The first time you see Idris Elba in the child-soldier drama Beasts of No Nation, hes emerging out of the jungle brush, cutting through the middle of an army of tiny, machete-and-machine-gun-wielding tweens. Clad in a beret and an outfit that might be characterized as military dictator summer-casual, he strides up to the young boy at the center of this crowd and asks Who brought this thing here? in a booming voice. Its a proper movie entrance, bold and brash, immediately establishing the man known only as Commandant as a charismatic, Colonel Kurtz-like figure. He oozes danger and power. You fear this person immediately.
The first time you meet Idris Elba when you interview him, hes standing right behind you, having silently walking through the door and feeling no need to announce his presence just yet. You have no idea the 42-year-old actor is even there until he clasps a hand on your shoulder with a friendly Hey there, mate, and scans the place for a way to sneak a smoke. Clad in a buttoned-to-the-top Fred Perry polo shirt and a get-up that says, Im just going out to meet some folks for drinks, though I may be DJ-ing at the club later as well, the actor displays both a vintage, Steve McQueen-type coolness and the easy excitability of one of his younger co-stars. (Elba will rarely sit for the next 30 minutes, preferring to walk around the room or act out whatever anecdotes hes telling.) He puts you at ease within nanoseconds. And you realize, beyond a shadow of a doubt, why this gentleman deserves to be a genuine movie star.
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Part patriarchal surrogate, part power-hungry psychopath and part warped casualty of life during perpetual wartime, Elbas Commandant is the figure who leads Beasts displaced young hero Agu (played by newcomer Abraham Attah) deep into the heart of darkness. Grooming the youngster to be a child soldier through desensitization, terror and fatherly affection, the character is a complicated mix of good, bad and ugly something the actor has demonstrated a facility with in his best-known roles on The Wire and the hit BBC import Luther, just not quite to this extent. Theres a lot of real estate in the film to hate somebody, he says. But anyone can play mustache-twiddling evil, you know? Its tougher to play someone like this as a human being. Because then you cant just dismiss that person. You have to confront him.
Several weeks before Netflix simultaneously releases it in theaters and on its streaming service on October 16th, Elba sat down (sort of) with Rolling Stone to talk about the experience of inhabiting this characters mindset, being sized up by a posse of prepubescents and why grown men cry when Stringer talks in a British accent.
You initially signed on because of director Cary Fukunaga, right?
That was a big part of the initial attraction, yeah. The man is an incredible filmmaker, but even more than thatIll put it this way: When you watch a film like this, on a subject like this, half of you is going, Child soldiers, might be a little bit HollywoodYou know, in order to get a film like this made, they probably had to Hollywood it up a bit and get really sentimental. And Cary doesnt do that. If youd seen his other movies, you knew thats not how he was going to go into this.
Theres bound to be a part of the Beasts audience who are used to seeing the type of movies you just described and will wonder, So when is the white person going to show up and guide us through this? Wheres the Kevin-Kline-from-Cry-Freedom character here?
[Laughs] Right?!? My parents are from West Africa, and the fact of the matter is, most of the screen images you see of Africa and the characters in those films feel like theyve been filtered through a very two-dimensional perspective. The movies essentially arent about Africa; theyre [in Californian accent] Hey, this is our African friend. Cary wanted none of that. He was determined to go after a sense of authenticity, of what its really like there. For the first 20 minutes or so, youre just watching a normal African kid live his life.
Which you need to make the rest of the film work.
[slams hands down on table] Ka-boom! You need to feel what this kid lost.
So how did those two-dimensional takes on the continent affect how you played Commandant?
It made me want to humanize him more. Cary and I spoke about this endlessly. There was a lot of Cary, Im not sure if I should do this. I cant make him another 2-D dictator type And his answer was, Weve seen that guy already. Now lets see the charismatic war commander. Lets see the guy that Agu sees as kind of hero, as a savior when he first meets him. Think about it, this kid is scared shitless, hes alone in the jungle, then this man comes and kneels down to him, eye to eye, and says, Im the group leader, whos going to be in my group? Whos going to be my strong boys?
The language Commandant useshe says, Agu, I saved your life. Did he? Really?!? Thats an interesting thing. Hes not saying the word kidnapped, its I just saved you. Youre going to be one of the greatest soldiers in the world. Come on! You want a gun like this? Lets go. Hes almost like an Eagle Scout leader!Theres a lot of real estate in the film to hate somebody, especially this guy. But anyone can play mustache-twiddling evil, you know? Its tougher to play someone like this as a human being. Because then you cant just dismiss that person. You have to confront him.
