJ also. This is not just a, this wasn't a hobby when you got famous. This is your thing. It was my career. I mean, when I lived in New York, I've told this story plenty of times, but I used to DJ in New York in all the bars down in East Village as a way to, you know, be able to audition in the day. So I was working at night. Um, sometimes I was doing door work for Caroline's and then other times I was just DJing Madame X, Piano Bar, Ludlow Bar, all those places. And that was my, my bread and butter. And what was, well, first of all, at that point, were you carrying crates? Um, I'm guessing, I'm guessing you were, you were bringing crates of vinyl. What were you playing? It was hip hop. A lot of hip hop. I used to get my records from Rock and Soul. Yeah, shout out to Rock and Soul. What's that shop down at Fulton Avenue that's not there anymore? Oh, yeah. The one in Brooklyn. I used to, um, I used to order from there when I was a kid. Yeah, there was a Mr. J's, Mr. J's close to it. And then there was this big record shop that was there. I forgot what it's called, man. I think Biggie says something about it in a verse. Yeah, I'm about to find it. Hold on. Anyway, I used to go get my records and it was, you know, five crates, walking in with five crates or boxes at the time. And I had your hand truck. You know what I'm saying? You had your little, you know what I mean? Or you'd carry. I'd carry. Oh, yeah. I wasn't hand truck. You know what I mean? I had it. I was broke. Um, one thing I'll never forget about vinyl is when you're playing vinyl, man. Beat Street! There you go. Thank you. Um, when you're playing vinyl, man, my nails are always messed up because you're digging into the thing. Yeah, your cuticles are all cut up. That's how you knew a real DJ when your nails weren't looking too tough. What are you, uh, what are you using these days? What's your system of choice? I'm on CDJ's record box. Use a USB. Which USB? Shout to the USB DJs out here. It's cheating though, man. Really? I can't help it. It's cheating. Give me a whole crate of records that is USB. No, it is cheating, but it's better than the person that just slides the CD in the CDJ and acts like they're doing something while they dance with their hands and turn buttons they don't mean. Yo, I'm glad you brought that up. Idris, I have this. I have this thought. I'm curious what you think. I don't know if you've seen, but on social media, there's a lot of like DJs, particularly kid DJs. Like parents have their kids DJ, right? And no, no, just hear me out. Hear me out. I brought this up the other day to none other than the legendary Rob Swift. He absolutely knew where I was coming from. You're trying to get your kids to be like hot on the internet by having them DJ. And for some reason, they've taught the kids that when you pit play on the record, DJs go like this and start dancing. And I'm like, I don't know one real DJ in life who between records is dancing like a maniac. Like it's all we're going to end up seeing a whole generation of DJs who essentially learned how to DJ for how it looked on social media versus anything else. Rose, I'm going to have to stop you though. Okay, I, I dance. Come on, man. I've been, I've been in, I've been in a booth with Idris at Coachella. How do you dance though? You're not, it's not just hand dancing. You're actually throwing down. It's more footwork. And you know, you've got to keep your hands where they have to be, but. Right. You got to bop. I'm dancing. I'm bopping. He's, but, but, but hard. And, and, but I would know Idris is definitely sweating. He's definitely up there sweating. He's working. I can see that. But he's trying to, but so some of it is, some of it is too. You're trying to let the audience know that it's okay for them to dance and get them to celebrate. This is it. You know what I'm saying? This is it. Yeah. So I get that part. I've seen some great DJs and when they dance, you dance. Listen, young child who DJs up here, you know, he's a, he's a big soca DJ. Uh, it plays a lot of Afro beats, everything. He comes out from behind the DJ booth. So he'll throw a record on. Wow. Come out from behind the DJ booth with the mic. Yes. Do the dances that are associated with whatever record. Get back on the turntables and get the next record. I mean, it's so. So basically what I'm saying is you slacking, bro. You got to take it to the next level. I do. Yo interest. Um, were you resistant to technology with regard to DJing? Like I'm a vinyl purist, but it took me all the way to in the last year to go out and get a controller. Um, and now I'm very into it. Yeah. No, I mean, look, man, when you, you know, when you're carrying five crates around and then someone walks in with a bag of CDs. Especially when the night ends, they just get to walk out and they're like, I'm going to be here for an hour. I was receptive to the change. You know, I'm still a little bit like, you know, I'm a vinyl. I have a lot of vinyl and I try and get as much vinyl as I can. I have a vinyl player at home, so I can play that. But yeah, I mean, I was receptive to it. Idris, a lot was made about, uh, you potentially, I think I read it right. Potentially doing a movie, um, buying land and creating like a movie filmmaking facility. Can you tell us more about that and where that's planned to happen and how it's going? Yeah. I mean, you know, um, I've, I've made seven movies in Africa. Okay. And in all that time, I've realized that there's a real, um, capacity for, for a film industry there. And the film industry is very localized to South Africa currently, which is a great, it's a great, um, you know, industry they've done really well. But the rest of Africa I'm talking about, you know, a billion people haven't got the same sort of access to movie making, which is, you know, it's like not having radio stations. How are you supposed to tell your story, your story told by you? So, you know, I've been on this quest for about four years now, um, trying to figure out how to build capacity and build facilities that, um, allow