Idris Elba's Top 10 Rules For Success (@idriselba)

Your sky and my sky might be different, you know what I mean? But neither of us will touch the sky if we give ourselves boundaries. The one thing I really liked to do was drama.

If I aspired to be on the levels of Denzel Washingtons and the Robert De Niros in the world, I had to reinvent myself.

Whatever I try and do, I do it from my point of view. Do I believe in it? Yes.

I think that, you know, if you're an acting student, you know, be a student of the game. Understand the game as much as you can.

Oh, look at that monster! Yeah. Do you see it?

Actually, if I can see myself doing it, I could probably do it. One thing I kept doing is, you know, inspiring myself, looking for inspiration and growing.

Oh, God, I'm gonna walk into rooms where people have been, lived, seen, smelt, touched, felt Mr. Mandela.

There was a drive to be famous, to be, you know, that pinnacle, to be that guy.

He's a British actor, musician, and DJ. He's best known for his portrayal as a drug lord on the HBO series The Wire. He's been nominated 5 times for a Golden Globe Best Actor in a Miniseries. He's Idris Elba, and here are his top 10 rules for success.

I mean, it's important not to give yourself boundaries, which we can do quite easily, okay? People talk about aiming for the skies. Sometimes even aiming for the skies is intimidating. Just don't give yourself boundaries. Your sky and my sky might be different. You know what I mean? But neither of us will touch the sky if we give ourselves boundaries. You know what I mean? Whatever your sky is, whatever your biggest dream is, I might have already touched that, you know? So in other words, what sky? Where does the sky end? I'd rather people go, you know what, I'm not gonna restrict myself to going, I can only do this, or I can only do that, or I have to do it this way, or I have to do it that way. I think it's important that people just go and lose the boundaries, lose the conformity and just go for it? It was a real sort of liberating feeling at 16, 17 years old. The one thing I really liked to do was drama. And there was no sort of like beacon for this could be a career, you could do it. I just did that, I didn't see that, but I really loved to do it. So I just said, I want to do what I love, you know what I mean?

And it was like school plays or?

Yeah, school plays. And from school, you know, literally, You know, my sort of 5th year, my drama teacher was like, you know, you got some talent here, brother. You know, you did really well in your GCSEs. You got some talent. Why don't you do it? And she gave me this course. There was a 2-year performing arts course. It was a new course. And she was like, do the course, fall on your face for 2 years, paint scenery, direct plays, just do it for 2 years and see if you like it.

And that's what I did. That's where I fell in love with it.

So I got to a certain point in my career where I saw the glass ceiling. I was so close to it, I was gonna hit my forehead on it. But I was busy.

I was busy.

I got lots of work. I realized that I could only play so many best friends or gang leaders, all right? I knew that I wasn't gonna land a leading role. I knew there wasn't enough imagination, not yet, for the industry to be seeing me as a lead. In other words, if I wanted to star in a British drama like Luther, for example, then I'd have to go to a country like America, all right? Now some people might say back then, "Look, there was no Black detectives, you know? Like, how can you expect us to make a TV show about one?" It's television.

Sorry.

And the other thing is that I didn't see myself or my culture on TV, so I literally just stopped watching it. Instead, I decided to go and become TV. Now, if I aspired to be on the levels of Denzel Washingtons and the Robert De Niros in the world, I had to reinvent myself. I had to transform the way the industry saw me. I had to climb out of that box. In other words, I didn't go to America because I, I couldn't get parts. I went to America because I was running out of parts. I, uh, all the parts were the same.

Whatever I try and do, I do it from my point of view is, do I believe in it? Yes. I don't do things for money, and I've been broke most of my life. So because of that, I can't sort of suddenly go, "I need to do a job just to get some cash," you know what I mean? I know that's a lot of times is people's motivations, 'cause people need to eat, but in my position, I've been poor most of my life, so now I don't really do things based on money. I do things on authenticity of how I feel.

I think that, you know, if you're an acting student, you know, be a student of the game, understand the game as much as you can. It's very important to know the territory that you want to be in, if it's a film director or an actor or whatever that is, you know, really understand what you're sort of trying to achieve and understand the marketplace, if you like. There's nothing worse than an actor that has sort of grandiose ideas of being famous but doesn't actually understand the route it takes to get from one place to the other as an actor. That's about self-education, of course, and, you know, trying to put yourself in opportunities where you can always, you know, practice your craft, whether that's, you know, doing small plays, whether that's writing scripts for yourself, whether that's, you know, auditioning and doing open auditions. You know, as a young actor, try as much as you can to be around the community of filmmakers and theater so that you can, you know, soak it all up like a sponge.

What's it like coming off a movie like Pacific Rim where you're using language and you're talking about things that aren't real? So you're doing that, right? And I'm sure some of the stuff you're talking about, you don't even know what the hell you're talking about, right? To go from that to something that is so real. What's the transition like in your head?

I mean, it was nuts, actually, because I was here shooting that film, going off and talking about, "Oh, look at that monster!" Yeah.

