British actor Idris Elba has built up plenty of street cred in Hollywood. He starred in the critically acclaimed HBO series The Wire, won a Golden Globe for portraying the title role in the BBC1 series Luther and is part of the Marvel film universe as Asgardian sentry Heimdall in Thor and Thor: The Dark World.
This month sees Elba take on his most challenging role yet. He stars as former South African president Nelson Mandela in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, based on the autobiography of the iconic anti-apartheid revolutionary.
The 41-year Elba spoke with SSN about playing such a monumental part and how it has impacted him in other professional areas of his life, including music.
SSN: You’ve worked alongside some of the biggest names in Hollywood, but this film sees you front and center. How does it stand apart from your previous work?
Elba: It certainly feels like what I’ve been doing as an actor just shifted into a different gear, and this role marks that gear change. Here you’ve got a part that asks the audience to stretch their imagination because I don't look like Mandela. I don’t think [moviegoers] would pick me automatically if they were asked to choose the best candidate to play him. So knowing that, I worked hard at making sure the audience could believe this performance.
SSN: You don’t want to just mimic Mandela. What did you do to become him?
Elba: I focused on his presence. I listened to stories from others about what he was like just before he walked into a room, stories of what people expected to see when he walked in the room. Then I’d ask them, “What was it like when he left the room?” This thing about his aura kept coming up. You can't act aura. You've either got it or you don't. I had to try and channel that aura. My research was looking at the human spirit as well as Mr. Mandela's spirit.
SSN: You had to find the essence of Mandela, but how do you capture the figurehead and what he represented?
Elba: I wanted to understand South Africa and what Mandela meant because that informed me about how I could portray this man. Obviously, there's the technical aspect of him. I wanted to make sure he sounded recognizable because the audience is already dealing with the tough fact that I don't look like him. I wanted to make sure my accent and voice were as close to his and give the audience an easier way in.
SSN: You spent one night in a jail cell on Robben Island, where Mandela spent almost 20 years of his life. How was that experience?
Elba: It was honestly a really tough night for me. Mandela spent 18 years there. What that experience did was allow me to contextualize what Mandela must have been going through night after night after night. The injustice of being locked in there just because you've got an opinion or just because you're trying to fight for your freedom. My God! There are a lot of people who died there, especially in the punishment wing where I stayed. I could feel the presence of these people, their spirits trapped. That place is haunted.
SSN: Did you ever consider making arrangements to meet Mandela as part of your preparation?
Elba: It wasn't an option for us to meet him. But in hindsight, I'm glad I didn't. During the process, there was no need to sit down with him as weird as that might sound. This is an interpretation, and he was trusting my interpretation of him. I'd like to meet him now after the fact because I'd love to hear what he has to say about it.
SSN: Many actors have portrayed Mandela on big and small screens including Morgan Freeman, Terrence Howard, Sydney Poitier, Danny Glover, Dennis Haysbert and David Harewood. What is it about this man that makes actors gravitate toward wanting to play him?
Elba: He's a man of great substance. He's obviously a very complex, unique individual. This is a man whose freedom was taken away, and he came out of jail and forgave his prisoners. That speaks to a human being that is beyond just a regular character. His journey is so fascinating. He didn't come into the struggle as a young kid. He was around 41 by the time he came into the struggle, which means that he had lived a full life. It was that full life that informs his older life, the life that we all know him to have now.
SSN: After a role like this, how do you go about choosing what you want to do next?
Elba: Moving forward, I'd like to choose roles that challenge me just as much as this one did. I'm an actor, and I like to be varied. I don't want to play statesmen for the rest of my life, but I certainly want characters that are complex and that I can lose myself in.
SSN: Can we expect to see you in more Marvel films?
Elba: I got a phone call from my daughter, who’s 11, the other day. She had just seen Thor: The Dark World and was like, “Oh my God, Dad! You were so cool!” That, for me, is why I do Thor. I love that my daughter can see a film and have that moment of absolute pride. [Laughs] I'm fortunate to have a really young audience as well as an old audience, and they like to see me in that stuff. I'm contracted for one more Thor so we'll see.
SSN: You have a completely different side career as a deejay. How does that fit in with the acting?
Elba: My deejaying is more of a hobby, but recently I've had more exposure, getting better gigs and doing remix opportunities. I also wrote an album about my journey playing Mandela. I went back to Johannesburg with a handful of musicians from England, and we hung out with some musicians from South Africa. We came together and explored all these things I wanted express about what it was like playing Mandela.
SSN: What kind of songs?
Elba: There's a song on there called “Home,” written by Mumford & Sons. It's an unreleased song of theirs, and they allowed me to use it. It's a beautiful song about a man's regret about his love. It fits the Winnie and Nelson Mandela story so beautifully. I had a different singer sing it for me, and I turned it into a more South African traditional folk song. I wrote a song called “Hold On,” which is about the sanity you have to keep when you're in prison—especially if you're in prison because of an injustice. I'm not singing on this album. But I co-produced some of it.
SSN: What's the album called, and when can we expect it to see it?
Elba: It's called Mi Mandela. I'm dubbing this type of music “character music” because it comes from my heart, and it's about my character. There are about 10, 12 songs, and I'm hoping to release it in January. I want the film to come out first, and if people like what they see, this would be an extra thing for them to listen to. I'm doing a documentary about the whole journey of making that album as well.
SSN: You directed the Mumford & Sons video “Lover of the Light” and also starred in it. Is directing something you’re interested in as well?
Elba: It's certainly something I've been thinking about. Next year, I might have an opportunity to direct my first feature. I already directed a short and a couple of music videos. It's a language I love to utilize, and it's something I think I can do well. It feels like a natural progression to move in this direction.
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