filmmakers. So Nigeria is a very big film industry, but there isn't that. Nollywood, Charlton Nollywood. They don't like it. They don't like being called Nollywood. They don't like that. No. I just found this out the other day that it was a journalist that came from Canada, was visiting, I think it was in the nineties and she just coined it Nollywood. I'll never say it again. No, no, you can say it. No, I'm off that. It's what's most recognizable. No, I'm off that. We'll just call it the Nigerian film industry. Yeah. The Nigerian film industry, um, has, you know, huge amount of turnout, like a lot of movies, but not that many studios. Um, and the other component to the whole thing, you know, is 1.4 billion people, 1.2 billion people in Africa. There's 2000 cinemas across the continent. The whole country. Yeah. Wow. That's crazy, right? Yeah. That's crazy. Even though, you know, this part of the world, we've stopped going to the cinema, we're, you know, reluctant a little bit more since the COVID era, but everyone deserves to go to the cinema. Go to the movies. You know what I mean? It's a communion. It's a place where we learn, you know, fall in love with stories. Anyway, so this whole plan that I've been working on to, to, I went to Ghana, my mom's Ghanaian. I went to Ghana, partnered up with some people there. And the, the, the, the president of Ghana has helped me with a policy that allows, uh, incentivize filmmakers to come to Accra. Love Ghana. And it's amazing. Like it's amazing. Shout out to Nana Akufo-Ada, you know what I mean, of, uh, the president of Ghana. And also, uh, and happy Independence Day to Ghana. Just Independence Day yesterday. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So Ghana obviously has seen a big, um, you know, return of, uh, year of the return. You know, a lot of African-Americans, a lot of diaspora have come into Ghana over the Christmas period. And it just, you know, like. It's the thing to do, man. It's amazing. Oh no. Have you done it? Of course. I saw you there. We partied there. We had a whole rooftop situation. It was a great night. Great night. Um, what type of timeline, like how does, how does this play out over time? Cause this is obviously exciting, right? Cause you think of what Tyler Perry did, was able to do down in Georgia. I'm sure you're trying to do something similar in Ghana and even farther. Um, but how long does this sort of thing take? Um, if, if I may, maybe there's someone watching whose kid loves film and doesn't even know that this is a potential career path for them without even leaving Ghana or, you know, an African nation, they can chase a career path down this and it can be lucrative. Right. Cause that's a big thing when I'm 10, 12 years old and parents are like, nah, you ain't never going to make film. You ain't, there's no money in that. Don't, you know, or you got to go to the United States and you ain't doing that. You know what I mean? So now this opportunity presents itself. No, I think you, you hit the nail on the head. You know, it is about shifting that narrative and letting people understand that the creative industry is a big opportunity for employment. You know what I mean? For, for narrative shifting for, for me, you know, the timescale is twofold. One, the facilities you can build in a couple of years quite easily. You know, it's just about the process of building a facility like that. But alongside that is the capacity is the people, you know, I need to find crews. I need to do an educative. Most of the crews in Africa come from South Africa right now and they're great. Okay. But I need to distribute that sort of capacity around Africa. So that's where the other component is about education. And I'm trying to build a series of schools that get people prepared for the workforce. And then at the same time, you know, you got to bring the work. So I've decided to, I'm shooting a film in Ghana at the end of the year. I'm going to, some of the film that I'm directing is going to be shot in Ghana. And hopefully due to this process, I'm going to proof the concept. I'm going to bring some HODs from different heads of department from different parts of the world to come and train people in Ghana while we're shooting that film. Amazing. And then hopefully encourage other filmmakers to come. I'm going to put this out there because Will Packer said that he might take Girls Trip 2 to Ghana. Yeah, we read that. It's on neck, Will. You have to do that, Will. No, you can't back out of it now. Because it was a rumor, but it would be super dope. Wait, so that wasn't confirmed? It wasn't confirmed. It was premature. So we just got to put the pressure on him. Well, I think, you know. So I should tweet right now. I heard Will Packer was on the fence about filming Girls Trip 2. You know what I mean? No, my brother, he's focused. And, you know, he recognizes I've made a lot of films of him. We shot Beast in South Africa. And he was like, yo, man, where else can we shoot in Africa? So that was the beginning of, you know, that seed for him. But yeah, man, trying to do this thing. Idris Elba, ladies and gentlemen. Luther is in theaters right now. You spitting any bars here? Yo, bring up that Bosie, that Wiley, Idris Elba, Stefflon Don. I mean. You know what I'm saying? Yo, Idris got bars on this. Yeah, but, you know, it's an old record. No one's really playing it now. Not anymore. But I'm never going to forget it. Did you never forget it? Did you play? I don't think you guys played Vroom. Vroom, that was a joint. Um, me and Russ was on it. Davido and Coffee. You're an artist, artist. I mean, I get about. Y'all never heard Idris's verse? But you don't have to play my verse in the radio. No, you can just spit it live right now. You ready? No, I don't feel that's the way we should be going. I'm sweating immediately. You saw that? Bosie, hit the joint, man. Come on, you got the lyrics. One, two, three. Oh, ah. Nah, see. Hey, y'all, give it up. Idris Elba, man. Yo, I love you, brother. I love you too, man. Love you too, man.