"Although " A House of Dynamite" star Idris Elba did say at the Netflix release's Venice Film Festival press conference that he "does not have the courage to be in politics," he certainly does not shy away from playing heads of state on film. Over a decade after his Golden Globe-nominated performance as Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa, in "Long Walk to Freedom," the British actor has played both the British Prime Minister in " Heads of State," and the President of the United States in the new political thriller from Best Director Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow."
"Speaking to IndieWire over Zoom, Elba said that while he is still not interested in being a politician, "I'm not shy of perhaps bringing my voice to something, bringing my soapbox in some way and articulating what I'd like to see happening." But in accepting the presidential role in "A House of Dynamite," he was not driven by some pain point he wanted to address, as much as he was excited to work with the people behind the film."
"Diagnosing why exactly he seems like the right person to play political leaders, the seven-time Primetime Emmy nominee said, "You see actors oftentimes get into civil roles because of [the] skillset transfer into these things, but it's really not something good that I'm going for." He added, "I read this thing that said, 'Typically we choose our leaders because of height and length of forehead.' And I was like, 'Well, yeah, I'm tall and I do have a forehead, so maybe that's what's going on here.'""
Idris Elba has repeatedly portrayed political leaders onscreen, including a Golden Globe-nominated Nelson Mandela, a British prime minister in Heads of State, and the U.S. President in A House of Dynamite. He remains uninterested in holding political office but embraces using his platform to articulate preferred outcomes. He accepted the presidential role primarily to collaborate with the film's creative team rather than to advance a personal political agenda. He reflects on casting tendencies that favor physical attributes like height and forehead, and he experienced watching the finished film without full prior knowledge of its scope, alongside a strong ensemble cast.
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