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It was deeply important for me to understand where Mandela came from. Because we know where he was going, and that's a famous story, but who was he? Where did he come from? What was his upbringing?

Idris Elba

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Idris Elba
Age: 52
Born: 1972
Born: September 6
Actor
Composer
Disc Jockey
Film Actor
Film Director
Film Producer
Record Producer
Stage Actor
Television Actor
Television Producer
Hackney
Big Driis the Londoner
DJ Big Driis
Idrissa Akuna Elba Obe
Going
Famous
Deeply
Came
Story
Understand
Stories
Come
Mandela
Important
Upbringing

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Television, for me, is a medium that I'm probably always going to be attached to, one way or another.
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I'm rebelling against being handed a career, like, 'You're the next this you're the next that.' I'm not the next anything, I'm the first me. I can't be myself, I can't just be Idris Elba. But that's just the nature of the business.
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In 'Pacific Rim' I had to have a haircut I wouldn't usually rock. However, the moustache I had in the film - that might have to come out again. It was a good moustache. Good times.
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The role of my agent has just been to get me in the room. If I can get in the room - say the character is just a charming man who lives next door - then I'll walk in there and be as charming as I can and they will think to themselves, 'I don't see why we can't cast him.
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Every leading lady I work with, I'll see if I can get a song out of them and put it on an album.
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I dont have a place that I call home at the moment because theres no point. I mean, Im a traveling circus for a while. Its weird. Like, if I wanted to go home, theres nowhere to go. I just go to a hotel. But Ive kind of gotten used to it.
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In some countries, no one knows who Idris Elba is.
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I watch my daughter wanting to be like other kids and getting upset that she's not. But I always try and instill in her the idea that she's perfect as she is.
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There's the argument that you can relate to someone who's completely unrelatable. In the way that a director shows you his imagination on a film, then I get to show you my imagination in a big dumb character.
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As an actor, you're trained to do the right thing, be politically correct, say your lines, say the right thing about the people you're working with...
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You’re directing a movie, but you are at the head of a ship of people, a whole fleet of people. And being able to manage that - being able to handle yourself as a director being a leader - that’s massively important.
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I'm a little sheepish about it. Whenever I meet fans and they're like, 'Oh, you're so sexy,' I just don't get that. There's no way one man can be universally sexy.
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Africans, we hold on to our youths and whip them into shape.
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I was always a real athletic kid. Then when I got older, I just figured it was part of life to keep training.
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I'm an ambitious person. I never consider myself in competition with anyone, and I'm not saying that from an arrogant standpoint, it's just that my journey started so, so long ago, and I'm still on it and I won't stand still.
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I want to go to Sierra Leone with something - whether it's some sort of contribution to healthcare, or to the entertainment industry. My cousin is a nurse we are talking about opening a clinic.
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Because I was big, I didn't have to listen to anyone doubting me. I was just considered good at football or whatever, there were no questions about it.
Idris Elba