IDRIS ELBA is a businessman. In fact, he might remind viewers of Stringer Bell, the no-nonsense Baltimore drug lord Mr. Elba memorably played on the HBO series “The Wire.” “You got to think about what we got in this game for,” Stringer once admonished a colleague, his soft, deep voice studded with emphatic profanity (here deleted): “Was it the rep? Was it so our names could ring out on some ghetto street corner? Naw, man. There’s games beyond the game.”
Trailer: 'The Losers'
Idris Elba and with Jeffrey Dean Morgan in the action comedy “The Losers,” The film, opening on Friday, is based on a comic book.
Though in real life Mr. Elba’s jaunty accent comes from East London, not Baltimore, in a phone interview from his Florida home he sounded much like the driven Stringer, who ran heroin-distribution meetings according to Robert’s Rules of Order. Stringer had no interest in cred-building gangster posturing, and Mr. Elba has little patience for the actor’s equivalent: endless prattling about art and the corresponding reluctance to speak frankly about one’s own ambitions.
Idris Elba is in the Idris Elba business. And he seems as interested in talking about the game beyond the game — the step-by-step process of becoming a star — as he is in talking about the action comedy “The Losers,” out on Friday.
“In this day and age, actors can’t afford to be pompous,” the 37-year-old Mr. Elba said, discussing a career that first caught fire with “The Wire” and peaked with last year’s popular but critically reviled potboiler “Obsessed.” “You can’t afford to turn your nose up at things. Audiences want to see you a bit more dynamic. We know you can act, Daniel Day-Lewis. That’s fantastic. Show us a bit more. We want to be entertained.”
Though Mr. Elba’s early career — he was a stage and television journeyman in London and New York — received a huge boost from “The Wire,” he has expressed discomfort with it, saying he didn’t watch many episodes and hopes not to play a drug dealer again. “It was a gift and a curse,” he says now. He was surprised when Stringer was — spoiler alert from 2004! — killed off but says the timing aided his move to films. “I died on that show at a time where people were interested in my character,” he said, comparing himself to another actor and his signature HBO role. “If Tony Soprano had died in the fourth season, James Gandolfini would be a bigger actor than he is now.”
It’s true that Mr. Gandolfini — despite ratings and Emmy love that “The Wire” and Mr. Elba never achieved — has never toplined a movie as successful as “Obsessed.” Despite dismal reviews, that thriller — about a married man whose life goes to pieces when an unhinged temp stalks his family — opened at No. 1 at the box office a year ago, driven by Mr. Elba and his co-star Beyoncé Knowles. “ ‘Obsessed’ elevated my presence; I got chased by TMZ!” he said, amazed at his brush with the celebrity-industrial complex. “Latino audiences had never paid attention to me before, and suddenly I have that audience. You become a bit more viable in other markets.”
The same spring that “Obsessed” came out, Mr. Elba, looking to show his comedy chops, played a prominent guest role on “The Office” as a stone-faced executive adrift in the bizarre world of Dunder Mifflin. Though he acknowledges that the show garnered him new fans, he says producers quashed his goofier notions, including keeping his own accent. “I had this idea to take this character to the left and make him eccentric and refreshing,” he said. “I haven’t had the chance to do that yet.”
Now, Mr. Elba said, “I have everyone from absolute thespian-lovers to action-hero-lovers wanting to see what I do next.” Directed by Sylvain White and adapted from a stylish comic book, “The Losers” seems, in its quips-and-explosions spirit, just as audience-friendly — and critic-proof — as “Obsessed.” He plays Roque, canny and scar-faced, the most dangerous of the titular group of former Special Forces soldiers bent on revenge against the bad guys who almost killed them. Will “The Losers” satisfy fans of “The Wire” looking for another Stringer Bell? “No,” he said, “but it is going to reinforce that I have a career ahead of me. It’s a commercial film, it’s going to do well, and hopefully my place in this business is confirmed.”
What is that place in this business? In Britain, “The Wire” was a hit, and Mr. Elba is a star of sorts — big enough, at least, to headline a BBC police drama, “Luther,” set to have its premiere next spring. And in between the popcorn movies, he fit in the 22-day Glasgow shoot of “Legacy,” an independent thriller that’s screening later this month at the Tribeca Film Festival.
“We couldn’t have made the movie this way without him,” said the film’s writer and director, Thomas Ikimi. “I wrote the script to make it for $20,000 in a hotel room. All the actors were friends of mine.” When Mr. Elba signed on to star and be executive producer, Mr. Ikimi continued, “the movie ended up a lot bigger than I ever expected it to be.” Mr. Elba’s reputation drew both other actors (including his “Wire” cast mate Clarke Peters) and investors, leading to an eventual shooting budget of half a million dollars.
But in the United States, “I think he’s undertapped,” Mr. White said. “I think he deserves to have his own franchise, like James Bond or something.”
Mr. White says the “very commercial” nature of “The Losers” meant that his options were broad. “We could have cast it with, you know, Channing Tatum and Paul Walker,” he said, naming two slabs of beef in demand for action movies. “I wanted to go cooler, edgy, more interesting.”
Mr. Elba, though, took his time deciding whether “The Losers” was for him. “We had intense discussions,” Mr. White said. “He wasn’t just going to jump into it.”
While Mr. Elba systematically courts an audience, a deep-seated ambivalence about the trappings of fame courses through his actions and comments. A musician and D.J., he posted a cheeky song about the perils of celebrity, “Mr. Movie Star,” to YouTube just a month after “Obsessed.” And he’s a student of Hollywood careers, speaking appreciatively about stars who achieved audience appeal without sacrificing privacy. He won’t say which city in Florida he lives in when not in Los Angeles, and he doesn’t provide details about his personal life, beyond the birth three months ago of his son, Otega.
“Johnny Depp has a career that I am fascinated by,” he said. “Absolute box office draw. Financially viable. But what do you know about Johnny Depp?”
And then there’s Denzel Washington, with whom he appeared in “American Gangster.” “A phenomenal career,” he said, “although I think Denz has relied on a few beats that repeat themselves. In his early career he was much more dynamic.” He smacked his lips with a connoisseur’s flair, a businessman admiring a great portfolio. “But his longevity,” he pronounced, “is immaculate.”
