Idris Elba recounts ordeal of being held at gunpoint: ‘I nearly lost my f*****g life’
The actor was involved in a frightening incident outside a nightclub
Idris Elba has spoken about the time that he was held at gunpoint while trying to de-escalate a couple disputing.
The actor, whose new crime drama Hijack premiered recently, has said in an interview that he “nearly lost my fucking life” in the incident.
Elba told the Daily Mail: “I nearly lost my fucking life after attempting to stop a man threatening his girlfriend outside a club.
“A guy [was] wailing on his missus, screaming in her face, ‘I’ll fucking kill you’, and so on. I come round and I go, ‘Look how beautiful she is. Why would you talk to this beautiful princess like that?’”
Elba said things went awry when the man pulled out a gun and “stuck it right in my face”.
“You talking about my girl?” Elba recalled the man asking him. “He thought I was trying to hit on her.”
He added that he remembers thinking, ‘Don’t play negotiations like that…consequences, man.’”
Meanwhile, last year the actor and musician shared that he plans to prioritise making electronic music and spend less time acting.
The actor spoke about his musical ambitions in an interview with Vanity Fair, revealing that he is hoping to put more energy into music.
Speaking about his hopes for fans to take his secondary gig seriously, Elba said: “Some may think, Well, it will be the death of your acting if your music’s shit.”
“I’ve dealt with the internal struggle of that over the years. So now I’m at peace and I’ve chosen: This is what I’m doing, and I’m going to do it. Some will love it and some will hate it.”
The Luther star also spoke about plans to “lean away from the acting work”.
“The thing about making music is it’s a very consuming process,” he added. “It’s very difficult to shoot a movie and then go off into the studio or make a song. It’s like trying to build a soufflé while making a brick wall.”
Hijack is streaming on AppleTV+.