Idris Elba Reveals His Most Challenging Acting Role Ever

Idris Elba oversaw West Baltimore’s drug trade on “The Wire,” waged war on monsters in “Pacific Rim” and squared off against Denzel Washington in “American Gangster.”

Talking to MarkMeets.com on the red carpet at the London premiere, Idris explained that there was “a lot of pressure” to ensure that old fans of the film were also attracted to the latest instalment.

“But when you love doing what you’re doing it doesn’t feel like work.

“We took about three years to get this right and get the scripts right and get the ingredients right, and I think we got it right.”

On his most challenging role to date, however, was being 2018’s Sexiest Man Alive.

“My hardest role ever,I said to the photographer, ‘You know, I don’t always photograph great in pictures, this picture needs to be great.’ He’s like, ‘No, no, no, we’ve done this a million times. We know how to do it.’ And I was like, ‘OK, I’ll just be me.’”

Elba is one of only 37 men to be chosen for the Sexiest Man honor, per People. He’s been joined in more recent years by the likes of Paul Rudd and Michael B. Jordan. For Elba, the shoot was rather enlightening.

“They do this sort of thing where they make your favorite camera angle work for the cover,” he told “ET Canada.”

Elba said he was stunned to be named Sexiest Man Alive. He joked that he admired his body in the mirror and said, “Yeah, you are kind of sexy today,” before sheepishly stating that it was “just a nice feeling” and “an ego boost for sure.”

That ego boost resurfaced when Elba that his colleagues around the office were shocked to learn Elba turned 50 last September. Bustamante said the native Londoner resembled a much younger man on screen, in person and on People’s cover.

“I appreciate it, first of all ― thank you to the office that’s saying that,” Elba replied. “I always view that my body is a shell, OK? It’s a shell. Who I am lives in my soul and my spirit. Basically I do things to keep my soul happy. I think in turn, that keeps your shell happy.”

“So, hopefully that’s where my, I don’t know, my youthfulness comes from,” he continued. “But I do try to do stuff that’s fun. Exercise-wise, I mean, I have this theory that if you imagine you’re doing 10 press-ups … you’re like, ‘Whoo, I just worked out really hard.’”

“That 10-mile run I just did in my head, whoo,” added Elba. “It’s hurting me.”