We’ll hold your hand as we tell you this: British icon Idris Elba confirms he wants to retire from acting ‘eventually’.
The screen star, 53, has been a mainstay across TV and film for decades and has introduced the world to several memorable characters, including Luther, Stringer Bell in The Wire and Heimdall in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
After a lucrative Hollywood career, it looks as though the actor is eyeing a move behind the camera as he launches his latest directorial project, 2025 short, Dust to Dreams, at the Red Sea International Film Festival.
Speaking at the premiere in Saudi Arabia, he said: ‘I’m hoping that my fan base as an actor isn’t mad at me, but eventually I want to transfer to being a director fully.
‘I’ve been acting for a long time.
‘I love it still, but I think directing allows me to flex slightly different muscles and just be a part of the set in a different way. I really enjoy it,’ he said, according to the Daily Mail.
His 19-minute short is set in Lagos, Nigeria and follows ‘a shy young woman [who] inherits her mother’s struggling Lagos nightclub, which leads to an unexpected reunion with her estranged father’.
It marks his first directorial project since his 2018 feature debut, Yardie.
Fans need not fret just yet about his departure from the screen, as he has several shows and movies on the horizon, including the second season of Hijack, another Luther film on Netflix and Masters of the Universe.
Alongside his pivot to directing, however, it also seems as though he is making a concerted effort to re-engage with his political side.
After sharing that he ‘doesn’t have the courage’ to be a politician during the premiere of Netflix’s A House of Dynamite (in which he played the US President) in September, he shed more light on the topic now.
He said: ‘I don’t want to be a politician, but I think there’s something quite appealing about educating myself to step into those arenas with more experience of how to make change.’
In fact, he even shared plans to potentially ‘go to school and just study human science, not political science, because I think humans respond to humans regardless of whether it’s politics or sports’.
Ultimately, with the hopes of expanding his philanthropy and activism work.
The actor has been known for his campaigning work previously.
In January 2024, he launched the Don’t Stop Your Future campaign, which called for the immediate ban of machetes and so-called ‘zombie-knives’ in a bid to tackle knife crime.
Alongside this, he also called for more funding of youth services and released the song, Knives Down.
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