He’s said to have walked away from the chance to be the new 007 last month – but now Idris Elba has another number looming even a James Bond couldn’t escape. The Big 5-0 birthday.
And the screen heartthrob today admits he can’t even bring himself to say his upcoming age out loud.
So will notorious party animal Idris be having a typical wild blowout to mark the half century milestone on Tuesday?
“I am opting for a chilled dinner with family and friends,” he says. “Is that boring?
“I feel good. I am excited to turn 50. But I cannot even say the word 50. It is like ‘what? I am old!’. That is me – on my way. I feel 50. I wake up in the morning and I am aching and sh**.
"The last few years I have realised how precious life is – so I just want to live. I am really just thankful to make it.”
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Hence a quiet evening with wife Sabrina and friends beats a Fast and Furious night out.
“I am going to relax. I have had big parties and this time I want to soak it up in a chilled environment
“Is that boring?
“My wife threw a massive birthday party for me (last year), so this year I will chill. I do a lot of partying, so maybe I will chill.”
The ‘maybe’ says a lot. Wire and Luther actor Idris has never been one to slow down, especially in his working life.
To A-list actor you can add DJ, music producer, podcast host, winemaker and bar owner on his CV. And he doesn’t want to stop there.
East Londoner Idris is aiming to be a movie director too in between making more albums with that rich, resonant voice.
He says his love of hip-hop, African music, and reggae allows him to speak his truth without fear of being cancelled.
“I love acting, but I feel there is a lot more to offer as a director, writer and producer,” said Idris, whose breakout role was as Stringer Bell in HBO’s The Wire in 2002.
”I have tried not to repeat myself as an actor. There is only one Luther, Stringer Bell character. There are characters and roles I have not done yet. I feel I still want to do them, but I’d like to do them maybe as a film director and actor.
“There are incredible people like Denzel Washington and Jon Favreau, who have acted and directed themselves in movies.
“That is a natural progression for an actor. I love acting, but there are other things I’d love to do.”
Idris - whose Hollywood hits include playing Nelson Mandela in Long Walk to Freedom as well as starring roles in Beasts of No Nation and The Jungle Book – is hoping to work with friend and Oscar winner Leonardo Di Caprio.
“I met him at a party recently and we talked for hours. I will try to make that happen,” he says.
“Leo is a very humble guy. When you see the spectrum of work he has done, it is incredible. It is very impressive.”
His determination to try a different path is strong, despite being touted as frontrunner to replace Daniel Craig as the next 007.
Last month reports suggested he had ruled himself out. He wasn’t happy about the constant Bond questions he faced while promoting his new movie Beast, a survival thriller about a family hunted by a rogue lion.
Instead he is desperate to talk about the character that launched him to BBC TV fame – loose cannon detective Luther.
Now he can’t wait for the world to see the film version of the crime drama that ran from 2010 to 2019 , calling it his own “James Bond series.”
He says: “It’s incredible, it is like graduating.
“The television show ran a natural course over five seasons. Each one of them shape-shifted, but kept an audience captivated for 10 years.
“And the graduation point is where we get to take that Luther character, elevate it to the big screen with a slightly wider spectrum of scale and stories you can tell, and take it international in terms of who Luther is.
“It is a huge achievement for everyone who has written it. I am happy after seeing it . Even if you have never seen an episode of Luther you can still be invited to the first chapter of the film series.
“I am hoping that this movie becomes my Bond. Everyone talks about Bond, but for me it is Luther.”
Juggling his screen project with an Ibizan DJ residency, Idris says people are often shocked by how much he works.
“It probably looks more insane than it is, but my manager Katie would say, ‘You’re not human. How do you split yourself up?’
“I’m a workaholic. I love working. I’m really fortunate that my day job allows me to do big films, and do car commercials and whatever, but at the same time, my passion in life is music and DJing, I work hard at it. I don’t slack.
“To get credibility, you have to put the hours in, especially if people know you for one thing.”
And when he’s not working, he’s enjoying downtime with his third wife Sabrina, 33. They married three years ago and work together on podcast Coupledom and skincare range Sable.
He describes her as “the best thing ever to happen. We are very much in love”.
The star – who has daughter Isan, 20, with ex-wife Kim Nørgaard and eight-year-old Winston with former girlfriend Naiyana Garth - said lockdown life brought him and Sabrina even closer together.
“The pandemic found us, like most people, locked into a space. Quickly you saw more of each other than you would usually see, because you're together 12 or 15 hours a day. It was a real learning experience but it cemented our relationship.
“We are good to spend time apart and also good being together in silence. She is a very kind person and opened up.
“Marriage is awesome. But you have to work at marriages.
“Hopefully I have found a partnership that works.”
