Trevor Noah ： The Ugly Truth About Hollywood's Fragility ｜ Idris Elba

Less than 48 hours ago, I passed through London to come to Abu Dhabi. I've been doing some miles, bro. You really have? Yeah. Do you get to go to the lounge now? Yes! I mean, but no. You know, honestly, airports can be daunting. I'm not an anxious flyer, but the airports make me anxious. Are you being serious right now? Yeah, no, seriously. At airports, there's just too much going on. It feels so fragile. It's weird. You know, I would feel the calmest if I saw Idris Elba in an airport. I'm not even joking. Because you carry yourself in a way where I'd be like, man, everything's going bad. And I'd look and I'd be like, is that Idris Elba? Everything's going to be OK, yo. Everything's going to be OK. This is What Now? with Trevor Noah. You know, if you told me I would be in Abu Dhabi, just an hour away from Dubai, in a hotel room overlooking what seems like a beautiful bay, also combined with like, I don't know, an office block, speaking to Idris Elba, I would have said to you, this is probably a psychedelic dream that you're having. But that's exactly where I am. Chatting to Idris Elba in Abu Dhabi. Oh, yeah. Before we jump into everything, congratulations on the SAG Awards. That was beautiful. Oh. That was really beautiful. Coming from you? No, man, for real. That was really, really beautiful. It was funny. It was heartfelt. It was like a vibe. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up, hold up, hold up. Did you just tell me I was funny? You know that you're funny, though. No, bro. You know that you're funny. OK, so me and you having a laugh about Fufu or African stuff, you know, we laugh. Yeah, yeah. To stand up in front of the world like that and do what you do. I thought about you a lot, actually, because you have a very good way of commanding a room. Your comic timing is hilarious. You go off the cuff and come back onto script. I was thinking about Trevor. I was trying to channel it. No, man, you killed it. If you were channeling me, I now see me differently. I actually want to see my whole life channeled through Idris Elba now. If you're saying you were doing Trevor Noah, I'm like, damn. I was. No, man, for real. What was it like? I haven't seen you host before, by the way. Yeah, I don't… Actually, I wasn't meant to be hosting. They just gave me more segments than anyone else because I had won two awards one time. They duped me. They said, no, no, no, it's just a couple more links. I'm hosting. Yeah, you were hosting. It was a beautiful moment for me, man. I think, one, it was cool to see something different. Two, I loved the vibe in the room. Like, you know, acting is such a weird profession in that, from the outside, acting seems impervious to anything. You know what I mean? I'm sure you know what I mean by this. A lot of people out there will see you as an actor. They see anybody as an actor and they go, oh, what a great job. What a great life. It's perfect. Nothing affects you. You don't have the stress that a normal person has. And I noticed in the awards, you and other actors spent a lot of time talking about what it was like going through the strikes in Hollywood. What it was like having the industry shut down. And I wondered, like, do those moments make you re-realize the fragility of the industry you're in? 100%. Yeah. I mean, in terms of strikes, you know, in terms of workers' rights, because that's what it's all about, right? It's like we're workers, one way or another, of an industry. We're called actors, called superstars, called Hollywood, but we're workers. And the rights of those workers are fragile, especially in an industry that, you know, is dominated by a few. And what was interesting about that room is that, I mean, there was the biggest names in the film industry who all went through the same thing, you know, and it was a strike and it was crippling. I think for all of us, you know, all the actors in that room just realized that, you know, we're lucky to be working, lucky to have the industry that we have, and we have a union that actually really fought for some really important issues. Was there ever a moment in your life when you stopped… I mean, fear is the wrong word, but it's like… So maybe I'll try and explain this for people who aren't aware. A lot of people know that in acting, there's auditioning. A lot of people know that in acting, you don't know when you may get your next role, et cetera. But I think few people truly appreciate how unpredictable it is. You know, I wonder, has there ever been a moment in your career when you felt secure as Idris, where you're like, all right, no, I'm good now? Or is there always that thing, that shadow behind you going like, you never know, Idris, you never know. You know, it's interesting because when I did The Wire, okay, The Wire was a four-year explosion of my life. Before The Wire, I was literally penniless in New York City. And after The Wire, I was arguably one of the most famous black actors, at least in America, right? Because of my character, Stringer Bell. It was so celebrated. And at that time, leaving The Wire… Because I didn't know I was going to die. I didn't know my character was going to die. Wait, what do you mean you didn't know he was going to die? I didn't know my character was going to die until we got the episode. Wait, for real? Yeah, yeah. That's another story altogether. Damn. But it was tough love. But at that time, I was flying high. I mean, I could go anywhere. Like, people were comparing me to Dan's. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know? I was only third season in. Anyway, when it fell off very quickly, very suddenly, I remember thinking, oh, I'm good. I'm Stringer Bell. Yeah. And that was a tough pill to swallow. Although I did work. But it was not the same. You see, that's something I don't even think about. Just my character dying. When I'm doing a hosting gig, when I'm doing comedy, there's not even a moment where I think to myself, yep, someone might surprise me and tell me, hey Trevor, after the next ad break, you are no longer the host. There's a piano that's going to drop on your head and you're gone. Yeah. That's… It was a bit like this, you know. You usually get your scripts, you know, like two, three in a row. They write them. And I think the way I got it, I got episode seven. I was like, oh, episode seven. I got episode seven. Where's eight? Can I get eight? You're not in eight. What do you mean I'm not in eight? You should read it. That's how I kind of found out. I was like, wait. Stringer, Stringer, Stringer, Stringer. What? And it was crazy. It was like that. That's how I found out. And to your point, you know, it was scary. You have, I will say from the outside at least, one of the most amazing careers in that you've played everything. You play everyone. You exist everywhere doing everything. Some people want you to be Idris Elba, the action star. You know what I mean? But then some people go, man, Idris Elba can also be the vulnerable love interest. And then obviously, you know, you're in Avengers. You know, you're out there conquering Faust and the Furious, etc. I know that it wasn't easy. But I want to know how and why you thought you could play something more than the industry wanted you to play. Because if you're successful as a gangster, Hollywood goes you're a gangster. And it's not even like a negative thing. Hollywood just goes, we know that you can do this. So you can do this. You do this. You chose not to do that. Why? I think I learned early on the power of no. Like when I moved to America to become an actor there, my career in England wasn't bad. It was good. How old were you when you moved? I was probably about 25, 26 years old. Oh, damn. Okay. And there was this junction where I said, I'm not going to do what you want me to do in England. I'm going to say no. And I'm going to jump ship and go to America. And the power of no was my liberator. Because in England, there was this definite glass ceiling. You could see it coming. You know, it's like you're going to play one kind of role. And in England, it's a smaller market. Back then, going to America was like a what? You go, what? My guy, are you all right? Stay here. And so post The Wire, every role that came my way was all gangsters. Yeah. All of them. Films, television. And I had to say no. But I was okay with saying no, because I thought, no, I've got some range. I need to be able to show that range. And that was definitely, I don't know, like I said, it was a liberator for me to be in.