Though he currently plays an expert negotiator thinking quickly on his feet in a harrowing situation on Apple TV+’s hit thriller Hijack, Idris Elba isn’t quite the expert situation diffuser in real life, as he revealed in a recent interview with Daily Mail.
Recalling an encounter he had outside a nightclub in the US, the British actor opened up about nearly being shot when trying to intervene in what appeared to be a domestic dispute.
“I nearly lost my f***ing life, after attempting to stop a man threatening his girlfriend outside a club,” the actor revealed.
Though he didn’t specify the exact timeline or location of the incident, Elba made it clear that the event stuck with him long term as an example of what not to do when trying to neutralize a volatile situation.
“A guy (was) whaling on his missus, screaming in her face, ‘I’ll f***ing kill you!’ and so on,” he explained. “I come round and I go ‘Look how beautiful she is. Why would you talk to this beautiful princess like that?'”
Sadly, the actor’s undeniable charm didn’t work on the male aggressor quite the way he thought it would.
“He pulled out a gun, stuck it right in my face, and goes, ‘You talking about my girl?’ He thought I was trying to hit on her.”
“I remember thinking, ‘Don’t play negotiations like that.’ Consequences, man.”
Though negotiation isn’t exactly Elba’s forte, his hit series Hijack finds him as Sam Nelson, a corporate negotiator whose 7-hour flight from Dubai to London to visit his estranged wife happens to get overtaken by British hijackers with mysterious motives.
Desperate to return home, Nelso makes use of his professional skills in an attempt to save everyone on board…but with tensions constantly rising and the situation ever changing, will his quick-thinking methods work in the end?
New episodes of Hijack stream Wednesdays on Apple TV+