Starring alongside Hilary Swank as her character's devoutly religious, miracle-debunking assistant Ben, Idris Elba delved into the supernatural world of "The Reaping." A seemingly controversial film, "The Reaping" provided Elba with an intriguing character and unique plotline that sparked his interest in the film, one of quite a few major motion pictures he has been involved in this year.
In a conference call, Elba discussed the balancing act between his budding film career and up-and-coming music career, as well as his views on the overall vibe and subject matter of "The Reaping."
Question: This year is turning into a pretty big one [for] you with several high profile movies: "Daddy's Little Girls," the sequel to "28 Days Later" and Ridley Scott's "American Gangster." What kind of effect do you think all of this attention is going to give you in terms of the future of your career?
Idris Elba: Well, I mean, I think the personal effects of it is that my life - my personal life - now becomes smaller. I experienced that when I was on "The Wire," what it was like to be suddenly a popular actor and get recognized. And that was honestly the weirdest experience in my life. So I think ... it'll affect me like that - how it did there.
Business-wise, I think it's a good thing. It opens up more opportunities for me to try and do different films and different characters, and really show what I've got to offer. I'm very excited about the prospect of continuing a film career.
Q: With all these film projects going on, how or where do you find time to develop your music career?
IE: Well, honestly, a lot of it is really, really scheduled - careful scheduling. You know, music is often times done in a confined space in a confined time. So I will lock out three weeks of studio time and just really hone on what I've got to do there, and then come back and film.
Q: What about the character in "The Reaping" drew you?
IE: [It was] the challenge - this is a guy [who] goes to debunk miracles to prove God exists scientifically [and] ... You know, the script is really very good. And there was a really interesting story in Ben.
Q: Working with "The Reaping" and the soon to come "28 Weeks Later," how did that feel to work with roles that lack the realism of say "The Wire" or "Sometimes in April" (2005)?
IE: Well I think the challenge is trying to keep the realism within the context of whatever it is I'm doing. So of course there is more of a realistic factor when you're doing films that have a theme that is real, that is something based on the truth.
When you're dealing with supernatural elements, you're acting to suspend the belief. But you're also asking [the audience] to suspend their belief even in any kind of film because you know as an audience that these are actors ... Trying to bring that realism is a challenge for me and I enjoy that. I enjoy it.
Q: Hilary Swank said that the reason she was attracted to the film was because of the script. Were you attracted to the project for the same reason?
IE: Yeah, the script was the main contributing factor to bringing me on board, coupled with the idea that this was going to be a challenging film for audiences to accept. Also, I'd never done a film in this genre before so I really was interested in that. Plus the fact that Hilary was in it, you know what I'm saying? I think that the idea that something that's famous to all of us, the plagues being Revelations, being the text from the Bible. And then taking that out of there and saying, you know what, this is actually happening in this small town. The script really opened up my mind while I was reading it, like whoa wait a second; this is kind of really interesting.
Q: Could you talk a little bit about the experience of filming in and around Baton Rouge during the hurricane and evacuation?
IE: Well it was a very interesting and deep experience for all of us involved. The movie went on hiatus for four weeks or so while the rescue operation, if you will, was in place. And then we came back to Baton Rouge to finish our film. And I just remember coming back to Baton Rouge to resume filming ... it changed the way the whole crew and the actors, the way we approached the work.
We're doing a film about the acts of God, and here we are in the middle of one. And, you know, it really changed the way we related to the material in a good way that made the film actually look deeper within itself.
Q: Earlier you said something along the lines of you think this will be a challenging film for audiences to accept. Can you elaborate a little bit more on that? What do you mean?
IE: Well I think that when you read something that is so famous, like the Bible, it means so much to so many different people. And here we're saying something that is famous and has always been in context of the Bible is now happening in a small town.
Then obviously you're talking about plagues - we all know what the plagues are ... Let's see how they really approach it. And I think audiences will go in with skepticism.
I'm sure because of the subject matter because this is something that we all know lives in the Bible. So I think audiences will be challenged because we want to be entertained when we go to the movies. But here we are being entertained by something from the scripture. And you're going to have the skeptics in the audience and you're going to have the believers in the audience.
