"Idris Elba"
58:45 Share

Good morning, Sean. Good morning, Jason Bateman. Now, are you aware, not only have we made a cast change here, we've gotten rid of the Will Arnett, it's just you and me now, but we're also on a cooking show now. That is correct. We're going to do a six-can chili.

Yep. That's what we're doing with the six cans of chili. Well, we're going to do all the meat and all the veggies you can handle. We're going to triple the tomato sauce and we're going to put in four kinds of garlic. Did you know there's four different kinds of garlic? No. What are they? Can you name them quickly?

Garlic, garlicker, garlicky-er, and garlic-ness. I'm a big fan of garlic-ness. Yeah, it's going to have quite a kick to it. Yeah. And you're going to be, well, you're going to be busy in the restroom for a while with this. But, boy, it's a great weight loss tool. And welcome to Six Can Chili with Sean and Jason. Smart. Nice. ♪♪

Smart. Less. Smart. Less. So Sean was just saying how he's a little groggy this morning because he's still wearing his Oscar hair from last night, from his play. So he's...

He did not shower after a sweaty theater performance. Just climbed right in bed. No, I came home. Well, because I'm so fucking tired and I'm so hungry because I don't eat before the show. So I had a massive bowl of spaghetti and ice cream. And I think that's why I didn't sleep. And I'm exhausted today. They did a Raiders of the Lost Ark marathon. Was it last night or this morning? Last night. And because the AV guy was here all day too. And...

And it was here early and then I get up for that and then I had the show. Who cares? Anyway, who cares? Did you ask your AV guy to join you and Scotty for the marathon? Yeah. Yeah. Don't laugh like that's not something you would do.

Now, let me ask you about the Raiders marathon. My first question is why? Because the new one's coming out. Sure. You got to get ready, Will. Oh, so you got to get teed up? Yeah, yeah. I'm so excited. You got to have everything fresh so you can tap your neighbor in the theater next to you and go, do you remember in part three where they kind of laid some breadcrumbs for this moment? Oh, man.

I'm such a grouch. I'm such a grouch about this shit. I just realized that. I'm like, just don't say anything. I'm just such a grouch. You're going to go see the new Indiana Jones, right, Willie? You have to. Is the little boy in you dead?

Yeah. When did you kill the little boy? Our guest is laughing. Our guest is laughing. Here it is. So the guest is getting fucking impatient. So here we're going to go. You don't want to piss this guy off, okay? Because today we have our first world-famous DJ on the show. What? Okay? This music master is at the top of his game, spinning and scratching for the fabulous and the famous. He's going to tell us about his passion for music, his land speed record of 180 miles per hour in a Bentley, Will.

Are you serious? We're having a DJ? Yeah. That's great. Nice, Will. He is undefeated. He has an undefeated record in kickboxing. And his...

- This is a Bateman special. - His recent momentum has been found in a new passion for acting. And this momentum has come in the form of multiple nominations and wins for BAFTAs, Emmys, SAG, and Golden Globe Awards, as well as box office earnings for his films reaching well over $9 billion.

So he's got some nice speed going here with his new passion. He's got a lot of sound effects going on too. He's also one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the world and most importantly was recently named People's Sexiest Man Alive. All of this in one man and he's here to tell us how he does it. Please welcome DJ Big Driss, a.k.a. Idris Elba. No way! No way! Woo-hoo!

I was like, wait, what? Another classic Bateman intro. You guys had no guesses on that? Come on. No, that was so crazy. It does sound crazy. That's crazy. That cannot be me. How much of that was accurate, Idris? All of it, right?

Yeah, kind of. Well, you are undefeated in kickboxing, right? Yeah, I had one fight. Okay, well, you didn't lose. Undefeated. And you happen to be a pretty world-famous DJ. I led with, you know, that's sort of second to everything. That I knew. Yeah, but you know more as an actor. I did not know that. I did know that. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

The box office stuff is true and impressive. The awards, the nominations, the land speed record, it's all true. It's unbelievable. The land speed record. It's a little bit embarrassing, though, when you put it all in one. Because you're so good at everything? You hear it all in one package. It's like, who is this guy? Did you have a moment of like, who am I? That's why I was using the sound effects to make flatulent sounds to break it up a bit.

Wait, did you really race cars? Yeah. I did this documentary, which is about, you know, the need for speed and why human beings are into it. And somehow they talked me into trying to break a speed record on a beach in Wales called Penzance Beach.

And so Malcolm Campbell did it last. And the idea was to drive the fastest in one mile. So you drive as fast as you can. You get to the beginning of the one mile, and then you hit it for one mile and see how fast you get. It's like a flying lap. Yeah. It's the most stupid thing to do ever on a beach. Yeah, why would you do it on an inconsistent surface like a sandy beach?

Yeah, I don't care. I don't know why they do it at the salt flats in Utah either. How about a nice piece of asphalt? Yeah, so what happens on the beach, at 100 miles an hour, what happens is you start to hydroplane. You literally start to float.

And then 180 months. But you said, let's go ahead and go past that and do 180. Is that right? Yeah. God, 180. I've done 160, and it was really, really frightening. Yeah. That's not fun. What were you on? I mean, in. Sorry. I...

That was me and our friend Ben Silverman on the Autobahn in Germany in a rented Porsche. Still a friend? Perfect guy to have. You couldn't have somebody paying attention. This was a different Autobahn trip. I think this might have been, was this Will Adams? It might have been Willie Adams. Anyway, it's scary. But I highly recommend it. Let me just say right now for the listener who cares, Idris Elba right now has a...

U87 microphone, which is regarded as one of the, this is, as a guy who does this for a living, that is the Cadillac of microphones. I have one right above me here. Why aren't you using it? No, I don't have it. I've got it in its case. Why don't we get the benefit of that? I don't use it for this. I mean, he is because, I don't know. Yeah, because you know what? I did my own tech. Okay. So before you guys. Yeah.

