Idris Elba Shows Off His "Quiet Storm" Radio DJ Voice

-I have to comment on your shoes.
Man! What are these jams?
-Some Gucci loafers. Yeah!
You're pulling it off.
You're pulling it off, baby. Pretty good.
-Really, just literally two minutes ago,
I was putting cream on my ankles 'cause they were really ashy,
so I'm glad I did that. -Yeah, exactly.
I didn't know he was going to cut to them. Sorry about that.
Hey, uh -- We'll take it right out.
No, it's cool, because they're nicely creamed up now.
-No, no, perfect. -Let's just move away from that.
-You have the premiere.
The premiere is tonight, right? "The Dark Tower."
-Yeah. I'm headed there straight after this.
We're going to go open that movie, yeah.
I'm excited, man.
-Your daughter is going to come? =Yeah, yeah.
-Does she think you're the coolest dad
in the whole wide world?
-Uh, not anymore.
I mean, she's like -- No, she loves me, but she --
You know, she just tells me to calm down a little bit.
You know?
-'Cause why? You just love her too much?
-Well, she just thinks I'm trying to be cool all the time.
I'm like, "I am cool."
-Exactly! Yeah, exactly. You are cool.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Jimmy, she's always trying to quiz me on rappers,
and I don't know who's who anymore.
-Yeah, me neither. I don't know anything, yeah.
But that will be fun. That'll be a big deal.
-I'm excited. The film's a good film.
And, you know, like -- -Stephen King, I mean, come on.
-Yeah, Stephen King, right? -No one gets better than that.
Did you get to meet Stephen at all?
-I did meet Stephen on the set.
He was really excited about me playing the part.
-I'd be frightened. He scares me.
[ Laughter ]
Like, I don't think -- I'm happy I don't know him.
-Yeah, there's a lot of darkness.
-I love him, I respect him. I don't want to meet him.
It's just -- He scares me.
He's the best at writing the horror things.
But, I mean, you got to be a little demented, you know?
-There's a lot of darkness.
I mean, if you write all those things, right?
-I gave him a hug immediately. -You did?!
-I was like, "You need one."
-You hugged Stephen King? Yes, yes. "You need a hug."
He does need a hug. -He needed it. He needed it.
-[ Laughs ] Oh. He's a genius, man. He's great.
-He is a genius, yeah.
-I always find some interesting facts on you
when I do research on you.
You wanted to be a deejay at one point. Is that right?
-Yeah, yeah, I mean -- -A radio deejay.
-A radio deejay, yeah, yeah. I deejay now, but I --
I wanted to be on the radio with the mic, you know,
"The midnight hour, ladies and gentlemen.
How you doing?"
You know what I mean?
"Hey, yo, this, that.
All right. We're going to take it down for you tonight.
Look, I know you're feeling it at home,
and, you know, things -- You had a hard week.
But that -- Just listen to Idris on 'The Quiet Storm.'"
[ Cheers and applause ]
-"The Quiet Storm"? Did you ever do it?
-I did. I did do it one time.
but, yo, check it out. It wasn't exactly how I planned out.
Well, I answered this ad for a radio station.
You know, young intern. Boom. Took it.
And it was actually a hospital that had --
No, for real, they had a a hospital
that had its own radio station,
and they would play, you know, music for the patients,
and they could click on, and they would get shout-outs.
-That's a good idea. That's a great idea.
-It was great, but it was just --
The shout-outs were weird. You know what I mean?
It was like, you know,
"Hey, Mr. Davis, how you doing?
I hope that catheter is looking okay over there."
-"Hope that catheter is looking okay."
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a bummer.
-It was a bit awkward in places, but it was a good experience.
-"Hope that catheter is looking good," yeah.
-But then you -- Did you do, like, a pirate radio station?
-Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Probably when I was about 19 till like 20,
I worked on... How does that work?
-...Climax FM. -Climax FM?
Would you like -- Would you be in a van or something?
-No, no, no, we used to be in a little tower block
in North London.
North London. I can't give you the address, of course.
But North London -- -Really illegal, yeah.
-Yeah, it was illegal, yeah.
And I had a show from 6:00 till 8:00 on a Saturday.
I had the drive-time show.
I loved it. I loved pirate radio.
-Were you ever scared that you were going to get busted?
-No, no, not really.
I mean, 'cause basically you had to climb up
a couple of roofs to get into the studio.
-No one could be bothered, right?
-It's just awkward. You'd get into your show.
You had, like, dirt and leaves and dust all over you.
-Yeah. Yeah.
Let's talk about "Dark Tower."
You, Matthew McConaughey. He's great. He's great.
-Yeah, he's a good guy. You know, we --
We only had like two, three days actually shooting,
me and Matthew. -Oh, really?
-Yeah, 'cause, you know, he didn't --
He didn't work much, if I'm honest.
But, you know, I... [ Laughter ]
No, I'm serious!
He had like four days on the movie,
and I had the whole movie. -Yeah, exactly. Whatever. Yeah.
-But, you know, he's a really -- he's a --
-That's hilarious. He's a good dude.
He's laid back. He's cool. -He's very funny, yeah.
-Did he do, "All right, all right, all right"?
-"All right, all right." No.
We had like three days of press,
and I heard him say that about 15 times.
-Yeah. 'Cause everyone asks him to say it, right?
-Everyone asks for that. So --
But I got to know him this trip, and he's really good.
He's a great actor. He's very dedicated to what he does.
And I learned a lot from him, just watching him work.
It was good. -Do you remember your first line
in a movie?
Does that stick in your head?
Do you have an "All right, all right, all right"?
-My first line. Oh, my first line was...
[ Laughs ]
"My bike!"
[ Laughter ]
-Yes, of course, yes!
That's fantastic. Wow!
-Thank you, thank you. -Iris, now everywhere you go,
people will be like, "Dude, say, "My bike!'"
What did you say? "My bike"?
-Yeah, I was doing an infomercial for -- for --
I guess a lot of bikes were getting stolen,
so someone was like, "Let's make a commercial
about guys locking up their bikes."
And I played it while running up this hill,
and my bike was supposed to be there and it's not there.
And I look. The guy's stealing it.
I go, "My bike!"
[ Cheers and applause ]
-"My bike." It's fantastic.
I love that infomercial. It was my favorite.
-My mic!

Idris Elba Shows Off His "Quiet Storm" Radio DJ Voice

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