British actor Idris Elba spoke for a few minutes with The Republic, via Zoom, about the return of his emblematic character John Luther; this time in film format and through Netflix under the title Luther: night falls, which opens today on the platform. The quoted interpreter of tapes like Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom and Beasts of No Nation also talks about James Bond, although he clarifies that his interest, at this time, is to extend the universe of Luther, that policeman who was born with the series in 2010 and which has now become a personal franchise.
—How has it been for you to play a character like John Luther again, this time for a movie and a platform like Netflix?
—In short, it has been a dream come true to bring my character back. He was on TV for almost 10 years and at the end of season five he didn’t really feel like we’d even scratched the surface of who he was. John Luther. We did amazing cases, amazing documentary stories, but this was an opportunity to get to know Luther a little bit more, so coming back to him was great, fun, hard work, challenging to make sure we were doing something that felt like the original, but also cool.
—Can you find anything in Luther that resembles Idris? In any case, what do you take away from this character?
“I think both John and I are a bit obsessed with details. In jazz they call it ‘the blue note’: it’s not so much that note, it’s not so much this other one, it’s the one in the middle; which makes sense, but doesn’t make sense. I’m interested in that. I think John has a very investigative mind. I do that naturally as an actor, I’m always asking questions to understand a little more. I think he is a very patient man, I consider myself patient too; so those are some of the similarities that I inject into him when I play him.
—Now, Luther started as a TV series, now it’s a movie in which you’re even one of the producers. It’s like having your own franchise. What plans do you have with Luther? Do you plan to extend the universe of this policeman?
—I think that definitely one of the plans is to tell more Luther stories and using the wider film format, continue using that spectrum. ‘Luther Land’ is in the UK, definitely London, but I think the preeminence of going to other places in the world is very exciting to me. You know, expand the universe. There are characters in ‘Luther Land’ that I say: “Yes, we would love to see more of them and understand who they are” and expand those stories. Luther has a lot of potential and I am very excited for the future.
—It is inevitable to talk about James Bond. I read that you have dismissed the rumors that he would take over from Daniel Craig in this franchise. You have said that you love it, that you talked to the producers, but that there was no talk of being the next James Bond. This is true? Do you rule it out completely?
-Who knows. I think now I’m concentrating on bringing John Luther into the same realistic space. I’d love for people to see a James Bond movie, then a John Luther movie and think they’re on a similar scale. Everyone loves James Bond movies and if I were to be in one, why not?
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