Idris Elba shares great tips for actors and how to impress the director.
Idris Elba directed the 2018 crime drama “Yardie” and in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor discussed what he learned about acting from directing the film:
“I’ve made that part of my journey as an actor to collaborate with my directors and make them feel very secure in their choice to have me play the role and give them 120 percent.”
Idris Elba added, “But after directing, I realized how important that relationship is that you have to have with your director. A willing actor makes your life so much easier, even if there are ideas that the actor doesn’t really understand or celebrate or agree with if he’s willing to try it, it makes life easier. I’ve always been that way, but I’m much more sensitive to it now that I’ve been on the other side of it. I was very lucky, the majority of my actors were quite young and they were just absolutely ready to go for it. And it just made my life easier and gave me more choices in the editing process. And definitely now as I go into productions as an actor, I’m always conscious that I’m giving my director the best he’s ever going to need.”
Idris Elba says his next goal is to direct himself. “What I’m doing next will hopefully include me directing and acting, which is an animal that one sort of builds up towards,” he reveals. “But I feel like I’m ready for it because I had this amazing journey as a director on Yardie, so I think my next project I can coup with me doing it as well.”
Elba now has a production company and has “the ambition to take things into our hands a little bit more.” Elba thanks America for helping out with his career. “America has been the marketplace that put me on the world map, so whenever I get to release things here in a major way it’s always like giving birth almost,” he says with a laugh.
Related:
