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• Q & A with Mr. Elba
• Daddy's Little Girls
• The Reaping
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Tavis: Idris Elba is a talented actor who received high marks for his role on the acclaimed HBO series “The Wire.” He has two new films out in the coming months, including “The Reaping” with Hilary Swank, and next week you can catch him in the new Tyler Perry film “Daddy's Little Girl.” The movie opens on February fourteenth. Here now, a scene from “Daddy's Little Girl.”

[Clip]

Tavis: Ouch. A mouth like your mama (laugh). Why you putting all our business out there? That was cute. Kids, man, kids. You enjoy doing this with all these kids?

Idris Elba: Oh, man, it was great. They were such a good, they had great energy. The girls are lovely. They had really raised nice, good spirit about them. I loved it. I loved it. They used to call me Film Daddy.

Tavis: Film Daddy.

Elba: They had their real daddy on their set, and they had me.

Tavis: Film Daddy.

Elba: They said, “No, Daddy?” “Which one?” “Film Daddy. (Laugh) Could we get some candy?” Yeah.

Tavis: Before I get into your work, which is fascinating, tell me about this name, Idris Elba. It’s quite ... not that Tavis isn't, but Idris Elba is a lot more interesting and fascinating. Tell me about your name.

Elba: Actually, Idris is short for Idrisa, which is…

Tavis: Idrisa.

Elba: Idrisa, which is a Sierra Leonian name. I've never, ever told anyone that before in public, but Idrisa is my name, and it’s a Sierra Leonian name. But Idris is commonly a northern African name. I want to say from Liberia. It’s also an Indian name, but they spell it differently, Idris. (sp?) And it’s a Welsh name. And there's a mountain in Wales called the Idris, Caer Idris, yeah.

Tavis: This accent, so you're not from around these parts.

Elba: Not from these parts, no, (laugh) I'm from east London parts.

Tavis: East London parts. And that experience for a brother is what, growing up?

Elba: Not too dissimilar from my experience living in New York when I first arrived here. London is a great city, it’s huge, a metropolis. There’s Afro-Caribbean community there. And my best years were in London. I can't front on that. I love London, I love going back home. Especially I love living here now. I live here now, I stay in New York, and I love to go back to London to compare. It’s an interesting thing.

Tavis: And what do you take note of in your comparisons? Your comparison and contrasts?

Elba: America’s so much bigger than England. America, everything about America is bigger, from the infrastructure to the personality types. So when I get back home, I'm always ... I'm a bigger version of myself (laugh). And so my boys have to be, like, oh, mate, dude? You're not in New York now. Chill out.

Tavis: Yeah, bring it down (laugh).

Elba: Chill out. You're talking too loud here, you're too confident right now (laugh).

Tavis: Everybody that leaves New York has that experience, you walk out talking too loud and being overconfident, but I love New York anyway.

Elba: Exactly, exactly, so.

Tavis: Tell me about “Daddy's Little Girl.” This is a ... first of all, for those who don't know Tyler Perry, that last movie he did was a huge success. And he surprised a lot of people with what he’s been able to do in the Black film genre. And now, “Daddy's Little Girl.” So tell me about the storyline.

Elba: The story is an untypical story. This is a character, a man that lives in a community, he loves his community. He comes from a relationship with a high school girlfriend. They have three children from that relationship. And obviously, they go their separate ways, and he looks after the kids, with the assistance of her grandma.

Early on in the film, the grandma passes, and the kids are on his hands. So, in order to look after his kids, he takes on a side job, and basically what happens is he ends up in a situation where his kids, the Social Securities are, like, we’re concerned for your kids, we’re gonna give them back to their mom. And so the story takes off into his fight for his children.

He meets Gabrielle Union who is a lawyer that, one of the jobs that he takes on as a side hustle is a driver. And he drives a high-profile lawyer, which is Gabrielle Union, and he ends up falling in love with her. He also asks her to represent him, and which she volunteers, in the end, to represent him and his case for his kids. It’s an interesting story.

It’s definitely a twist. We’ve seen a film where a woman has her three kids, she’s in the hood and she’s struggling. And this particular story, it’s a man and his three kids. He’s struggling, and falls in love with a high-powered woman.

Tavis: I assume, knowing Tyler as I do, he’s trying to make some statements about Black men, about fatherhood, what’s your take on that?

Elba: Absolutely. And that’s something that we had discussed at length when we were rehearsing. He wants to tell and change some perceptions that are out there. He definitely wanted to challenge the stereotype that Black men don't look after their children. And I embrace that. I'm a father, I look after my daughter, and I know 10 men right now that I could name that look after their children.

So that was something that he wanted to challenge, and we did. There was the issue that Black women can’t find a man now. And Tyler raised that up, and that was Gabrielle’s point of view. Her character’s point of view. And that was a big part of the film. And then there was the kids, the children. What is it like to be raised in a single-parent family? What’s that like? What is that experience about? So there was definitely some, Tyler had some specific ideas he wanted to get out there.

