YouSaid · the spoken record

Idris Elba

lines on the record: 30
first: 2020-06-26
most recent: 2020-06-26
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Getting on the arm. And Yasim, I just want to say thank you as well. Thank you for drawing out real questions, drawing out real themes. Thank you for going deeper in this time. And, you know, you do it majestically and there should be a beacon for other women as well as men. So well done. Thank you, Yasmin.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I wouldn't do it. I would do it if I didn't get paid for it. So if you have that same feeling for what you're doing, stick at it, man, and it will pay off for you.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Of that. I would say learn a different language. Learn a few languages because I didn't. And any language I've learned apart from my mom's Creole from Sierra Leone, I've had to learn in bite sizes for a movie. Lord, do I wish I could speak French or speak Spanish? I would have jumped into so many different markets as an actor. I would have been, you know, it would have been a really door opener for me. And the one thing I would say to anybody that's coming up is, man, you've got to enjoy it. You've got to enjoy it. You've got to love what you're doing. You know, even the rainy days are going to be sucky, but you got to love what you're doing. If I'm honest, I took that advice as a young man to myself. I had many times when I thought I'm just going to give this up. This is not working for me. But I love it so much. I mean, I'm genuinely love it.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My advice would be, you know, stay focused and see the prize the whole time. There's going to be times where that prize is really hard to get. Just stay focused and get towards it. That's what my main advice would be. And under that in sub-brackets, I would be like, save your money, okay, be smart with your money, okay? Be genuine with your friends, okay? Like make friends that you feel are going to be there for life. Don't, you know, just latch onto anybody and think they're going to do good by you. All right. Be careful of that. That's an important one, especially with your rises and actor, as an actor, people tend to, your love, the love people have for you is amplified and it's fake sometimes. So beware.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I do, but I'm conscious of time. But yes, I sort of agree. The writing process is where it is very key to this conversation. It's very key. I grew up in a time where a black man was described as the sporty type, the rugged type. And they didn't, yeah. And they would say black, sporty type, you know, and you're like, what? And it's in the writing. It's in the writing. When I get a script now, I don't look at the color. I'm looking at you don't want to misappropriate someone's culture by casting short-sightedly, right? But the writer, if the writing is good, gives you those clues, gives you that template to do what you need.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, you caught me, but I'm just going to piggyback on that. It is not just a song, it's the entire album Uprising. And on Twitter, I put that picture up of that album. If you listen to that album made almost 30 years to this time ago, it is like word for word accurate and relevant. So it would be that album, big man. Africa Center, yeah, from back in the day, soul to soul.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Center the next man, please don't allow your disability to and your knowledge of how you are not acknowledged to stop you. You got to move forward.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I mean, you know, again, it's about being, in my opinion, just you're going to weather the storm. We know the restrictions. Let's not talk about the restrictions and let's find the way through. Let's be gravity. Gravity is your goal. Just fall towards it. Yes, there needs to be massive reconfiguration for that, especially for people with disabilities. At Green Door, we stay very conscious about it. Some production companies we know do not. We know that. But it is around allowing that message that amplifying that somehow within the industry. Brother, you know, send your scripts in to myself and Kwame. If they are not for us, you'll get a letter to say they're not for us. But don't give up at that junction.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Like, I think that celebrity politics is very dangerous, and it's become a real hotbed. It's become a real sort of topic at the moment. And listen, I probably am one of those celebrities this gentleman's talking about because I tend not to overly send my views on Twitter. I don't consider Twitter a place where my views on a subject should be acknowledged, celebrated, or disappoint people. It's not the forum. It's social media. And I think people take it very, very seriously, especially in times like this. For me, you know, I think that if we are looking towards our celebrities for guidance at times like this when our leaders are letting us down, then there is an issue of focus on that. Point, you know, from me. Yes, I can use a platform to amplify things, and I do, but social media isn't necessarily the forum for it.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Just before you take the next question, just attempt to answer that too. I mean, I'll tell you the same. If there's choices that I've made as an actor that have disappointed predominantly black women, that breaks my heart for sure, for sure.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Quite isn't deep enough. That's where we need to get right. So in my head, you know, taking these stories into commissioners, taking these stories into artistic directors, as Kwame said with the analogy of make sure that you come prepared, make sure it's good. Make sure it's good. Make sure it's relevant. That's really important. Not let's just have a black cast for the sake of it.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, I wouldn't describe it as an inherent fear. There's definitely reservation and marginalization that happens, you know, the quickest thing you say when someone presents an all-black cast is, feels a little bit sniche, a little bit, that's the first thing you hear, okay? And yeah, that may be derived from fear, but I wouldn't describe it as fear. What we do about that is we tell our stories. We have to tell our stories. Look, an old black cast means it's a story about this community, this family, this building, this junction, okay, those stories are rich, those stories need to be told. We need to keep banging on the door and bring in them forward. There will come a time when your story's not taken because it's all black, but because it...”