Come in and grace us all. Usually the tech is done for 20 minutes and it's usually someone that's in here helping that out. But I chose to do it myself showing off. Yeah, sure. And I used my SM and then, you know, everyone was really impressed because we did the tech in five minutes. It was like, oh, what are we going to do? And then suddenly my interface for those who care started buzzing. So I had to change for the Cadillac of mics. Thank you for saying that. Oh, boy.

Oh, boy. And listen to how much nicer he sounds than you, Will. I know. He sounds amazing. Your voice, Will, is out there. Thank you. I mean, I'll take the compliment from you because I think you've got a tremendous voice. And I'm going to start here. Yes, he does. Idris, the first time I saw or became aware of you was in The Wire. And forgive me because I'm sure that you're beyond exhausted talking about it, but it's one of the...

if not the greatest television program ever made. And you in The Wire were absolutely, for me, just... It blew me away. And then to have like two seasons in, someone go, hey, you know that guy's English? And I'm like, wait. What? What the fuck? Right. Are you talking about... We're obsessed with Brits who can do incredible American accents. His is...

Is it difficult doing the American accent? That's our question. Well, I mean, it is, yeah. It is to come straight from England and just jump into an American accent and be specific is very difficult.

And, you know, I had been living in New York and New Jersey for about four years and auditioning like crazy. Really? And never getting the job. And I wasn't getting the jobs because my accent wasn't authentic enough. And it wasn't until I really understood and lived the culture that I could sort of pull off the accent. But here's the thing, and I'm going to say this is a bit controversial because...

You know, there has been over the last two decades this big wave of English actors come to the States and do pretty good sounding American accents, you know, and nail it.

And usually there's southern accents because southern accents and English accents are closer. So I was sort of part of the first wave of English actors doing pretty convincing American. But if you listen to it now, you're going to go, hmm, wait a second. Because you're hearing things that only now, because our ears are a little more tuned to English actors doing American accents, you can hear it, I think, when I watch The Wire or I watch an episode. I go, oh, my God.

I don't know how I got away with that. Really? No, I tell you what. I just watched recently the scene where you call all the— I forget what season it is. Maybe the third season. When you call all the families, all the guys together who are the dealers who are running Baltimore, and you're running that meeting, and you're running it like a business. It's amazing. Jason, I don't think you've seen The Wire. It's incredible. I saw the first couple many years ago. I've got to get back in it. And you do this scene where you're like—

where you got the kid in the corner and he's on a notepad and you go, motherfucker, are you taking notes of a criminal enterprise? But I was aware of it. This is just randomly, it's within the last week that I saw that scene again and watched it and was like, again, marveling at like, goddamn, that Idris Elba's got a good accent. Do you have a hack for the accent? Is there a certain word that drops you into the great spot you want to be in?

It's actually counting to ten and doing the vowels, A-E-I-O-U. Because when you do them, if you can flatten that out, then you can pretty much flatten a lot of different things. I bet you eight is a big one, right? Eight is fucking horrible. Eight. Well, the way we say it is to eight. Eight. I'm from Chicago, and when I go back, it's very...

How did The Wire come about? Now, that was Alexa Fogel cast that, did she not? Yes. Yeah, the great Alexa Fogel. So she saw in you something that we all got to know. So thank you, Alexa. Thank you, Alexa. Yeah, you know, when I was, I got to New York probably in, how am I going to say, 96, 97. That's when I moved there. And The Wire wasn't until 2000. So I got cast actually in 2000.

And I had been auditioning for years. I did maybe Law & Order. I did one episode of Law & Order. I did an off-Broadway version of Troilus and Cressida. I think you and I were in the same episode. Were we? No. And I couldn't get that much work. And Alexa Fogel was one of the casting directors that just kept bringing me back in and saying, you've got something, boy. I love what you do. And then when I got The Wire...

She told me, she said, listen, when you go for this, you know, the guys are not interested in anyone that's not either from Baltimore or East Coast. They're not even checking for guys from Chicago. No disrespect. And, you know, they're like, you need to go in there and just pretend you're from the East Coast. Don't be specific. Just do your thing. I said, all right, great. And at that point, you know, I'd been living there. I was practically doing that every day. Yeah.

So it was a breeze until the fourth audition. And there's a producer there who's an Irish guy, late great. I've forgotten his last name now. He sniffed you out. 100% sniffed me out. Really? It was like the fourth callback. I'm like, I've got this, man. I've got this. He's a dirty brat. And he was like, Idris, where are you from? Uh-oh. And it was that kind of, where are you from? Are you going to dare lie to us, motherfucker, or are you going to tell the truth? And I mean, I really paused and I was like, oh.

And I'm thinking about what Alexis said, please don't tell them, or they'll get fired, blah, blah, blah. I said, listen, I'm from England. I'm from East London. And the room exploded. They were like, I told you. I want my money. I was sitting there like, what's going on? No way. And so it excited them. And what did David Simon, yeah, was David Simon, how did he take it? Yeah, he was flabbergasted. He was flabbergasted. And it was then they said to me, well, listen, listen.

We want you to play Stringer Bell. Because I was auditioning for Avon, Avon Barksdale. Yeah. And I was like, Stringer Bell? Mm-hmm. And he had like two lines. Oh, no. In the pilot. I was like, mm-hmm, Stringer Bell. Okay, what character is that again? And he's like, you know, the guy that's next to Avon. I'm like, okay, yeah. Now, at this point, you know, you either do this HBO pilot or you do this.

Or you go back to England with your tail between your legs and that's like, I'll take it, whatever. Very nice. And then, so the period right after The Wire, were there, was it a waterfall of opportunities and offers or was it kind of slow growing? You know, it was a good time. You know, The Wire obviously,

The first audience impact was African Americans. Because The Wire grew. It wasn't a hit immediately for HBO.

