Idris Elba
Idris Elba

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.

Idris Elba
Idris Elba

I'm an ambitious person. I never consider myself in competition with anyone, and I'm not saying that from an arrogant standpoint, it's just that my journey started so, so long ago, and I'm still on it and I won't stand still.

Idris Elba
Idris Elba

I don't have a place that I call home at the moment because there's no point. I mean, I'm a traveling circus for a while. It's weird. Like, if I wanted to go home, there's nowhere to go. I just go to a hotel. But I've kind of gotten used to it.

Idris Elba
Idris Elba

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.

Idris Elba
Idris Elba

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

Idris Elba
Idris Elba

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
Idris Elba

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

Idris Elba
Idris Elba

I'm tactile, very tactile. A woman who has really nice, looked-after skin is such a turn-on for me. It's always sexy.

Idris Elba
Idris Elba

I think there's a tendency for actors like myself, and I don't mean to generalize myself, but I've played 'men's men,' if you will, characters that are simmering rage and calculated. There's a trend not to play anything that is opposed to that.

Idris Elba
Idris Elba

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

Idris Elba
Idris Elba

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.

Idris Elba
Idris Elba

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.

Idris Elba
Idris Elba

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.'

Idris Elba
Idris Elba

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.

Idris Elba
Idris Elba

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

Idris Elba
Idris Elba

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

Idris Elba
Idris Elba

People expect me to be that guy. But I'm more east London boy than east Baltimore.

Idris Elba
Idris Elba

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.

Idris Elba
Idris Elba

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!'

Idris Elba
Idris Elba

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.