Idris Elba says he smoked 'a lot of weed' after dark“ Beasts of No Nation” role

"I'm one of these actors who I absorb my character," Elba tells EW of playing the war lord.

Idris Elba is a fan of smoking out his problems.

While sitting down with Entertainment Weekly for our Role Call YouTube series, he opened up about playing the Commandant in 2015's Beasts of No Nation and his struggles to keep the darkness of the role out of his own life.

"Essentially, this was a fictional West African country," he tells EW. "I went for a West African General. But it was definitely influenced by where my parents are from. The Commandant is a very twisted, conflicted human being. He would have these commands he would use to almost hypnotize those young soldiers. The story is loosely based around the civil war of Sierra Leone and Liberia."

"I'm one of these actors who I absorb my character," he continues. "I absorb their experiences, so I can understand a little bit. I had to watch hours and read stuff that was just so disturbing. My nightmares were varied. It was either me in these nightmares or it was the Commandant, and it was all this vivid imagery that I was exposed to."

Naturally, that can take a toll on someone, living with that level of evil on a daily basis. So, how did Elba cope?

"Can I be honest?" he asks, before confessing, "I was smoking a lot of weed at that time and that would get me out of that."

The civil war drama, written and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, tells the story of Agu (Abraham Attah), a young West African boy, who is drawn into becoming a child soldier under the watchful, hypnotic eye of the Commandant.

Elba actually has a long history with good old Mary Jane. Before breaking out on The Wire, Elba had a lot of odd jobs to get by, including selling weed.

"I used to sell weed, he revealed on The Jess Cagle Show back in 2022. "I did that for a little bit just to, you know, help pay the way. I DJ'ed quite a bit. I was a doorman. I was a doorman at Carolines comedy club [in New York], which is fascinating now, when I meet the comedians that you kind of remember the English guy. Tall English guy with the funny accent and the little hair. David Chappelle remembers me 'cause he used to buy weed from me. Anyway, moving on. Yeah, I did all kinds of things to be honest, all kinds of things."

Watch Elba's full interview above.

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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.