And by the third season, you know, it was kind of fever pitch. I was like a ball player or a rapper. Wherever I went in African-American neighborhoods, I was huge. They loved me, right? You're like Stringer Bell. And so basically the roles that got offered to me in Waterfall were really sort of Stringer Bell type characters, you know, like gangsters. I got offered all of that. And I worked a lot with Will Packer.

Sure. Who at the time had a production company, was making films for the African-American market. And he gave me my first big lead role in a film. And it was, I think it was The Gospel. And from there...

I had this string of films that were in that market, a little bit here and there, some back home in England. But essentially, it was very much sort of the same type of characters. After The Wire, after even a big TV show, it wasn't like everyone wants to offer you jobs. They just wanted to see you play that character again, especially the Stringer Bell. No spoilers. You know what happens to Stringer Bell.

We know, I get that. I relate to that, that people want you to do the thing. They're like, do the thing. And I used to get that a lot. We're like, you know, act like an idiot more. We want to see you act like an idiot all the time. And they'd never seen Arrested Development. They were just like, this guy looks like he's pretty dumb. Yeah, they were just looking at my stupid face and they were like, be even dumber than you are. Even dumber. And then I took that over from Will.

So now are you DJing the whole time? So you're into music. I love this. You're playing music as well as DJing before, during, and currently, right? Like you've never stopped. Tell us about that and where that music passion came from. You know, I was 14 when I decided I really want to become an actor. But at that point, I had been DJing pretty much like 70. My uncle was a DJ.

And I used to DJ with him. He's, you know, African man, African weddings, African Christian. And where is this? What part of England? So I'm from East London, but, you know, the community of West Africans in London was sort of spread out South London, East London. So I used to, you know, go with my uncle and DJ. And basically, you know, whenever he got too drunk to finish the DJ set, I would just be up there just trying to finish up for him. And how old are you finishing up?

Dude, I started when I was about 12 and, you know, way into my teens. Standing on a box. Standing on a box. Actually, I was tall. I was a big kid. So, you know, and I had a beard by the time I was 13, so people just thought I was a... Wow. Sean, too. Sean, you took a beard to prom, right? Yep. Hey, did...

So when, so you were 14, you decided... I was like two seconds behind you on that. I caught it halfway through too. So you're 14, you're DJing, and then you're like what? You're like watching TV or you're doing, you're taking drama at school or what's going on that you go like, yeah, I want to do that. I went to a boys school, Trinity Boys. And, you know, this school was pretty rough. And, you know, it was really sort of sports and academia. Yeah.

But drama, I was good at sports. I was okay with academia, but drama, I was awesome at. And my drama teacher, Miss McPhee, she just thought I was very talented and thought there's something there. And, you know, in a boys' school, everyone just uses drama class to just piss about and have fun, right? But I took that shit seriously. I was like, I really love doing this. And she...

when it was time to you know do my finals exams and everything she was like Idris are you serious about at that time I was like no I'm going to be a radio DJ I wanted to play music on the radio that's what I wanted to do she's like okay that's good but you should not give up on acting you're very good and you know what I did in the last year I said actually miss I'm gonna all right tell me what to do and I'll do it so she enrolled me in the next stage which was a college course that

was specific about performing arts and I did that for two years. And then at that point, you know, I literally, I was 18 years old and I got my first job at 19. And that was it. Wow. Do you remember some of the stuff you were in high school? Like, were you in like classic, like plays and musicals that all high schools do? No, no. Our drama classes was more improvisational, you know. And a lot of Neil Simon. Yeah.

yeah that's what they all do i did i did play lenny in um of my cemento do you do do you know the plays um the foreigner or the nerd do you know those two places i don't know no thanks thanks so much for stopping by why sean what was your point

Because those are two very, very, very, very huge popular plays. For high school. Well, and beyond. And that guy, because Jason said Neil Simon, he was supposed to be like the next Neil Simon. Larry Shue wrote those plays, and they were massively huge successes. And his mom was my Spanish teacher in high school. Oh.

Oh, that. Oh, yes. Sorry, when you said that. Okay, yes. Yeah, you're a Spanish teacher as well, man, for sure. Thanks, Sean. All I want to talk about is Prometheus. Okay, go ahead. We're going to get to that. We're getting there. We're inching our way through his life. First job at 19, first professional job, like getting paid.

Yes, it was... First job was actually this little crazy commercial about getting your bike stolen. And I played a guy that got my bike stolen and ran up a hill and did a bit of acting. And then I got a TV show, which was a kid's TV show. I was 19, but I was playing someone that was 16. Oh, boy. That was part of the gag. I was just a bit big for school. But, yeah. But, you know, I wanted to go back. You know, I'm really the worst guy when it comes to, like...

Who wrote what, what was in what, like, you know. Yeah, yeah. You'll get along with Jason really well. Yeah, no. He doesn't remember anything about it. Yeah, I'm terrible. Jason, what did you do this morning? What did you have for breakfast this morning, Jason? Well, I'm still sort of picking it out of my teeth, so that's helpful. It's a little bit of oatmeal. He doesn't remember shit either. I appreciate that. But listen, the podcast is called Smartless. I came for the less. Yeah, sure. That's why we're here too. There's always less. Welcome to the party.

And we will be right back. And now back to the show. Now, what about, tell us while we're still on the DJ thing. Didn't you DJ for the Royal Wedding? Can you tell us a little bit about that and how that was? How that came about? Do you know what? It was a, I got, you know, Harry is a friend and I was DJing in all these kind of clubs that Harry would show up and he was like, yo, I was like, yo.

And then, you know, at one point he was like, listen, man, I'm getting married. I was like, yo, that's amazing. Because I want you to DJ. And this is, you know, we were just at this club. Did he ask for your card?

