About Idris Elba: Idris Akuna Elba is a British actor.
I love to play different roles. That's just the kind of actor I am.
You know, film is the ultimate goal in an actor's career. I mean, I still love TV. I have my feet firmly stamped in it. But my opportunities have been bigger and better.
As an actor, you're trained to do the right thing, be politically correct, say your lines, say the right thing about the people you're working with.
I'm a little sheepish about it. Whenever I meet fans and they're like, 'Oh, you're so sexy,' I just don't get that. There's no way one man can be universally sexy.
If I was gonna go to jail, I don't want to go to jail for stealing a bottle of water. I'll steal that $20 million. At least then it was worth it.
I'm an ambitious person. I never consider myself in competition with anyone, and I'm not saying that from an arrogant standpoint, it's just that my journey started so, so long ago, and I'm still on it and I won't stand still.
Africans, we hold on to our youths and whip them into shape.
When I was a kid, I thought it was tough.
Are there differences between black actors' opportunities and white actors' opportunities? Yes, there are. It's been said.
Twenty or 30 years from now, I'm going to be on a beach in Jamaica.
There's a fast-track if you can do the networking. For some personalities it works, but for mine it doesn't.
I knew that if I wanted to be all I could be, I would have to go to the U.S. It took three years to get the accent right.
I've always had ambition, and the acting was successful and put my name on the map, but it was never the plan to stop there.
I want to go to Sierra Leone with something - whether it's some sort of contribution to healthcare, or to the entertainment industry. My cousin is a nurse; we are talking about opening a clinic.
I get criticized for taking roles in films like 'Ghost Rider 2', but if you look at my resume, dude, I've mixed it up as much as I can.
I've been DJing mostly, and most DJs end up producing. That's just me.
Every single film I've done, it's about the character.
I don't get recognised that much yet in London, but when I do I get a real sense of achievement.
I wasn't bad at school, but I was never a bookworm.
I was into Spider Man when I was a kid and that was the only comic I've ever read.
I would never be fearful of any character.
