Idris Elba, who currently stars on the big screen in 'Masters of the Universe,' said that he prefers interviews that are "framed as a great conversation"
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NEED TO KNOW
- Idris Elba said in a new interview that he does not particularly enjoy talking about himself in interviews
- The actor noted that his lack of desire to talk about himself is at odds with the public profile he enjoys, particularly in his home in the United Kingdom
- Elba most recently appeared on the big screen in Masters of the Universe, in theaters now
It turns out that Idris Elba isn't a major fan of talking about himself in interviews.
Elba, 53, said as much during an interview with British GQ published on Monday, June 8, as he promotes his new fantasy action movie Masters of the Universe. In the piece, GQ mentioned that Elba appeared to feel more comfortable discussing his experiences DJing in a local pub in his hometown, Hackney, a neighborhood in East London, and his efforts to turn a different pub in the area into a "kind of multi-use community hub" than actually discussing himself.
“I don't mind if it's framed as a great conversation: ‘Let's walk around, have fun,' " Elba said of interviews. "But if it's ‘sit down and be interesting'? I've got f— all to say. I don't know what to tell you!"
"I just don't know what to say," he added of interviews, with a laugh. “When success hit me, I found that I didn't mind being a fried egg – but I hate being me.” (The actor had demonstrated an acting exercise in which he pretends to be an egg frying in a pan earlier in the piece.)
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Elba noted in the interview that his lack of interest in himself stands at odds with his public image and the recent news that he was knighted by England's King Charles on June 2.
As GQ reported, Elba received a knighthood for his work campaigning against knife crime in England, including a BBC documentary he released in which he discussed potential solutions to knife crime among youths in the country with the monarch and U.K. prime minister Keir Starmer, among others. “It's a massive contradiction to what I said earlier. I just found myself front and centre, speaking up," he said.
Even though Elba has made direct efforts to enact social change in his country, he told British GQ that he does not like when the descriptor "hero" is applied to him.
“I'm just an actor that has got all these ambitions,” he said. "I struggle with it, a little bit. The responsibility, accepting it, like, Yes! I'm an upstanding hero! I'm a role model! I'm not. I'm imperfect, massively. That line, that cusp, is hard to maintain: you're either a hero, or you're not – which is it? And I sort of sit in the middle. I didn't ever chase being a knight. Or chase being a sort of public hero – that's not what I'm chasing.”
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Elba costars with Nicholas Galitzine, Camila Mendes, Alison Brie, Jared Leto, Kristen Wiig and more in Masters of the Universe, an adaptation of the long-running media franchise of the same name. "I did that for me, man. I remember taking it, thinking, Uhhhh… I suppose at my age, with the kind of things I've done, and the kind of things I'm doing, can I get away with being in a film like that?" he said. "I thought, 'F– – it, why not?' "
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Masters of the Universe is in theaters now. Elba's upcoming projects also include a movie titled Above the Below, in theaters Dec. 4, as well as next year's adaptation of the book Children of Blood and Bone. He will also reprise his voice role as the character Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 4.
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