No, here's my number. He made a request. I was like, that'll take, oh, hey, man. Now, you've got this thing on Apple TV Plus called Hijack. This is an intense, I'm going to guess it takes place on a plane a little bit.

Yes. What gave it away for you? I don't know. I've just sort of done a little bit of research. Now, Sean would like to know, do you have any crazy stories on an airplane? He's basically good for any of the junket questions that you're probably used to answering. Those are my favorite. I have a great plane story. Tell me. Oh, please. Go ahead. Let's hear it, Sean. Idris, can you hold on one second? Sean. Sean.

This is your time. Okay. By the way, good at telling. It might be good. It might inspire all of you to tell your airplane stories. Me and my friend Raina, you all know Raina. We were going to England for the first time. I was going to London for the first time in my life. And we got on, what's the airplane? What's the brand? British Airways. British Airways. So we're in first class. We're like, oh my God, it's like first class, like a hotel, right? So we're like, let's get on the, let's get, um,

the time difference right away. So we took to Ambien and we're drinking wine. We just can't go to sleep because we're so excited that we're in first class on the way to England for the first time. And everybody in the cabin was completely flatbed sleeping, right? So I went around and came mere centimeters from everybody's mouth as they were sleeping. And I went and kissed every single passenger on... Air kissing. Air kissing.

Eric kissing, and we were crying laughing. Drunk on booze and pills. If anybody would have woken up. Cell phone footage of this at all? No. Before cell phones. Yeah. Oh, man. See? Yeah, but, you know, honestly, if you're in first class, or for anyone that's not been in first class, first class is, you know, if you have been and you happen to be up,

You're just really curious who else is in here. I do walk around. Now, do you guys have a fix for, I don't like to fall asleep on airplanes, although I do a lot, because you can't help but have your jaw fall open while you're sleeping because you're sitting up, right? That's right. What are you worried about? Just like bugs getting in? Well, it's just not a great look.

I've seen some people sleep with like a sweater over their head or something like that. Over their fat heads. Over their fat heads. Or maybe is that what those little neck pillows are for so it can kind of keep your jaw shut a little bit? No? First of all, first of all, Idris, this is... Sorry, Idris, can you hold on one more second? There's no way...

Who are you worried about seeing your jaw open? The stewardess on your fucking private plane? I don't fly private. Anybody with a cell phone. You know, it would be... Who? The pilot on his way back to use the bathroom when it's just you're the only passenger? Yeah.

What are you talking about? Nice try, celebrities. They're just like us. No, they're not. And what goes on up there in the front of the plane? Like, it seems like they're eating great anyway. Do you sleep well on the plane, Idris? Are you a good plane sleeper? Yeah, pretty decent. And I usually try, I do fall asleep in that time period between, you know, sitting down and taking off. Yeah.

So there's probably a bunch of pictures of me with my jaw open. Yeah. One time I was flying from Newark to Europe and I took an Ambien years ago. Took an Ambien as soon as we start taxing

I'm like, here we go. Put the Ambien in because I don't want to, you know, we haven't moved from the gate yet. I don't want to get caught in that thing of like something's wrong and then now you're on Ambien. We take off. The seat won't go back. It's locked. It's broken. So I like, ding, ding, and I get the flight and she comes to help me and these two, it was a Scandinavian, these two Scandinavian...

Flight attendants, they came and they just like took my seat apart and manually put it back. Meanwhile, I'm in the aisle and the Ambien's kicking in and I feel fucking crazy. I'm like, have you ever been awake on Ambien before? It's a nightmare. It's not fun. Well, you know, listen, I don't condone or take drugs. And when you say Ambien, I kept thinking you were saying...

Amblin as in yeah Steven Spielberg Steven Spielberg just a little piece not that you no no okay no yeah yeah no so I watch I watch all the Amblin movies and those movies Ambien has produced incredible is that bad yeah that's what I was yeah it was how old how old were you when you came from England to the States I was

27, probably. 27. And dumb, dumb question. Yeah. Because I'm obsessed with people's first impressions of the United States. What were the first things that were like, God, this is fucking weird being here. You go right into New York? I went straight into New York. When I moved to New York, I was 27. When the first time I got to New York was 20. I was 20 years old.

And I had just finished this two-year performing arts course doing everything. And in that time period, I learned about the Lee Strasberg Institution that lived in 14th Street from New York. Acting school. Yep. Strasberg Acting School. And I decided to go there.

And, you know, I sort of lived in New York for six weeks, practically in a YMCA around 14th Street, Union Square. In 1990? Yeah.

Uh, yep. 91, roughly. How in the world? Idris, I was there at that same time. Serious? At the school? At Lee Strasberg? Lee Strasberg, yeah. No way. No way. Yeah. Are you serious? I swear to God. Wow. Did you guys see each other? Clearly you didn't. I know. Well, here's the thing. Here's the thing. I didn't realize that you needed a visa to get in. So I had gone over there.

Thinking I could just be like, hey, I'm here. Do you mind if I just pay? And they were like, no, buddy. You need a visa, a student visa to be here. So I ended up staying in New York for six weeks.

And the first thing that struck me wasn't weird. It was just that it's food obsessed, like food everywhere. Like, you know, I used to go to a place called the Coffee Shop, which is a little spot where you can go to. It's great, right? You remember this one? Yeah, right across the Union Square. Yeah, and the food was amazing, you know, and for no money too. It's just like, wow. I was just like, this is crazy.

So when you go back to England now, did you notice a difference in the food? Like, are you like, you miss American food or no? No, I lived in America for 16 years and coming back to England, I guess the variety is just not as good. You know what I mean? The variety in America was just like... Yeah, there's so much of it. There's so much, but there's almost... It's an interesting point. It is, we are sort of food obsessed in that sort of...

But it's a very American idea, right? It's just like more and more and more, bigger and more. And they're constantly advertising gutted in your face and stuff, and it's not like that. Yeah. It's very, if you like food, it's great because the variety is there. Yeah, there's like seven different sizes of Cheez-It boxes. I always get the biggest one. Is there, Sean? Yeah. Are there? What's a Cheez-It?

Jesus, some coal and cement. Hey, Idris, are you in England now? I am. I'm in London. All right. Now, do you love going back there and working? Like Luther you guys shot in England. Okay, I want to get into Luther. When did you do the first series of Luther? Fuck, dude, Luther is so excellent. When was that first series, man?

First series was 2011, roughly. And this was at the sort of end of my American journey. Like, you know, I'd been there for 16 years, roughly about that point. And I was just seeing this glass ceiling hit me in the head, you know. I had worked, was, you know, adored, respected. I love America. I had a great time. I lived in LA. I lived in Miami. I lived in Atlanta. I lived everywhere. And I just could see that actually...

There was something missing in my career that maybe if I went home, I could sort of patch up, and that was theatre. And I wanted to go back to the theatre. I didn't want to do it in New York. I wanted to go back to the theatre. And while that was happening, while I was making that decision, then the script came along, and it was Luther. And I was like...

You know, the BBC, first of all, you know, being in a lead on the BBC was like a big deal. And I hadn't ever done that in my career because I spent most of it in England. I mean, America. So it was a really big deal to be offered a lead role in a big six-part drama about a detective. You know what I'm saying? I mean, it was literally that, oh, this is great. I'll take this. And that was the beginning of the second half of my career, I guess, you know, at that point.

And that was, I mean, for me, that was one of those, and I was already a big fan of yours. So I was in when I saw you, uh, that you were doing this thing. I wanted to watch it. And, uh,

And then watching it, it was so, kind of so blown away by it. And also you're doing it with the great Paul McGann as well, whom I adore. My favorite film of all time, of course, is Withnail. And seeing Paul do that with you. You know what was crazy about working back in England was that I had to do an English accent. Right?

I had to just play an English character. And, you know, Luther's London, kind of like, you know, this kid that his dad was in the army, so he traveled a bit, whatever. But I couldn't really let go of my Americanisms. Wow. And everyone was like... And the people in the crew that thought that Stringer Bell was American were saying to me, your English accent's not bad.

That's hysterical. That's funny. And I was home. I was like, yeah, no, it's not an accent, man. I'm English. Like, you're English? Fuck that way. Anyway. Now, how do you like the big, big difference between the grind, the workload of being a lead in a drama, a one-hour drama where you're in every scene working 12-hour days versus –

the big huge budget films that you've done where there's tons and tons of action where you might only shoot maybe like a half a page

like the course of like two days. You know, where you're kind of sitting around a lot waiting for effects to set up or stunts to set up. What's your preference? Or do you like to just kind of do half and half? I mean, I'm on a film at the moment, which is very big, huge setups. You know, we shoot maybe two. What is it? It's a film called The Heads of State. Yeah. Heads of State. I play the British Prime Minister and John Cena plays... Okay, guys. Do you...

The American president. President. Yeah. Okay. Stay with me. And it's a big action comedy and it's kind of like, you know, very big cumbersome setups, slow, right? Yeah.

And to your point, you know, Jay, I come from TV backgrounds. We shoot very quickly. We move quickly. And we try to achieve the impossible very quickly. And I love the pacing of that. I really do. I enjoy it. You've got to be good fast, right? You can't be good on take four. You've got to be good on take one. You've got to be good fast. And I think there's a real sort of...

satisfaction to that pacing. But of course, you know, the big films allow you to really dig in and do something incredible, you know, on budgets that are, you know...

It's a weird, it is a weird thing. I remember that first time doing a big budget film and doing, Jay, to your point, like coming in and doing like a, you know, maybe an eighth of a page or something on some big setup for the day. And there's one line. You and me and the other person in the scene had one line each. We just had this, I said something, then she said something back to me. And they're like, yeah, this is really good. We feel really good talking to the director and the producer. It's like, we got a great day and we're going to get this thing and...

You know, we should just talk about the script, you know, talk about it. I go, the two lines?

What are you talking about? Like, okay, we don't need to have much of a conversation. You guys just want to run that a few times or workshop it? Yeah, what the fuck are we talking about? And, like, to your point, Idris, as you know, you're making HBO, and both you guys know as well, you're going, like, you work on shows where sometimes you do nine, ten pages a day where you're running and gunning, man. Right, right, right. I like that. Now, you're enjoying directing lately as well, too, right? And are you...

Are you enjoying bigger scale things, smaller scale things? What type of directing are you excited about right now? I directed a bunch of small scale things like music videos and short content, small type things, okay? A little bit of TV.

And that was the beginning. And, you know, I just enjoy the process of just, you know, being given a music video. I did a music video for the Mumford & Sons, for example. I starred in it. I wrote the treatment. I sent it to them. They said yes. I pulled together the budget. I love it. Wait, Jason was it? Wasn't that the one you were in, Jay? What, for the Mumford & Sons? Yeah. Yeah, me and Will Forte and Jason Sudeikis and Ed Helms played the band members. Isn't that wild? And it was like a comedic sort of Western type of thing. Yeah, it was fun.

Guys, you know, my wife and I have this big crush on Jason Bateman. And, you know, we've talked about this a lot. Wow.

And, you know, we met him at a party and we tried to do Jason Bateman impressions in front of Jason Bateman. It was embarrassing. But my wife was like, dude, you have a massive crush on him. I was like, ah, no, I just like the guy. And now, and now. Show him your back tat. Show him the tattoo on your back. Okay. It's on my bum, actually. And now we was in a Mumford & Sons video. Mumford & Sons? I know. This has just upped the ante. I know. It really has. Oh, my God.

Now, does your impression of Jason, does it sound a lot like a modem from the 90s? Yeah. Or just a dial tone. Robot.