"Do you see it yet?" And then reading about Mr.

Mandela and having to prepare for that, that was a massive contrast for me. But I think it is really interesting It's really, you know, if a guitarist picks up a guitar and he can play a reggae song and a rock song using the one instrument, you know, that's the beauty of the instrument. And that's why I think the beauty of being an actor is being able to do that and have that sort of span, you know. I think my imagination has always kept me going. You know what I mean? It's like, you know, just imagine myself collecting awards. Just imagine myself, you know what I mean, getting big parts. Imagine myself working with the greatest actors. My imagination was the one, like, you know what I mean? Like, you know when you're not overthinking, but you just kind of like, yeah, man, I see myself driving that car one day. And I get that, you know what I mean? That's part of my inner magic, is that actually if I can see myself doing it, I could probably do it. So you can't bottle that up and sell it to someone. You either can do it or you can't. But everybody can imagine themselves, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, you know what, actually, yeah, I could see myself you know, being an influencer in clothes, you know what I mean? Because I can make that happen.

Yes.

You know my history. I've been sort of on all sides of my journey. You know, I didn't have success very early and I went through some very dark times. And you know what I mean? One thing I kept doing is, you know, inspiring myself, looking for inspiration and growing. And it hasn't stopped. And I want to keep doing that.

And I also want to inspire others, you know.

There are millions of me sitting at home right now and they don't know it. And it's just good to be able to get this sort of platform to sort of say, come on, man, go for it.

There was a lot of encouragement to trust my instincts, you know, the instinct of use your presence, you know what I'm saying? Like in South Africa, you know, I'm, you know, Obviously I'm not South African, so I was really aware that, oh God, I'm gonna walk into rooms where people have been, lived, seen, smelt, touched, felt Mr. Mandela in person, on radio, on television, and here I come as an outsider doing this, you know, portrayal of him. I was really aware, it used to make me very nervous about, you know, if I'm gonna do it right or not. And Justin encouraged me to stay with what my gut was. Just stay with that. Don't waver from it. Don't try to be their Mandela or the Mandela they think you should be. Be that guy we've discussed in all the rehearsals and all the script meetings. Be that guy. Go with that thing. So that was great, actually. To Justin's credit, he really helped me sculpt and measure out that performance.

When I was 16, contemplating being an actor, I was in sound systems DJing, you know what I mean? And, you know, it was like that or this. So I always go back to DJing. I always have a studio, always have turntables, always.

Your feet firmly planted on the ground.

Are they?

I don't know.

I don't know. Actors, it's hard.

It is hard to get all this attention and stay sane. Yeah, I think, you know, I mean, like, for me, listen, I've been doing it a long time. You know what I mean? And there was a drive to be famous, to be, you know, that pinnacle, to be that guy. And I'm not that, it's not, my ambition isn't that as much. You know what I mean? Good work, keep working. So it'd be hard for me to sort of like suddenly be like, you know, oh, I'm lifted up by this wonderful life that I have. I love it, but you know, my feet are on the ground. You know, it's work, it's a job.

Thank you so much for watching. I made this video because Kenifa Garrick asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, leave it in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know which of Alva's top 10 rules meant the most to you, is gonna have the biggest impact on your life. Leave it in the comments, I'll join the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Continue to believe, and I'll see you soon.

I do think though, you know, it is a balancing act. And the truth is, it's about forward planning, having a good team around you, you know what I mean, to help me and make— help me see perspective. Because one thing about being in the front is that you can't see what's behind you. But if you've got people that are around you to give you a little bit of vision, you can go, all right, okay, actually this will work. And this won't work, you know what I mean? But if you're just looking forward, sometimes you won't see that.

When you realized it wasn't a joke, was your first instinct stay away from it, or was it percolating in the back of your head somewhere as a great idea?

There was a couple of things happening. My first instinct was, dude, dude, that is the opportunity of a lifetime. Are you kidding me?

What a gift.

But then the next thought was, but if you fuck it up, goodnight, your career's over. Period, you know, because, you know, in film, you know, my career has been decent and I can't say I have a string of amazing films under my belt. You know, I've got great films and films that vary from popcorn films to some really heartfelt films. But, you know, Mandela was next level for me and it was absolutely the gateway to the next chapter of my career. But had I, had I get to the gateway and tripped puts up as I fall, then I would never— I won't be moving on because he's such a big world global citizen, you know. And, and I had all this sort of trepidation about, you know, shit, man, I don't look like Mr. Mandela at all. How am I going to do this, you know? But Justin was really clear about his vision, and then it was a different spin, I guess.

What is your theory on success? What is your mantra around this? You know, it's a good question. I don't know if I've Actually ever thought about success in that way. I've, you know, obviously I feel a successful actor, but I also felt successful the first day I got my first job. You know, that was a form of success. I think, you know, ultimately if you're successful in whatever you do, it's about maintenance, isn't it? That, that I think is the most important thing is maintaining your success. You know, you get to the pinnacle, but how do you stay up there? And that I think is important.