He’s an acclaimed actor, DJ and director, so naturally Idris Elba needs to stay in shape to keep up with his relentless schedule. Not one to do things by halves, however, the charming 49-year-old reveals why no challenge will ever be big enough.
Idris Elba wants his epitaph to read: “This guy reminds me of the things that I want to be doing but I’ve not done yet – because he never sat still.” It also happens to be his life motto and explains his powerful and pressing desire to grab life by the throat and pack as much as he can into his time here.
“I’m someone who has a hard time staying still, I’m always in a restless state,” Elba admits. “People often have dreams and desires but wind up just thinking about them instead of going out and doing them. I need to feel like I’m always moving forward and doing as much as I can instead of just wondering about it. That’s why I love throwing myself into as many different characters and stories as I can and living out different adventures. You just need the will to go out and do it!”
That logic explains why the London-born star continues to tread a varied and experimental path with the choices he makes. From TV drama, with the perennially successful Luther, which he is currently filming and will return this year, along with outward-bound movie Beast, last year’s spectacular Suicide Squad, and even animated voiceover work in the new Sonic the Hedgehog movie; if a project excites him, he’ll do it, and to hell with the critics.
And while he is certainly ambitious with his onscreen endeavours, when not on film sets the handsome Hackney native loves to stare danger square in the face. For his 2015 Discovery channel show, Idris Elba: No Limits, he took part in drag racing, broke a land speed record, and performed a series of stunts at the Coventry Airbase Airshow. For most, that would be enough peril for one lifetime, but the insatiable star took things even further when he stepped into the ring as a professional kickboxer.
“Some guys want to be toned or want to jog for miles, but my ultimate fitness goal is to be fight-ready. If I stepped into the ring, could I go toe-to-toe for five rounds? That’s what I strove for. That’s what I consider fit. I wanted to know that if I was being wrestled to the ground, would I have the strength to fight a man off,” he explains fervently.
When it came to the actual fighting – as chronicled in Idris Elba: Fighter – Elba ended up outdone by younger, smaller, and much more skilled fighters. It was an experience he described as “soul-destroying”, but even as he came to accept that his lofty ambitions were perhaps not so easy to manifest in real life, the upbeat actor has no regrets about enduring the gruelling 12-month kickboxing and mixed martial arts training which raised his fitness level to “beyond what I thought was possible.”
The experience came with other valuable lessons, as the 6’2” TV titan soon realised that were his body to survive six hours of training a day he would have to change his eating habits considerably, which previously consisted of pasta, rice and beer. “I feel I have much more energy now eating mainly fish, chicken, lots of fresh vegetables and salads… things like that,” he says.
“I was over-confident in thinking that I could eat the way I always did and still train like a boxer. And yet I see it as a valuable lesson because I want to preserve the current version of me, not let it fade away as I get older.
“That’s a big deal for me because, while I don’t fear getting old, I certainly don’t want to give in to it. I feel I still have a lot more to give – professionally, physically, mentally – and I think all men of my age and older should believe the door remains open to achieve whatever they want.
“You’re only here once… so prolong it!”