Jason, that's cute. Did you know that Idris had a... It's not cute. We have met a few times, and he's a very, very nice man. This is a nice man. I love that. I didn't know that. With incredible taste. You're reaching there, Will. Reaching. I love you too, by the way. No, no, no. I'm trying to get him to react. Robots don't react.

- Yeah, you could have seen his face. - Can I ask you two nerd questions? I'm a massive Aliens fan and I love you and Prometheus. - Thank you very much. - And were you a fan of the Alien franchise before? What was it like working with Ridley Scott and being on those sets which were just so massive?

And amazing. Yes, I was a massive fan of Aliens. I wouldn't say like fanatic. I didn't know, you know, the whole, but I loved the film. Because I do. Really? Okay. I know everything about Aliens. I'm going to disappoint you then. But I was a big fan of Ridley. I have and still am. And I'm trying to remember, but I'd worked with Ridley on American Gangster. And I'm...

He asked me to play a small part in American Gangster, and then I got Prometheus, which is a slightly bigger part, but that was my second time working with him. Prometheus was, I mean, you know, it was just like the scale of it was bonkers. And Ridley's very much an actuality guy. This is just before the sort of like, you know,

This sort of virtual production, you know. Right, right. Right, productions. Yeah, because I saw a photo of the set. It's just unbelievably massive. Well, that stuff was made. You mean like before the thing where they do the projection wall that we talked about with... Yes, yes.

With Favreau. Favreau, yeah. That style of production has taken over, and that's fair enough. But Prometheus and Aliens, they built these sets, you know what I mean? Obviously, and Prometheus was amazing. And I remember the guy at the end, you know, the big white alien. Spoiler alert.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, keep going. I love it. You know, I don't need to keep going because you know. So no wire, no Prometheus. Don't need to see those. Sean, tell us what happens in the scene. So the thing comes out and it's like, wow, it's from space. Yeah, and the guy's like, yeah. By the way, do you know how that, the engineer? Tell them how they did it. By the way, Idris, did you know that according to my calculations, I...

Yeah, Sean, I do know that that engineer, the actual man, that engineer in real life is about eight foot tall. Wow. In real life. And you know what he's based on? They designed it based on, partly designed based on the Statue of Liberty. Oh, yes. The symmetry of the face. I know this. How did you ever land, Scotty? How did you ever get there? Yeah, what are you...

Now, you know, Idris and I have been in a film together. Did you guys know that? No. What is it? What are you talking about? It's called Zootopia, where he used his incredible golden pipes to voice the character of Idris. Captain Bogo, actually. Captain Bogo. He was a panther or tiger? No.

Neither. Yeah. Oh, no, the water buffalo. Water buffalo. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Can you please tell me it's been rumored that you're going to be in the new Star Wars movie? Can you please tell me if that's true? You can't speak about that. No, I'm not in it, no. No, I'm... Really? There's a rumor? Why? Because there's rumors that you're going to be in the new Star Wars movie. That's journalism, Sean. No, not at all. Who started the rumors, Scotty?

I just started it now. You started, you won. According to the message boards that I started. On my Reddit. I did read that. I did read that a couple of places, but you may be coy about it, but who knows? I don't know. We'll be right back. And now back to the show.

If you could have tickets to any concert tomorrow, what would they be? Who would they be for? Who's rocking your world right now? Any concert right now? Besides Taylor Swift? Besides Taylor Swift. Okay. Can it be anyone? Dead or Alive? Yeah, yeah. Doesn't matter.

Okay, so first of all, in England right now, there's this sort of production of ABBA. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I've heard about this, that it's great. Apparently it's incredible. And I haven't had a chance to do it, and I want to do it, because it's a marvel. There's holograms and, you know, just incredible. And that would be a real... I love music, so that would be great. Are you an ABBA fan? Hmm? Are you an ABBA fan? Tell me. LAUGHTER

That's about as kind a yeah as you can give us. What an endorsement. What an endorsement. No, hold on, hold on. Listen, I am, but I mean, I don't know every word. I just, you know, everyone loves a little bit of ABBA. Yeah, for sure. I DJ at weddings, as you know, so ABBA always works. Yeah.

Wait, didn't they do that movie at Universal about ABBA? Wasn't it? Mamma Mia. Mamma Mia. That's about ABBA, right? Yeah, based on the musical. It's based on a song that ABBA sung, and then they made them. And then, yeah. They made two of those, I think. They called the second one. I'm just curious.

What did they call it? It was called... Daddy Mia. Here We Go Again. Daddy Mia? Here We Go Again? Here We Go Again. That's pretty good. But it said more like, Here We Go Again. That's kind. That's kind.

I actually like it. I like it. Pierce Brosnan sends his love. I love that dude. Speaking of Pierce Brosnan, former 007. No, don't do it. Come on, please. I know. Was that annoying? What I want to know is, because there was all those rumors forever that Idris was going to play James Bond.

What I want to ask you... Who is? There were lots of rumors that Idris was going to be James Bond. Yes, I remember that. For years and years and years. Yeah, I heard that. Good choice. So, amazing. And so my question is this. Did you... Was that process so fucking annoying, dealing with everybody asking you every two seconds? Um...

No. Annoying would be, you know, being asked about it over and over again on different podcasts while promoting Hijack that we've never spoken about. Wait a second. Let's go. We are going to speak about it. No, I want to ask you about the process of being asked about it. Yeah, yeah. The truth is, man, I was super complimented for a long time about this. I was like, you know,

what? This is crazy. Because James Bond, we're all actors and we understand that that role is one of those sort of coveted type, you know, it's like being named sexiest man. Also annoying, right? God, how annoying. I'm so sick of it. Sorry about that. But being asked to be James Bond was like, okay,

you know, you've sort of reached the pinnacle, you know, that's kind of one of these things that the whole world sort of has a vote in. And, you know, essentially, it was a huge sort of compliment that every corner of the world, except for some corners, which we will not talk about, were really happy about the idea that I could be considered. Those that weren't,

happy about the idea made the whole thing disgusting and off-putting, you know, because it became about race and it became about just nonsense, dude. And I got the brunt of it. That's fucking bullshit. Who did get it? Who's playing James Bond right now? Who is it? Nobody now, right? They haven't decided? Yeah, they haven't. Oh, gotcha. All right. Who are you texting, Jason? Are you texting your agent? That's crazy. If you think for a fucking...

