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" Every single film I've done, it's about the 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. "

" I was on a well-beaten path of actors - what we all call 'the Law and Order route'. I spent two years of auditioning for everything... and then 'The Wire' came up. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" It could be Grammy night, Oscar night, whatever - I don't feel the pressure to be there. "

" Sean Connery wasn't the Scottish James Bond and Daniel Craig wasn't the blue-eyed James Bond. So if I played him, I don't want to be called the black James Bond. "

" I lived in America for a long time before I started working as an actor. Some actors show up on set and have never done an American accent before, so they rely on a slew of technical mechanisms. Part of what makes an accent is understanding why people speak that way - you have to understand the culture. "

" You watch yourself age and it's hard to feel like a sex symbol. "

" Apparently, Daniel Craig said I'd be a great Bond. Daniel, why did you say that? Dropped me right in it! What an honor it would be, but also, what an indication of change. "

" There's a fast-track if you can do the networking. For some personalities it works, but for mine it doesn't. "

" I was cast in 'Thor' and I'm cast as a Nordic god. If you know anything about the Nords, they don't look like me but there you go. I think that's a sign of the times for the future. I think we will see multi-level casting. I think we will see that, and I think that's good. "

" Now there are certain things you have to prepare - like dialect and special skills. But in the moment, interaction between two characters on the page doesn't need - for me, I don't need to prepare that. "

" 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. "

" The only thing I change mainly is my sneakers. I love sneakers. But everything's sort of black or jeans. Jeans, always. "

" Are there differences between black actors' opportunities and white actors' opportunities? Yes, there are. It's been said. "

" 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.' "

" I love bikes. I used to own one, but I fell off it when I was younger and that was the end of my bike riding days until now. "

" I've always had ambition, and the acting was successful and put my name on the map, but it was never the plan to stop there. "

" I knew that if I wanted to be all I could be, I would have to go to the U.S. It took three years to get the accent right. "

" I was always a real athletic kid. Then when I got older, I just figured it was part of life to keep training. "

" I try to fit in workouts whenever I can. "

" The one album I can't live without is called 'Cumbolo' by a band called Culture. Every song on their album is deep, but there's one in particular called 'This Train.' I have a tattoo of the lyrics on my left arm. "

" The English are good at bad guys - the James Bond-style villain, cunning, slow-burning. The Americans are much more obvious about it. "

" I've always been DJing; it's just I'm making more of a push for it, making it more public. "

" I still sing on bits and pieces. Singing's something that I love to do, but it's not something that I pursue as a career. "

" If you are going to call a film a 'black film' then you have to make a film that represents everyone that's black, which is almost impossible. That is why white films are not called white films, they are just called 'films.' "

" I did green screen for the first time! I wouldn't like to do a whole movie of green screen, though. You kind of forget the plot a little - like being in a Broadway play and doing it over and over and forgetting your line halfway through. "

" Not obsessed with particularly Nike, but sneakers in general. I love them. "

" White actors still get way more money in Hollywood. It's been that way for a very long time. I hope it'll change, but it's a matter of forcing that change. "

" 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? "