I can’t say that I have a huge amount in common with Idris Elba. One of us is a multi-talented, multi-millionaire actor-DJ-producer who has spent the past decade being touted as a contender for the next James Bond; the other is none of those things. But when the star of Luther and The Wire shared his experience of workaholism on a recent episode of Annie Macmanus’ Changes podcast, his words touched a nerve. “I’m an absolute workaholic and that isn’t great for life generally,” he told former Radio 1 DJ Macmanus. “Nothing that’s too extreme is good, everything needs balance, but I’m rewarded massively to be a workaholic.”
Elba is so hooked on his work, he went on to explain, that he has spent the past year in therapy, focusing on untangling this desire to constantly achieve. “I could work 10 days on a film, underwater sequences holding my breath for six minutes, and come back and sit in [my home recording studio] and [feel relaxed], more so than sitting on the sofa with the family, which is bad, right?” he said. “This is the part where I’ve got to normalise what makes me relaxed. It can’t all be work.”