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's such a factor of life. But the reconfiguration of how justice and equality can be set is definitely what success looks like to me.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“As Kwame said, if you make it to the table and you don't come with X amount of the stuff, you won't be at the table. And I think if you imagine a generation where that is inbred into all industry. It is inbred into education, into the health system, where you don't look around thinking you are being treated any worse than the next man. That's what this looks like. When you go into sell a film, you're going in there because your generation of people are looking at you, knowing what we've come through and expecting your story to reflect it. Not that we want you to come in here and just so that we can make a lot of TV. No, we want you to tell us something. And that's what I imagine. And that's what I imagine the future will look like, will feel like, that there's a general consensus that, hey, we are all of this generation. We all deserve a chance. Let's give it. Let's do that. You know, richer are going to always stay rich. Poor is always going to stay poor.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know what it, I mean, you know, just to give a sort of, you know, try and try and be succinct about the answer, you know, that future looks like Kwame's son at 15, at my daughter at 18. That future is alive and well. Kwame and I talk about generations because we've lived it. These kids haven't even lived it and they talk about their generation. They see themselves as a generation. We can call it X, Y, whatever you want to call it, but they see themselves like that. We didn't. You know, divide and rule. We got divided. We didn't see ourselves as a joint generation. They do. What does that mean in the future? You know, for me, it feels like a place where, you know, sexism, racism, you know, are ultimate disqualification.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And that's what I would say. And by the way, again, I'm an optimistic, but I'm also realistic. Nothing's going to change overnight. That journey on the arc is a long treacherous journey. It's a long one. But we'll get there. But you have to be on it to be there. And that's what I would say to industry folks. People that are in position of power to change policy, to change mindset, to change their own company policy. Get on the boat. Don't stay in the storm. That's what I would say.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“As I'm thinking about this answer, to be honest, you know, a lot of my mind goes to things that I just have, you know, said to myself in the mirror and cursed a man out. You know what I mean? So hard that they're spit on the mirror. But I'm going to go away from that. And actually, religious or not, but if you take the concept of Noah's Ark, okay, and the ark is taking the next generation forward. The storm has come and it has blown people left, right and center. Moving forward, you need to get on the arc. If you feel post a storm that, you know, some of the things that we all”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Owns the market space, you know? So that's changed, and I believe it is something to do with us, Nigerians believe in their own, you know. Instead of saying I'm going to take this guy's one, let me see what my brother's doing. And if he can do it, I can do it. You get me? And that is a very helpful cycle, you know?”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I think one of the reasons for that, and Nigeria is a great example, is that they believe in themselves. They believe in themselves. They don't see a Nollywood movie and just criticize it because the lighting or the continuity is rough. They believe in the intention. They believe that, hey, this story, this folklore, these actors are going to ditch me something, right? And I'm going to get rich off listening to that. That belief system is why Nigeria is successful in its own right, why Nollywood is the third biggest. And arguably people will say, well, the quality is no good, but you've got to understand the intention is so pure, it's feeding a generation and they're going to get better. And they are getting better. Nigerian music, without a doubt, Afrobeats.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The plates have shifted in terms of if you're Nigerian, that you need to be accepted in Brooklyn to be called a rapper. That has shifted. Those days are over. In fact, I'd imagine it's becoming the other way around.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, before you know it, you realize you're quite multifaceted. Like before you know, I was decent at football, basketball, cricket, and hockey. You get me? It's because I had that mindset. And the application of that in my art is actually right now the trend that everybody's multifaceted. You know, they realizing, again, to cut through the tape, you have to have your fingers in many pies. And I know, I know I've spoken about this with black men before about, yo, I'm good at certain things now that I never thought would be useful, but I'm so glad I was paying attention. And when I'm holding my own in a room or conversations, people are looking at me like, how do you know that? Because I've been studying, you know, because you've been doing the work. I've been trying to, you know, and now I can apply those skills. Listen, I think the...”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so listen, the first question just to tackle that, you know, growing up in Kwame, you might know this, and Jasmine, you too, you know, my parents were of the school of thought. If you want to make it in this world, you have to be twice as good as the white man. Always said that to me. You have to be twice as good, twice as good. And it became sort of like, you know, a mini mandarin in my head, no matter what I was doing, I applied. Whoever my talent lied in football, I still applied in cricket, you know, because I was always of that mindset. And when I approached art, art came to me as a God's gift. I'm so thankful, I can really touch the cornerstones of art with my heart because I feel it. I know it, right? And it was easy to me. So I applied the same I need to be better. I need to be better. I need to be better. And by the time that happens, you start acting. Oh, I started DJing. I'm implying there. I'm applying as an actor. I'm applying as a musician.