But Idris is not available to play James Bond because he's going to be busy doing Hijack 2. No, but Hijack is going to be so good. It is good. Recently out on Apple. The smoothest transition. I can't wait to see it. I mean, right? He's also an executive producer on it. Now, as an executive producer...

Are you talking about Hijack that's out right now? Yeah, yeah, on Apple. Have you not seen it? Yeah. Come on. Yes, stream it now. No, I'm going to see it. It's called Hijack. He plays a steward, right? A male flight attendant on it. No, I don't. Wow. Give me a second. Hey, you know, there's this app that you can apply to your moving camera and it makes your eyes look like it's looking at the screen. Yeah.

But actually, it's reading. I need to get one of those. So you can research and speak at the same time without people watching you know. We don't do any of that stuff. This is incredible. This is a smartless chat and giggle. Now, what do you play in Hijack? Are you helping or are you hurting on Hijack? So I play... I play...

I play a male prostitute who... Wow. So you're helping. Busy. There you go. No, I play a guy called Sam Nelson who works in Dubai or is working in Dubai.

He's a business closer. He kind of, you know, does the last minute finalities on a merger. He's married, but he and his wife are going through some crazy and he decides to get on a plane to go home to sort it out. Okay. He abandons the business. You don't see any of that, but you learn it later. And on the plane, basically, there's a hijack.

And he's so desperate to get home because his marriage has fallen apart that he decides it's a good idea to use his business negotiation closing skills to basically figure out who this cell of hijackers are.

And he decides to do it literally by brain power, by trying to wear them down with personality and talking and asking questions and just getting under the skin, and that's what happens. Nice. Instead of using your fists, Will. That's what we do on screen. Will, if you just talk to people and you're nice to people instead of punching people, you can get things. And the show's great because it's like in real time. So it's seven episodes and it happens each hour. Oh, really? Oh, that's cool. Oh, man. That's really cool. Yeah.

I love that. Wait, now, I also remember hearing something about you starting a marketing agency. Is that true? Yeah. You're getting any of that, right? That's right. Why? We just announced that, actually. Why? Oh, you did? I read it somewhere, like, recently. Why and what's exciting about it? Okay, so...

We, Mark Boyan, who is a very successful and owns a very successful marketing company called Maroma. And Maroma and I have worked together to create a company called Silly Face. Silly Face is a marketing agency which is, I guess, designed to sort of find ways to inject, put, reignite fun back into marketing. Okay, now look,

I'm a guy, as you read my introduction, I'm intersectional. You can say that about me. And I think that in this day and age of really smart consumers and brands wanting to be intersectional and trying to do different things, there's a misconnect. Consumers are like, really, dog? You're Mars chocolate. Why are you trying to sell me music? And that whole...

you know, intersectionality needs navigating, needs, you know, and I honestly, I find myself in a situation where I can actually speak on this quite intelligently that I think it's okay for people to try different things. I think it's okay for, you know, I don't know,

to want to reach out in different areas and try different ways to reach new audiences. But I think it needs to be done with integrity and smart. I think storytelling is at the heart of it. You know what I mean? I didn't come here with a marketing degree. I'm a storyteller. And I tell many different stories. So as you read me, oh, so you kickboxed. Okay, yeah, I can talk about it intelligently. It doesn't make it inauthentic that I did it. But, you know, the story is that I did it. Here's my reasons why. So if a brand is at this junction where they're like, hey,

I want to market into a new area. I'm not sure who to go to. You can go to many marketing companies. The world doesn't need a new one. However, Mark and I have this sort of philosophy around trying to do it in a way that makes sense for the consumer as well as it does for the brand.

You know what I'm saying? That's cool. Now, were you always super motivated when you were a kid? Like, were your parents, did they tell you early on, like, you got to go out there and get what you want? Because it seems like you just, you have no quit in you. I love that. Great work ethic, yeah? I think the answer is yes, if I'm really honest. Pardon the overshare, but my mom, you know, she tried for children for a while. And it was hard. It was really hard. I came along...

and she was like, and I think she just, I guess she carried this little bit of sort of, you know, sense for the children that she didn't manage to bear and just wanted me to be the best I could be and win and go and go and go. And it wasn't like she was out there. She's always telling me, you should relax. Why are you doing so much? But she also just said, you know, my man, like, you know, we're here and then we're not here. So do what you want and go for it. You know what I'm saying? Absolutely, 100%.

I don't know how that transferred into a work ethic. I haven't always, I'm an only child, so number one, I was always sort of like using my imagination way more than any of my friends I knew. I just had the imagination. I just kept going, like, oh, what if we did this? And whenever I would play out as a kid, you know, go out to play with my friends, whether it was outside, I'd always be the one that's like, do we have to go home now? We don't have to go home. Let's stay out. Let's stay out. Because I didn't have siblings, and so...

I think that transferred to basically a place where, as an artist, and here's the thing, guys, you know this, right? We, as actors, are so, like, spoiled. We are privileged. We get offered so much that it takes many people years to get business opportunities, you know, conversations. I'm sitting down with the likes of you guys. Sorry about that.

