FORGET ABOUT BOND, IT’S ALL ABOUT ELBA!
3rd August 2020
Idris Elba has just been recognised by BAFTA with a Special Award for contribution to television. The award was given to him for the work done on the small screen, as well as his relentless strive for diversity and more culture on television. Although he may not become the James Bond we wanted him to be, instead of His Majesty’s Secret Service, he does a fantastic service to the film and television as a performer, as a creator and a man who uses his own platform to represent, champion and promote minorities that don’t always get a fair shot at the same opportunities as their white counterparts.
He left Britain as a young guy to pursue an acting career in America simply because the scope of roles for black artists was not as wide as across the pond. In the United States, he made his big break with one of the most acclaimed and, to this day, watched HBO series – ‘The Wire’. As the show’s main villain, Stringer Bell, Elba had shown acting chops that made that turn on the small screen so powerful that it morphed into a 20-year-long career spanning both television as well as the movies. Of the high-profile films he’s made, he first landed the ’28 Days Later’ sequel, ’28 Weeks Later’, alongside Rose Byrne and Jeremy Renner. Next, he appeared in Ridley Scott’s ‘American Gangster’, starring Denzel Washington and Russel Crowe, and Guy Ritchie’s ‘RocknRolla’ with Gerald Butler and Tom Hardy. This followed by co-leading roles in ensembles like ‘The Losers’ – an adaptation of a popular comic book he worked on with Chris Evans and Jeffrey Dean Morgan – and ‘Takers’ where he starred in along with Paul Walker, Matt Dillon and Chris Brown. This line-up of lower-budget, profitable films started turning him into a big-cast player that led to the role he is mostly associated with on the big screens – Heimdall in Thor and the Avengers movie saga.
After that, came the critical acclaim. First, the role of his lifetime – the great Nelson Mandela in the adaptation of the former South African President’s autobiography titled ‘Mandela: A Long Walk to Freedom’. Then, the reviewers heaped praise on his performance in Netflix’s first real Oscar contender – ‘The Beasts of No Nation’. Establishing himself as a household name, next came roles in blockbusters such as ‘Star Trek Beyond’ and ‘Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw’, as well as co-leading ‘Molly’s Game’ with Jessica Chastain and Stephen King’s ‘Dark Tower’ alongside Matthew McConaughey.
His next major movie will be ‘The Suicide Squad’ from James Gunn – the director of ‘The Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 1 & 2’ – in which he’ll partner Margot Robbie. Not a bad career for a young, black boy who had to flee across the ocean to make a name for himself, huh? And what a name that was!
It’s worth noting that his talents go beyond the thespian side of the industry. In 2018, he directed his first feature – ‘Yardie’. The film ended up premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, immediately drawing attention to its original topic and story – based on a novel by Victor Headley – and featured a stellar, all-black cast. If that isn’t a testament to fighting for representation, then nothing else will.
Recently, Elba made news when asked during an interview with the Radio Times his thoughts on classic shows being pulled of TV with a racist tone,
That’s why we have a rating system: We tell you that this particular content is rated U, PG, 15, 18. To mock the truth, you have to know the truth. But to censor racist themes within a show, to pull it – wait a second, I think viewers should know that people made shows like this.
Elba believes that artists should be allowed to say what they have to say and should not come under censorship, and his stance is one that seems to be all-pro education through the media. Think about it – isn’t seeing how bad the times were, what the discrimination and segregation looked like, how appalling the treatment of people of color was? Should people not see the true shades of the problem, the appropriation, even the mockery made of things such as blackface? Elba has a point – in shielding people away from everything that’s bad, how will we even show them the extreme, as well as the more subtle racism endured by Black people, by Asian people, by Native Americans ?
Elba’s professional life is currently on an upward surge. His semi-biographical TV show set in the 80s Britain, ‘In the Long Run’ – one in which Elba portrays a version of his father, was given a third season on Sky after 2 years of a successful run – with the first episode premiering just last week. On top of that, Elba revealed that his previous hit series, ‘Luther’, is now closer than ever to getting a green light as a movie!
He has also just been announced as the first Patron of Immediate Theatre, in Hackney, London. He plans to showcase and highlight much-needed attention to the current crisis in the Arts, not just for the well-known organisations, but to the important work going on in the community.
Community theatre companies play such a vital and unsung role in supporting young people in some of London’s most underprivileged boroughs. I have been so impressed with the team at Immediate Theatre and their tireless efforts working with young people in Hackney, providing them with a place of safety and encouragement where they can be free to express themselves, and I’m proud to join them as a Patron.
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