The George Miller film Idris Elba called a “masterclass”
It’s been 20 years now since Idris Elba hit the big time with his role as Stringer Bell in 2002 in one of the most acclaimed TV shows of all time, HBO’s The Wire. Since then, Elba has continued to climb the ladder to stardom.
In TV, Elba flawlessly performed the role of DCI John Luther in BBC’s Luther, whilst in the movies, he has taken on the envious part of Nelson Mandela in Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom and well as playing Heimdall in several Marvel Cinematic Universe films, including Thor and Avengers: Infinity War among others.
When asked to name a filmmaker who has learned a lot from, Elba praised George Miller. He said: “I feel like Three Thousand Years of Longing was a masterclass for me. George Miller sat down with us and articulated every single layer page by page: the special effects, and how the electromagnetic field will feel to the audience. There were artist’s drawings and some really beautiful reference images, which he put in the script and said, ‘This is what I am aiming for.’ That script, which I still have, is a work of art. Stepping into George’s world is very beautiful. He has a very vivid imagination!”
Detailing further, he added: “You had to have a lot of trust in George, just put your seatbelt on and let him drive. The return to the cinema as a shared experience was always in our minds as well. This is a film about storytellers and someone’s passion for stories, so to have that play on the big screen at the Cannes Film Festival, to me, is just great. It is an absolute postcard to the art of storytelling.”
Three Thousand Years of Longing came out earlier this year, and Elba starred as a djinn freed by a professor played by Tilda Swinton. George Miller adapted the screenplay from a 1994 short story by A.S. Byatt entitled ‘The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye’.
Much of Three Thousand Years of Longing features one on one scenes with Elba and Swinton, and Elba noted his acting relationship with Swinton. He said: “It was incredibly important to get that chemistry with Tilda! Working with George Miller in the hotel room where we shot the film, and playing with someone like Tilda Swinton, it is definitely a different type of acting.”
He added: “Fortunately, Tilda and I know each other a little bit and we had maybe three weeks of really intense rehearsals, pulling apart the script, talking about every detail of it. In that process, we shared stories and got to know each other, so by the time we got to set, there was a chemistry that we could rely on to bring the drama between the two characters alive.”