No, but I mean, it's not an everyday privilege. You've got to touch bottom before you can push up and hit the top. We promise this will be your bottom. But trust me when I say from my perspective to come on here and speak to you guys who, you know, I respect so much, that's a privilege. And to take advantage of that,

is something that I think is just kind of like why I find myself taking advantage of an opportunity all the time. So I DJ. I love DJing. I love DJing. So someone says to me, hey, you want to do the Royal Wedding? Yeah. Yeah, of course. Why not? Tell the story. So trust me, but I'm not one of these people that just needs to be famous or wants to be famous or just needs to do things just for like...

Most of the things that I really, really do, I don't really ever hit the news headlines and I prefer that. However, it is what it is. Yeah, I've noticed that about you. You're a massive star and you do not lean into it. You don't see a lot of pictures of you out, you know,

movie premieres and cutting ribbons and, you know, lighting your hair on fire and saying, look at me, I'm famous. You just work constantly at the highest level with great people on great projects and you're just doing your work and the fame just comes with that. Yeah? I take that observation. I appreciate that. I think I'd say that, you know, longevity. Yeah. That's the goal. That's the goal, you know, and I think people can get exhausted sometimes.

Especially with someone like me that's like, "Oh, you're in a rap video now? What the fuck?" You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, people can get exhausted. I think I've exhausted the three of you today already. No, you have not. No. Oh, my God. Are you kidding me? What are you talking about? No, I'm serious. I know I have. But the truth is, like, if you, you know, I think people tend to find, especially now these days where we're all sort of, you know, sort of addicted to social media and wanting to feed the engine. We were talking about press junkets earlier. I mean, those things are resentless these days. They want to know everything, everything about you. So...

I just prefer to say less and then when I have to say, I speak. How old are your kids? Are they looking to get into this business at all? Yeah, I have a nine-year-old, a 21-year-old and a 30-year-old. And my 30-year-old, he's an actor and he wants to grow in that space. My 21-year-old is in NYU studying film. Nice, yeah. Wow, this is great. And my nine-year-old wants to be a gamer. That's great.

Yeah? Okay. Uh-huh. That was a profession not available to the 30-year-old and the 21-year-old, right? Yeah. Or us. Yeah, although it's probably... Don't they make more money on video games than they do in the movie industry? Yeah. Right? Isn't like Call of Duty and that stuff? It's been a while now. Yeah, yeah. All those big game titles will far outpace...

One of those successful games, I think it was Call of Duty a few years ago, made more money than all the studios made combined. Call of Duty. Good Lord. Mm-hmm.

Idris, we're 11 minutes over our commitment to you. We have tapped you. We're very sorry. We owe you 11 minutes in your life. I'm happy to serve it back to you if you come back out to L.A. anytime soon. 100% I'd love to. Do you guys do a live version of this on camera? We have done. We did that a year ago. We did a tour.

And we may do it again. We're thinking about maybe doing it in Europe one of these days. But if we do, we're booking you in London. Yeah, we filmed it. It's a doc that's out on Max right now. Sick. And you know, if you want any merchandise, let's give them the merchandise address, Sean. Yeah, guys, let's send them some merch. No, no, no. You know what? Let's send them a hat. Let's send them one hat. Let's for sure send Idris a hat. Idris, thank you for being with us, my friend. Can't wait to see you again. The great Idris Elba. Yes. The great fan.

So great to meet you. Thank you very much. Thanks so much, guys. I had a great time. Listener, I hope you can see the smile. Thank you, man. What a pleasure. Look at that. All right. Enjoy your dinner. Here comes dinner time over there, right? Pretty soon. I appreciate you guys. It was a lot of fun. Thank you, pal. Good to see you. Thanks, pal. Cheers. Bye. Good night. All right. See you later.

Now, Idris Elba. That's a man. That's a man. Okay? That's a giant, tall man. He's a very big man. I met him once briefly. I didn't want to bring it up because there's a really good chance he didn't remember. So I just didn't want to embarrass myself. Yeah. That was pretty cool, though. You weren't the guy that he beat up in his kickboxing match, were you?

I'm not surprised that he's undefeated there. No, me neither. Yeah, he's a big dude. And I'm saying like he was in that video where he's the guy who gets his bike stolen. Who the fuck would steal Idris Elba's bike? Good luck. A dumb criminal. I think the song was called Dumb Criminal. Yeah, yeah.

But he's a hero of mine, that guy. So good. And Willie sounds like you've been following him for quite some time. Who, me? Yeah. Oh, I'm a fan. You're a big fan, yeah? I'm a massive fan of his. I think he's a fan. I'm going to jump back into the wire, damn it. I know. He's been in like, you know, Thor and like a bunch of like. And like literally, I feel like every girl I know has a crush on him. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, Suicide Squad and Fast and Furious. And I mean, we didn't talk about his part in The Office.

He did some office work, it says here on Wikipedia. He's also like the fact that he did a marketing company, like he's all over-- it's incredible. It's very impressive. It is impressive. He's just like doing like a million things. That's what I said when I was like, "We're not doing enough." No, you're not. You're really not. My favorite line of this whole episode was Jason calling Cheez-Its "Colin cement." I know, I know. In a fun color.

In bite-sized pieces. They're not. Colon cement. Cheez-Its are great. They are great. To our friends at Cheez-Its, thank you. Yeah, you get a bowl of Cheez-Its when you watch a movie like that. That's my popcorn. Is it really? Yeah, I love it. I love it. It's not popcorn. It's not. No, it's not. That also will back you up quite a bit, popcorn. Popcorn will, yeah, for sure. You know what? I just read popcorn's not great for you. Why? No, it'll build a plug.

Really? I was just reading about it. Yeah. Okay. Idris Elba is in a movie called Hijack. I think he's trying to get to his bi. I am. Here it comes. Right. It's Hijack. And his character, he told us, was working in Do I? I actually wrote it down so I wouldn't forget it. Smart. Worse.

SmartLess is 100% organic and artisanally handcrafted by Michael Grant Terry, Rob Armjarv, and Bennett Barbico.

If you like SmartList, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.