for a few weeks, Margot Robbie enters her work meetings with another energy. After the bombing of Barbie, which already exceeds a billion dollars at the box office, the Australian actress and producer is received in the offices as what she finally is: a very profitable star. Robbie’s career was bright and showy, but she was missing something: a true success, a goose that laid the golden eggs, a blockbuster.
Idris Elba it doesn’t have any of that either. However, it does not seem that the British actor, already in his fifties, has problems when it comes to leading one project after another. To date, there is no movie or series that can attribute its success to Elba’s presence.. What’s more: as a protagonist he is what we could call a jinxed actor. Furthermore, and unlike Margot Robbie, his works have not aroused much critical enthusiasm. Some of the most ridiculous productions in recent years had him on the payroll. And on promotional posters. And the first in line to collect. It is estimated that Idris Elba’s personal fortune is similar to that of Margot Robbie. Elba the closest he has come to the phenomenon Barbie is being part of suicide squad, where he shared filming with Robbie. The movie was a resounding failure.
But there you have it, starring in a pintona series for Apple TV+. Hijack it’s a thriller of seven episodes raised as if it developed in real time. In this series created by George Kay y Jim Field Smith, Elba is one of the passengers on a Dubai-London flight hijacked in the middle of the journey. Well, one of the passengers is not: is THE passenger. It could not be otherwise. Idris Elba is already one of those stars that we do not conceive of in a secondary role, although as a protagonist he has rarely worked. The uncle has been living off the rents for years The Wire, The Big C y Luther, three fictions that have drawn liquid gold from it. In both
police dramas, Elba put his charisma at the service of drama and intensity; In the Laura Linney series, her undeniable sex symbol status was exploited. She chooses to think that Linney had a lot to do with her decision to cast Elba as her romantic interest in the series. It’s what she has to be an executive producer. It’s what anyone would do. Idris Elba can discuss many things, but his sexual drive is not one of them.
When, as in the muggy Turn Up Charlie, you have tried to disable it, the results have been disturbing. when, as in The OfficeOthers are playing that game, the viewer enters the rag and gets the joke: the only thing that Idrissa Akuna Elba knows how to do really well is to make the staff horny. But something tells me that these types of comments are not usually made in work meetings where he enters with an idea and leaves with a contract. I wouldn’t dare say the same for Margot Robbie. I have had Idris Elba several times in front of me and I attest: you fall under his spell and the bandit sells you whatever he wants. On Netflix they probably say the same. And now, on Apple TV+.