STACK NZ Nov #57

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DID YOU KNOW? When the topic of Liam Gallagher was raised with Idris Elba in an interview with GQ in the US, the actor responded with “F*ck that idiot”.

STACK SALUTES

We love him because... MORGAN FREEMAN

IDRIS ELBA

He always turns up to explain what’s going on in a movie. He’s played God ( Bruce Almighty ), the US president ( Deep Impact ), and Nelson Mandela ( Invictus ). He drove Miss Daisy. He’s Lucius Fox in the Dark Knight trilogy. He’s Red in The Shawshank Redemption . He’s Detective Somerset in Se7en . He’s a perennial narrator. He starred in Dreamcatcher and kept his reputation intact. He loves to work and currently has 106 credits as an actor, according to IMDb. He’s the go-to guy when Samuel L. Jackson is unavailable. How can you not love that mellow, authoritative voice?

With a career spanning film, television, theatre and music, London-born Idrissa Akura Elba is red hot right now. His considerable screen presence makes him the perfect fit for roles requiring an authoritative air, or cool characters upon whom the survival of humanity depends. He’s also played a ruthless drug lord and a homicide detective in two of his signature roles for TV. And he’s a hip-hop artist and DJ, the latter under the name Big Drills. During his youth, Idris assisted with his uncle’s DJ business before scoring a grant allowing him to attend the National Youth Music Theatre. Encouraged by his high school drama teacher to pursue acting, he auditioned for a number of roles in television in between working odd jobs and nightclub gigs as a DJ. Throughout the nineties he found regular work in TV series like the Ruth Rendell Mysteries (1996), Insiders (1997) and Ultraviolet (1998). Idris’s big break came when he landed the role of Baltimore drug lord Stringer Bell in HBO’s acclaimed drama series TheWire – a part that has since required him to adopt an American accent when meeting fans of the show. “I almost feel guilty turning around and saying, ‘Ello mate. My name’s Idris and I’m from London’. I don’t want to break the illusion,” he says. The runaway success of TheWire has led to bigger things for the actor, and Idris is now one of those faces that appears to be in everything – his name even came up as a possible contender for the new Doctor Who this year! Filmgoers will know him best as Janek, Captain of the Prometheus ; Heimdall, the imposing guardian of Asgard in Thor and Thor: The Dark World ; and Stacker Pentecost, who rallies humanity against monsters in Pacific Rim with a rousing call to arms: “Today we are cancelling the apocalypse!” Idris has also portrayed the late Nelson Mandela in the biopic Mandela: LongWalk to Freedom – surely his most challenging role to date. Moreover, he still maintains a high profile on television as the eponymous detective in the British crime drama Luther, for which he won a Golden Globe in 2012. Fans of the series, note that a feature is currently in the works!

The Wire (2002-2004)

Luther (2010-2013)

Prometheus (2012)

Pacific Rim (2013)

Morgan on DVD:

Unforgiven (1992) The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Batman Begins (2005) Wanted (2008) The Lego Movie (2014)

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013)

Geena Davis

Throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, the statuesque presence of Geena Davis was a regular fixture on cinema screens in popular films like Beetlejuice , The Fly , The Accidental Tourist , Thelma & Louise , and The Long Kiss Goodnight . However, following a couple of flops ( Speechless and Cutthroat Island ), we saw less and less of the cherubic-faced star outside of a couple of Stuart Little films. Geena’s disappearance from the big screen in the ‘00s was largely a consequence of the demands of motherhood, and competing for a semi-final berth with the 2000 Summer Olympics US archery team.

She had also done what a lot of stars of her era do these days – find a comfortable niche on the small screen. While her self-titled sitcom The Geena Davis Show (2000) didn’t make it to the end of its first season before the axe fell, her subsequent TV venture Commander in Chief (2005) was more successful. Not only did she win a Golden Globe for playing the first female US president, she also co-executive produced the series. Since then she’s travelled Down Under to star in the dysfunctional family dramedy Accidents Happen , and appeared in the mini-series remake of Coma .

NOVEMBER 2014 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.co.nz

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