Tavis: Is this what you ... you’ve done so many other characters in your career. Is this what you aspire to, this leading man role? And I ask that only because, not to put you on the spot, but do you aspire to the leading man role, or do you like this character acting thing, 'cause from “The Wire” and other things, you’ve done that character thing, as well.

Elba: I really enjoy being a character actor, for sure. I think the leading man thing limits the type of roles I'm allowed to play, and also the type of ... when people see me and understand me, and like I said, this is one of the first interviews that people are gonna see me as me, you start to get oh, wait a second, scrutiny. Because wait a second, you're a leading man, you have a British accent.

Are we gonna believe you now when you start playing? So, I prefer to go with the character roles, where you can have more range. Challenging. It’s more challenging.

Tavis: You mentioned a moment ago, as you said to me when you came on the set, this is one of the first interviews like this you have done. These sit-down, one-on-one conversations, where the spotlight is on you, (unintelligible) interest. Does that make you uncomfortable? It’s cool to be able to hide behind these characters that you play, and a lot of people prefer to stay there. And the movie theater makes you get out and sell these movies when you star in them.

Elba: It does, yeah.

Tavis: I know Tyler made you show up today (laugh). Sell them tickets. I understand that. But that doesn’t mean you're comfortable with it. You comfortable with this spotlight?

Elba: I'm a little bit uncomfortable.

Tavis: Yeah? You're doing okay, though.

Elba: It’s one of those things, Tavis, you're a professional and you're a nice man, so you and I can have a conversation, and look you in the eye. Sometimes, journalists become so impersonable, it’s just very difficult to be real. And I hate to be fake; so I’d rather step back and why don't we talk about the character? Why don't you look at the character, and we can talk about that. When it comes to talking about Idris, I can’t do it unless you and I can have a real conversation. It’s hard for me to be a product like that.

Tavis: When did you know you wanted to do this acting thing? Hanging out in London.

Elba: Yeah, I was, like, 12 years old, man, and it was a matinee of a Spiderman movie, believe it or not. And it was an…

Tavis: So Spiderman hooked you.

Elba: Spiderman, okay.

Tavis: (Laugh) I’ll take that.

Elba: While all the other kids were climbing all over the seats, I was, like, I wanna do that. Look at that (laugh). I was about 12 years old. And then by the time I got to secondary school, the equivalent to high school, I had left school thinking and knowing that this is where I wanted to be. I had a music passion, as well, but the acting seemed more realistic for me.

Tavis: Music as in an artist?

Elba: I was DJ.

Tavis: DJ.

Elba: Yeah. I was a DJ, and still am. But I wanted to do radio.

Tavis: What do you mean, still am? When do you DJing now? You're, like, acting in leading men roles. When do you find time to do the DJ thing?

Elba: Man, you would be surprised. Everybody wants to have a party here and there, so I fly around the country.

Tavis: You're serious.

Elba: Yeah, I am (laugh).

Tavis: And you still DJ?

Elba: I still DJ, yeah.

Tavis: Wow.

Elba: Yeah, I still do. It keeps my feet on the ground.

Tavis: All right, so, I like that. So what’s your hook? Every DJ does something, has his own style. What’s the Idris hook on the DJ front?

Elba: When I was DJing, the thing about DJing, it’s like riding a bike. Any DJ will tell you this. When you haven’t done it for a while, okay, you're still good, but you're connect to the audience isn't as on point. So the more you do it, the better you do it. Now when I was DJing a lot in New York, my thing was I would be on the mic and the turntables at the same time. I like to talk to the crowd. Kid Capri does that, he talks to the crowd, he gets them going.

Tavis: The Kid Capri

Elba: Yeah (laugh). But then it would depend on ... I used to do a lot of the bars in New York, the smaller bars, and I could get to play every type of music, mix it up, and that was my little hook. Now, honestly, it’s something that I do as fun. I enjoy it. Like I said, it keeps me connected to people. Because no matter what you do, I don't care if you're actor, athlete.

If you say you're DJing at my party, you better make me dance. And that’s (laugh) the truth, because if you're bad, people don't dance, (laugh) you feel bad at the end of the party, so.

Tavis: See, who know at the start of this conversation we’d get to know Idris Elba so well? So now you know he’s a fine actor who you can see in Tyler Perry’s new movie, “Daddy's Little Girls,” but more importantly, or as importantly, you know that the next time you wanna get your groove on and have a party, (laugh) you can book Dris (laugh). DJ Dris to spin (laugh) the records. Nice to meet you, man.

Elba: Thanks, man.

Tavis: I'm glad to have you here.

Elba: All right.

Tavis: That’s our show for tonight. (Laugh)