Emma Brand finds Idris Elba shying away from the digital world.
Idris Elba is a man of his word. On 27 February he Tweeted “Spending unhealthy amounts of time on social media, can erode your attention span for real ‘life’ comprehension. Try speaking and listening.” Since then he hasn’t been very active on his social media accounts. It is quite impressive to have 1.8 million followers, considering how rarely his Twitter account is updated.
Idris seems to have reserved Tweeting for only the biggest moments in life, e.g. when he was awarded an OBE, saying “Flying the East End flag at Buckingham Palace today!!! OBE Day….. How does the boy look? Feeling Proppa…:)”
Yet on some occasions he does come out of relative seclusion to sell himself and strut his stuff. Since becoming a DJ Idris has been promoting his sets, saying, for example, “You can’t take London out of the boy… home town gig next month @Egg_Club_London”. He DJ’s under the name Big Driis the Londoner. He has also recently been to Snowbombing Festival, “Yes @Snowbombing…come see me at the Racket club, 10pm!”
Idris’ bio features ♯MurdahLovesJohn, the name of his Luther inspired album. This is either staying true to two of his passions, music and acting; or else it’s astute marketing – using the name of the character he is most widely known for as the name of his album.
There is only one mention of his latest role in the remake of Jungle Book (released this week), in which he is the voice of the tiger, Shere Khan.
His Facebook page is updated even less than his Twitter: it includes more-or-less the same updates, but even fewer of them.