Portraying Nelson Mandela hits close to home for Idris Elba

1/5

The life story of Nelson Mandela - a powerful tale of a charismatic lawyer and human rights activist working to dismantle apartheid, only to land in prison for 27 years and ultimately become country’s first democratically elected president - has been told time and time again. Most recently, British star Idris Elba portrays the anti-apartheid figure on screen. Click through to see a sampling of actors who’ve depicted the revolutionary in film.

By Christy Khoshaba (Debbi Yazbek / AFP / Getty Images)

2/5

The narrative: In his first term as the South African President, Nelson Mandela uses the nation’s appetite for sports as a pivot point to unite the apartheid-torn land. He enlists the national rugby team - a group and sport many black South Africans once perceived as the game of their oppressors - to win the 1995 Rugby World Cup. The result electrifies South Africa with what Mandela calls its moment of greatness.

Actor’s push: At a 1994 press conference for Mandela’s memoir “Long Walk to Freedom,” Mandela appointed Morgan Freeman as the actor to portray him in film. “It sounds arrogant,” Freeman said, “but my thinking was, ‘Of course. Who else? and I can do it.”

Director’s pull: “Morgan is great,” said the film’s director Clint Eastwood of “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Million Dollar Baby.” “I could not imagine anyone else in the role of Mandela. They have the same stature and same kind of charismatic nature. Morgan also has a similar vocal quality, and he worked very hard to capture Mandela’s inflections. I think he did it quite well.”

Did he meet Mr. Mandela? Very much so. Freeman spent time with Mandela to replicate the way he walked and talked. The pair eventually sat down to watch the film together. “I was sitting right next to him,” Freeman said. “He pointed at the screen and said ‘I know that fella.’ So, yeah, I think he liked it.” (Keith Bernstein / AP)

3/5

The narrative: Based on the memoirs written by James Gregory, who was the censor officer and prison guard to Nelson Mandela, the film recounts the intense effect Mandela had on the white South African guard, and the relationship the pair developed during Mandela’s 18-year stay in prison on Robben Island, before he moved to Pollsmoor Prison.

Actor’s push: Haysbert admitted the role was “daunting” and “intimidating.” “Every night I went home, I would have a glass of wine and just cry,” he said. “The sacrifices he made were profoundly sad to me.”

Director’s pull: “I had to find an actor who has his size and [is of] the same age as Mandela,” said the film’s director Billie August of “The House of Spirits” and “Les Miserables.” “The choice of Dennis Haysbert seemed obvious. I had spotted him in the series “24.” (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

4/5

The narrative: The film tells the tale of Nelson Mandela’s wife, Winnie Mandela, and her tumultuous outing from a shy country girl to a dogged revolutionary, as the world watched her relationship with her husband transform.

Actor’s push: “I was terrified,” said David Harewood. “Then I started doing my research. And the more I read, the more I understood that he’s a man, a very vulnerable man, a man in love, a man who was incredibly strong and intelligent.” (Jeff Vespa / WireImage)

5/5

The narrative: Honing in on the final days of apartheid in South Africa, the film brings to light the secret high-risk talks and negotiations held between the African National Congress and the Afrikaner National Party in an English country house, which brought an end to apartheid and led the release of Nelson Mandela.

Actor’s push: “For years I didn’t eat South African food,”Peters said. “I didn’t go to South Africa when I was invited there. I was counting on the whole world to bring pressure to bear to help end apartheid.” When Clarke was offered the role, he likened it something of royal stature. “I was absolutely overawed. Wouldn¿t you be? How would you like to play the Queen?”

Director’s pull: “What really struck me is that it’s a story about now,” said the film’s director Pete Travis of “Vantage Point”and “Dredd.” “Seemingly intractable political situations transformed by seemingly impossible things, like people having hope. That’s the story that feels totally about today to me.”

Did he meet Mr. Mandela? Peters met Mandela’s inmate on Robben Island, who told him when Mandela heard his son died, he stood at his cell window for four days, avoiding human contact and food. “When he turned away from the window he was a changed man,” said Peters. “I think he was having a very deep conversation with God - that God imbued him with that extra bit of wisdom, that extra bit of patience.” (Larry Busacca / Getty Images)

By Susan King, Los Angeles Times

Nov. 29, 2013 8 AM PT

British actor Idris Elba is having what he describes as a “beautiful moment” in his career. His off-screen life, though, is another story.

This summer, Elba starred in Guillermo del Toro’s special-effects action thriller “Pacific Rim,” in which he transformed the rather moldy line, “We are canceling the apocalypse,” into something akin to Shakespeare.

The third season of his acclaimed British detective series, “Luther,” for which he won a Golden Globe in 2012, recently aired on BBC America, and he’s reprising his role of Heimdall, the buff, all-knowing Asgardian warrior-god, in the blockbuster, “Thor: The Dark World.”