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I thought, and how we accept and work with writers of the spectrum, we look at a project and if it doesn't tick those boxes, we tend not to just put it away. So that's how Green Door is. I'm proud of what we've done there. And there's still so much more to go, so much more work to do, so much more sort of sophistication of the device of diversifying your thought because there were so many variables that keep coming up. And storytelling challenges are so different now. You know, once time the holy grail was to work at Kwame's Theater and have a moment or at the national or on the big silver screen or the BBC. Now you just have a real chocolate box of places to put your content and thinking about that thought process is really like, you know, it's a changing, it's always changing.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What has come before what's similar The description of thought is nowhere, it's just here. So that was where that term came from. We need to diversify our thought in order to be able to reconfigure the film industry so we can see a lot more culture, see a lot more of the spectrum that is London, the London I grew up in. So that's where that came from. You know, Green Door essentially is a hub for me to sort of harness that, try and put it to practice, you know. And we're very proud of the sort of track record thus far. If I'm honest, and I'll be, you know, transparent as a successful production company, we're trudging along, carrying this big old heavy rucksack. But from a point of view of opening the door and diversifying.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I appreciate that and thank you for clarifying that because for two reasons one Because I think sometimes we can make the mistake of thinking racism is something we can outperform when that's never the case. We can't outwork our blackness. And also the fact that you would characterize it as inspite, I think, is a nuance difference, but it's really useful and important to put forward. So thank you. I'm going to come back to you in a sec, but I'm also going to ask you, Idris, about your production company, because I know that you talk about this concept of diversity of thought. And the reason that that twigged for me was diversity of thought was also the same phrase that the health minister Matt Hancock used to erase or hide the fact that there were no black people in cabinet. He said, ah, well, we have diversity of thought. I'm really curious about how you interpret diversity of thought. I didn't know that. Well...”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Back 100%, but regardless of that, the way I'm wired is to just keep going. And what's happened is I named my company Green Door because essentially someone said it to me the other day is because I want to leave the door open for the next man and the door's green. Ha ha pun. Get it? See what I did there? But, you know, but essentially that's why Green Door is that because I really do want to lead by example, leave the door open for the next man. I think we should always think about looking forward. We can spend a lot of time talking about where we've come from. We could talk about why we're here, but what we should be thinking about is where we're going. If you put something nasty in your mouth, you're not thinking about keeping it there and discovering why it's so nasty. You want to take it out and put something good in your mouth. And that is how we evolve. You know, that's how we grow. So that's how I've approached it.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Successful, or you beat the system. You said despite, I believe that we did it in spite of that. You know what I mean? In my opinion, I teach my children, I have a six-year-old and an 18-year-old, and I'm always saying just lead by example. If someone answers the question into you and you know the answer, don't wait for everybody else to put their hands up. So if you know the answer, lead by example. And in my case, you know, knowing the answer is just getting on with it, you know, getting on with it. And that is really about, you know, how people are programmed. I'm programmed to chase my dreams. I'm programmed to let no man put me under. I'm programmed that way. Not everyone is. And sometimes there is a knee on your neck or there is a foot on your foot to hold you.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, look, you know, when someone says to me, you're in the house, it makes me think of you're a house Negro, which makes me think that you're safe. No, I'm not saying you meant that, but it does have the same connotations that, well, you're doing good, you're safe inside. And, you know, from my perspective, success has not negated racism for me, you know, like, you know, asking me about racism is like, you know, asking me about how long have I been breathing. You understand? It's like the first time you have any consciousness around your skin is usually about racism, less about mummy telling me you've got beautiful black skin in your handsome, more about, wait, I'm different from him and I'm also being treated different from him. That's one of the first consciousness I had as a child. So that stays with you regardless of whether you become”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“either through our arts or through uprising and that again is our voice so you know I agree with Kwame you know it's and I also believe that you know when when we do get to a place like Kwame said I think it would be a very explosive time I think it will be a very expressionate time and by the way good and bad and by good and bad I mean you know what you're seeing at the moment is a real uprising on on the negative side on the right wing side on the on the you know people that have extreme views but that uprising is okay because we need to let go of stuff you know you you can't kill our voices we have to be able to express ourselves you know”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, very much. I mean, I'd almost, you know, hello, Yasmin, good to meet you as well. But I'd almost, you know, replace the word art with voice. How do we, you know, you take away my art, you take away my voice, you take away my expression in many different art forms. You take that away, then there's no way I can release what I'm thinking, how I'm feeling. There's no way for you to reflect on my art, on how you're feeling and what you're thinking. And that is a pressure cooker for disaster in a community, in a culture, in a place like London, in a place like England, where we're used to sharing our voices. We're used to that. Some of the biggest moments of change or outcry have come.”
2020-06-26 · Intelligence Squared · The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source