So how did Idris Elba come to make Legacy – the closing night gala at the Glasgow Film Festival – in Scotland?
“Black Camel [the Glasgow-based production outfit] found a way to make the budget work here, and Scottish crews have this great reputation within the industry. It was a tough shoot,” says Elba, with what in the course of our conversation will be revealed as his customary frankness, “but what you get in that situation is everybody pulling together because they believe in the project. Everyone worked hard.”
Nobody believed in it more than the star himself, who came on board as executive producer as well as leading man. Legacy is the work of Thomas Ikimi, a young Nigerian-British filmmaker with only one other credit on his CV, the micro-budget thriller Limbo, and Elba felt that officially throwing his weight behind the director was the best gesture of support. “Thomas sent me the script and I met with him. I liked him, I liked the material, and liked what he stood for. My job as EP was to get everything good about Thomas’s writing up there on screen, to protect the script.”
With nods to classics of paranoia, from The Manchurian Candidate to The Conversation by way of Polanski’s Repulsion, as well as Hitchcock’s more claustrophobic entertainments Rear Window and Rope, Legacy’s ambitions outstrip its budget, and it’s little wonder the central role was so appealing. As traumatised US Special Forces soldier Malcolm Gray slowly disintegrates in the suffocating environment of his apartment, the part provides an emotional gamut-running showcase for the star’s talents.
“It was an intense experience,” Elba recalls. “It actually helped because I never had time to shake off the character before we were on to the next set up. I’d start every day with an hour of make up for the scars” – Malcolm is a torture victim – “then I was in virtually every scene.” These scenes range from confrontations with his ambitious senator brother and a heart-to-heart with a lost love, to fraught reminiscing with former comrades less than eager to rake over the past.
Fans of Elba’s breakthrough in The Wire will particularly enjoy seeing the great Clarke Peters (painstakingly patient cop Lester Freamon in the HBO epic) as the hero’s superior officer.
“Yeah, I called him up,” says Elba, pleased with the additional involvement his producer status allowed. “Thomas thought he was right for the part. He came and he was great.” Peters is one of several Wire alumni who are carving out decent screen careers but there is no rat, brat or indeed frat pack-style self-indulgent hanging out with old buddies. “I’m not really in touch with any of those guys. For me, The Wire was a long time ago.” In this golden age of the DVD box-set, it is difficult to keep track of what was broadcast when, so it’s surprising to realise that Stringer Bell met his end way back in 2004.
Always focused and hard-working, Elba used the momentum provided by The Wire as impetus to build a remarkably rich and varied résumé. He has worked in Britain and America, in TV and film, in horror and thriller and comedy, all the time maintaining a lifelong love of music (he was a pirate DJ in his teens), and every decision has been his and his alone. “I’ve managed myself for the past six years. I’ve taken parts that weren’t necessarily leads, but they helped me grow and learn and build my range. It’s taking two steps back to hopefully take four steps forward.”
This tactic requires tremendous self-belief, of course, which is something Elba has in common with the hip hop and R‘n’B stars he now numbers among his friends. He has just released the mellow, soulful EP High Class Problems (available under the slightly different name of Driis) and appeared with a self-penned rap on the opening track of Jay Z’s masterful American Gangster album.
“I never had the anger of the hip hop guys growing up, but I did always identify with the can-do attitude,” Elba says. “I didn’t know that was being ambitious, it was just how I felt.” It was only later in life that he discovered the drive set him apart, and it came as a revelation. “When I realised I was ambitious, I thought to myself, ‘I can conquer the world’. As an actor, I’m not scared of anything.”
This lack of fear has been a crucial recurring factor at key moments in Elba’s career. It explains how he was able to audition for and land The Wire gig before letting the producers know his flawless American accent was not his own. It’s the reason the lengthy hand-to-hand combat sequence in Legacy, shot with the intimate urgency but none of the cash of a Bourne movie, was simply another box to be ticked: “I’ve done a bit of kickboxing and the other guy was a dancer, so we just rehearsed the moves one day and shot it the next.”
Likewise, his recurring guest star role on the American version of The Office (get the box sets, it’s better than the original) was, well, just another day at the office. “Those guys know what they’re doing,” he understates of the multiple Emmy winning ensemble headed by Steve Carell. “It was a learning curve, but that’s what I love about acting.”
It’s hard to know if Elba will ever join Carell on the Hollywood A-list. He’s currently shooting a hugely promising BBC cop show, Luther, in which he plays the title role; has a supporting slot in Kenneth Branagh’s superhero blockbuster-in-waiting Thor (“I’m excited about that, as is the world”); and plays what seems to be a scene-stealing buddy character in the forthcoming action movie The Losers. One should never judge a movie by its trailer, but this does seem to have considerably more charm and energy than higher profile summer attractions in the same vein, such as The A Team and The Expendables.
The Losers is another example of Elba’s increasing savvy and good taste. Last year, horror remake Prom Night and the Fatal Attraction rip-off Obsessed both did extremely respectable business but failed to fully showcase his talent. His most “movie star” moment to date came on the Tyra Banks chat show when the hostess introduced him by demanding he “get his fine ass out here” and sat back while the mostly female audience screamed like they were teenagers at an RPattz personal appearance. You get the impression that if the right director captures that charisma on camera, an interesting, compelling career could turn into something stratospheric.
In the meantime, one thing is for certain. Stringer Bell may never have left the actual ghetto, but the man who brought him to thrilling life definitely has escaped the showbiz version, something Legacy confirms. “The film may have a black director and a mostly black cast, but it’s not defined by that,” he explains. “It’s about love, it’s about family, it’s about guilt, it’s about heroism.”
The nature of low-budget independent cinema means the Glasgow world premiere is just the start of a campaign on the festival and film market circuit, but typically Elba relishes the prospect. “It’s a great film,” he says, on his way to conquer the world. “I know we’ll sell it.”
Legacy closes the Glasgow Film Festival at Glasgow Film Theatre on February 28, 8.30pm