And he’s garnering rave reviews — not to mention awards buzz — for his complex performance as Nelson Mandela, the legendary South African leader who helped end apartheid, in the new biographical drama “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom,” which opens Friday. But during a recent interview, the 41-year-old Elba, admitted he’s “numb” to the attention and praise.

“It’s weird at the moment,” the strikingly handsome actor said over lunch at the Mondrian hotel on Sunset Boulevard.

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“My dad died eight, nine weeks ago,” he said, quietly. “He was 76. He died of lung cancer. I am having to deal with grief, and it has taken a profound effect on me.”

Elba doesn’t want to sound ungrateful for his professional good fortune. “I put on a smile, put on the suits and I go on the red carpet. I do the work, and I’m doing it because that is what my old man would want me to do. He was very proud of me.”

The actor, who is an only child, used his father, Winston, as the basis for his performance. His father immigrated to London from Sierra Leone; his mother, Eva, is from Ghana.

Though from different African countries, Elba said, his father and Mandela had the same cadence in their speech. There were other similarities in their behaviors, from the way they crossed their legs to holding their fingers while talking, which helped him immeasurably in bringing Mandela to life. “My dad had a big silver ball of hair and Mandela has that, so that was my framework,” he said.

Elba, who exudes as much charisma in person as he does on-screen, made his first impression on American audiences in 2002 with his explosive performance as Stringer Bell, the aspirational second-in-command to a Baltimore drug kingpin in HBO’s award-winning series “The Wire.”

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Over the last decade, the actor has appeared in numerous films and TV series including NBC’s “The Office” (he played a rival to Steve Carell’s regional manager), the 2007 Tyler Perry melodrama “Daddy’s Little Girls,” as well as Ridley Scott’s 2007 “American Gangster” and 2012’s “Prometheus.”

He’s also moonlights as a DJ. “I am hired specifically for my hard, progressive house music,” said Elba. “It’s so different from this world. Nobody cares about who I am when I am out playing the music. It really grounds me. It’s a side of my creativity I can’t let go of.”

A singer and songwriter, Elba just recorded an album in South Africa inspired by his experience making the movie in the country. “I call it character music,” Elba said. “It’s the first time of really marrying what I do in the film with the music.”

‘The spirit of the man’

At first, Idris, who plays Mandela from his 20s through his late 70s, was reluctant to take on the role of the lawyer and anti-apartheid activist, who spent 27 years in prison before becoming the country’s first democratically elected president.

Not only did he feel he was too young to play the role, “I am actually four shades too dark,” said Elba.

But director Justin Chadwick had an instinct about Elba. “He’s a subtle actor that totally inhabits a role,” said Chadwick in an email. “The producers had imagined I’d cast a Hollywood star, but I loved that Idris carried no baggage into whatever role he plays. We weren’t going for a look-alike version, but wanted to catch the spirit of the man.”

Elba, Chadwick added, “is a true gentle man, very warm and generous. He is also fearless. And that’s how people described Mandela the young man to me.”

The actor recalls talking to Chadwick about the role while he was filming “Pacific Rim” in Toronto. “He sat with me, watched me work and we talked and talked,” said Elba in his strong British working class accent. “I started to warm up to the idea. But I was really scared. I thought, ‘Oh my God, if I mess this up, what the hell? I’ll never work again.’ ”

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A lot of his fears were laid to rest when he met Naomie Harris, who plays Mandela’s second wife, Winnie, the naïve young social worker who transforms into a defiant militant. “The on-screen chemistry was amazing,” said Elba. “I am looking at Winnie and Nelson, I am not looking at Naomie and I. The love feels so real.”

Though he never got to meet the 95-year-old Mandela, who has had serious health issues, Elba has become close to his family. At the premiere this month in South Africa, Mandela’s daughter Zinzdi even said to him, “Come here, Dad,” so they could pose together for photos.

Elba insisted that he spend a night in one of the dehumanizing small cells on Robben Island, where Mandela spent 18 years in prison. It is now a museum.

The officials turned him down several times. Frustrated, Elba even contemplated getting into a brawl in a bar so he could spend the night in jail. But finally, the Robben Island officials allowed him to stay in a “punishment” cell.

On the set: movies and TV

“When you are locked in the room you are powerless,” said Elba. “I was lucky I only had 24 hours. But it just put it into context and what his frame of mind was to have endured for that long of time.”

Chadwick said he always knew that Elba would be “brilliant” as the young Mandela. “It was the older, more recognizable Mandela that was the challenge that we had to catch.”

Because the indie film didn’t have deep financial pockets, “we had to be canny with our resources ... we had to shoot totally out of sequence,” said Chadwick.

In fact, in one day Elba had to do a quick transformation from a 40-year-old Mandela to the elderly man in his 70s.

“His walk and his body language was breathtaking,” said Chadwick. “He became Mandela.”

susan.king@latimes.com