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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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" 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

Important

Famous

" If I was gonna go to jail, I don't want to go to jail for stealing a bottle of water. I'll steal that $20 million. At least then it was worth it. "

Idris Elba

Worth It

Want

" 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. "

" The adrenaline feeling of jumping out of cliffs and bikes and all of that is very specific to the film. In 'Pac Rim' I'm not doing that so much. There isn't that touch stonework for me in it, but there is a lot of action. "

Idris Elba

Feeling

Film

" I was really ambitious, so I was innovative. I was one of the first DJs to do live calls, 'cause I found this phone device that would pick up other people's voices. "

Idris Elba

Phone

People

" If you go to Africa and you're white, you're probably not going to get that much work either. But the fact is that there is a longer history of black integration in the U.S. I don't have any resentment about this: I did the maths, calculated it against my ambition and decided to leave England. "

Idris Elba

Black

History

" I did a rendition of 'Billie Jean' which is on my Soundcloud. I put it on Twitter, and it got about 3000 hits that day. "

" Every leading lady I work with, I'll see if I can get a song out of them and put it on an album. "

" I was into Spider Man when I was a kid and that was the only comic I've ever read. "

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

" It's really funny because the same people who loved me as Stringer Bell were the same people that were watching 'Daddy's Little Girls' literally in tears. "

Idris Elba

Funny

Little Girls

" I've been DJing mostly, and most DJs end up producing. That's just me. "

Idris Elba

Been

Most

" You know, film is the ultimate goal in an actor's career. I mean, I still love TV. I have my feet firmly stamped in it. But my opportunities have been bigger and better. "

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

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

Idris Elba

Bond

You

" Television has shied away from being too dark, because so much has happened to us recently here in the West, and people are sort of wanting to see more uplifting sorts of things. "

Idris Elba

People

See

" 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

Good

Questions

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

Idris Elba

Villain

Good

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

" It's weird because my parents don't really understand my business. I get fan mail all day long, but if a piece happens to get to their house, they're like, 'Oh, my God, you've got a fan! You have to write them back. You have to do it!' "

" Africans, we hold on to our youths and whip them into shape. "

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

" There has been a big debate about it: can a black man play a Nordic character? "

" I think 'The Wire' really is relatable. It reflects an ongoing issue across America, about inaccuracies in major cities between rich and the poor and some of the things that go on behind the red tape of council and government bodies. "

" When I was a kid, I thought it was tough. "

" 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'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. "

Idris Elba

Business

You