Most of the screen images of Africatheyve been filtered through a very two-dimensional perspective. The movies essentially arent about Africa; theyre [in Californian accent] Hey, this is our African friend.'
Hes not based on anyone in particular, is he?
I didnt want to specifically research these kind of men or base him on anyone at all, because that would have felt like mimicking. But I did look at the common denominators in dictator-type characters: What was the thread of all of these people? How are they so successful? How did Hitler manage to do what he did? I wanted to study and understand that, and it turns out that charisma and being a sociopath are interestingly linked.
Thats an odd Venn diagram.
Not as odd as youd think. Honestly, the biggest thing I learned is that, at some point, a child soldier decides that hes never going home and hes going to stay. He actively thinks, Okay, I want to be a child soldier. In fact, my character must have come from something similar in his life. But I dont think we could ever quite grasp that Stockholm Syndrome aspect. These kids could have run and they didnt. Why? Because they actually wanted to stay. You have a gun and youre powerful. Youre no longer scared or a victim.
Youre the one pulling the trigger now.
Its fucked up. Do you remember the naked man in the film? The guy walking beside me?
No.
Not many people remember this guy. Hes my right-hand man, in the film, and hes like a mascot who walks around mostly naked. His name, in real life, is Anointed. He comes from Liberia. And he was not just a child soldier who killed someone when he was 10, he was a real-life Commandant. He was part of the boot camp, training the extras for three weeks before I got there. And I was shit-scared of him. Why? Because he just had this look in his eyes like, I can kill you. You know, in the movies, youre like [in exaggerated villain voice] Ill get you all! With him, there was none of that shit. It was, [in African accent] No, man. I kill him, I cut his heart out, I eat it while its still beating. Ive done that before. And just like, simple as that. I mean, fucking hell! That was quite an eye-opener for me.
What was the experience of working with this young, nonprofessional cast like?
When I first got to the set, this kid whos in the film his real name is King Kong came up to me, and he just stood right under my chest, just looking at me. [Elba affects an aggressive pose] It was that moment of him saying, Oh, are you the leader? All right, let me see you lead then. All of these kids were watching us. Had I shown weakness or seemed tentative, I would have been eaten alive. And I literally was like, What are you looking at? Go on! and just sort of waved him on. And everyone went, Ohhhh, the Commandant is here! The leader is here now!
They were sizing you up!
Dude, yeah! Theres a pack of wolves and then this new, bugger wolf comes in. Hey man, were not actors. Were an army. Whos the captain? Oh, its you in the blue pants? Huh. Okay. Eventually, there was this group of kids we were called them the Stop Nonsense crew. The reason why they were called that is because when the other extras were just pissing about, the five guys around me would literally get up and go, [yelling] Hey! The fucking commander is here. Sit your ass down and get in line. Were about to shoot this. [Laughs] It was a real interesting dynamic.
When I saw this film at the Toronto Film Festival, the first thing someone asked me afterward was, How was Luther in it?
Ha! Really? [shakes his head]
Do you find that people are unwilling to let go of those roles like Stringer Bell and John Luther, even when youre doing something that feels like a complete 180-degree turn? Youre not the first actor to deal with this, obviously, but
Oh yeah, theres definitely a proportion of my fan base who would not see me or accept me as anything but Stringer Bell. Its the same thing with Luther in the U.K.; people are like, Youre John Luther. Why are you playing this other part? They just cant understand. If they ever seen me rapping in a video, theyre like, [yelling] What the fuck is this? Oh, thats Idris. Who? The guy who plays Luther? What is he doing? Wheres his coat? Literally, they own that character!
Its funny, Ill run into Wire fans theyre all different, but I mean, some of them are real hard guys. And Ill starttalking normally in an English accent, and they literally get tears in their eyes. [In angry American accent] Cmon, man! Whatwhats happening? What did you do with Stringer, bro?!? Where is he?!? Youre fucking English, bro. Youre not tough? [Laughs] So yeah, I do run that risk; people want the character they love. I had a little bit of hesitation around taking this role because of that, to be honest.
You were afraid that people would think you were really Commandant? I dont think fans would approach you if that were the case.
Are you really a pedophile African military dictator? I mean, does Daniel Day-Lewis have to put up with that?