Stepping Into Thor: The Dark World Was A Somewhat Depressing Experience For Idris Elba
In Kenneth Branagh's 2011 fantasy clunker "Thor," Chris Hemsworth plays an extraterrestrial once worshiped on Earth as the Norse God of Thunder. Thor and his retinue traverse the galaxy using a carefully protected device called the Bifröst, a.k.a. the Rainbow Bridge, which can zap travelers anywhere in the galaxy instantaneously within a massive laser beam. The Bifröst is protected and controlled by a powerful armored guard/engineer named Heimdall, a hulking hunk decked out in gold and leather and sporting eerie golden eyes. Those golden eyes allow Heimdall to see great distances and into other realms.
Heimdall was played by actor Idris Elba, who would go on to play the character in five additional Marvel Cinematic Universe pictures.
Elba, as many know, first broke into the public eye for his role on the hit HBO series "The Wire" in 2002. Since then, Elba has become a proper movie and TV star, appearing in blockbusters and hit shows on the regular. He's also often been called one of the sexiest men alive by ... well, by anyone I talk to about Idris Elba. Indeed, in 2013, when Elba appeared in the "Thor" sequel, "Thor: The Dark World," he was also called Sexiest Man of the Year by Essence Magazine.
Before filming "The Dark World," Elba had just completed his work on Justin Chadwick's biopic "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom," wherein he played Nelson Mandela. He was proud of his work on Cahdwick's film and felt he had taken part in something important. This elated feeling gave him severe whiplash when stepping back into the outsize Heimdall costume for "The Dark World." In a 2014 interview with The Telegraph, Elba noted that making Marvel movies is torture, especially when one is moving from a Mandela biopic.
The sublime and the ridiculous
While Elba played the role of Heimdall with his expected aplomb, his shooting schedule was so tight that it caused cognitive dissonance. He had to shake off playing Mandela — a role he found to be dignified and edifying — to act against a green screen wearing fantasy armor for some of the reshoots on "Thor: The Dark World." Elba admitted to some queasiness, saying:
"[On set] I'm thinking: twenty-four hours ago, I was [Nelson] Mandela. When I walked into the set, the extras called me Madiba. I was literally walking in this man's boots. [Within] six months, the crew, we were all so in love with this film we had made. I was him. I was Mandela, practically. Then there I was, in this stupid harness, with this wig and this sword and these contact lenses. It ripped my heart out."
"Madiba," for those who don't know, was one of Mandela's nicknames, taken from his Xhosa clan background.
One can see Elba's frustrations. As an actor, he clearly likes challenges, as well as opportunities to express emotions from the deeper chasms of the human experience. Fantasy action characters rarely provide those moments, focusing instead on visuals, costumes, and stunts. Is being thrown through the air on cables wearing a gold Viking helmet the same thing as acting? Elba doesn't seem to feel that way, especially considering that Heimdall is but a supporting player in a broad fantasy story about a magical blonde bohunk with a hammer.
The horror of heroes
Elba, of course, isn't the only actor frustrated with the rigors of playing superheroes. His "Thor: The Dark World" co-star Christopher Eccleston, who played a villainous evil elf, told The Guardian that acting in the film was "Just a gun in your mouth."
And these sorts of complaints go back to the beginning. Actor George Reeves famously hated playing the title hero in the 1952 series "The Adventures of Superman," feeling the role to be unchallenging fluff. He is said to have burned his Superman costume on a grill when the show was canceled. In a grave insult to his legacy, a digital recreation of Reeves in the Superman costume was inserted into the recent bomb "The Flash."
Jessica Alba once told Elle Magazine that Tim Story, the director of "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" told her that her on-screen crying wasn't "pretty enough," a piece of direction that shook her faith in acting as a career choice. Sally Field, who played Aunt May in "The Amazing Spider-Man," once likened her one-dimensional character to putting "ten pounds of s*** in a five-pound bag." In a 2023 interview with GQ, Dave Bautista noted that he was quite done playing the role of Drax the Destroyer in the "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies, as it was "silly performance," and that he would like to try more dramatic material.
So Elba is in good company in his distaste for playing Heimdall. We may have fun watching superhero movies, but our enjoyment may be greater than the actors we're watching.