Idris Elba has opened up about the terrifying moment when he was threatened at gunpoint outside a nightclub in the United States.
The Luther star revealed that he stepped in to try and diffuse the situation when he saw that a man was intimidating his girlfriend.
Things soon turned frightening when the man responded by pulling out a gun.
“I nearly lost my fucking life, after attempting to stop a man threatening his girlfriend outside a club,” Idris told the Daily Mail.
“A guy [was] whaling on his missus, screaming in her face, ‘I’ll fucking 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?”
Idris continued: “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.’”
The actor and DJ is currently starring in Apple TV+ thriller Hijack, in which he plays Sam, a professional negotiator who must use his skills to attempt to save the lives of hundreds of passengers when their plane is hijacked by a criminal group.
Speaking on the SmartLess podcast earlier this month, Idris opened up about the James Bond rumour mill, revealing that he lost interest in potentially playing 007 because of “disgusting” comments “about race”.
When Daniel Craig revealed that he would be leaving the blockbuster spy franchise after a final outing in the 2021 movie No Time To Die, Idris was immediately touted as a potential successor.
“The truth is, I was super complimented for a long time about this,” he told the podcast. “James Bond… it’s one of those coveted [roles].”
“Being asked to be James Bond was like, ‘OK, you’ve sort of reached the pinnacle,’” he added. “That’s one of those things the whole world has a vote in. Essentially, it was a huge compliment that every corner of the world, except from some corners, which we will not talk about, were really happy about the idea that I could be considered.
“Those that weren’t happy about the idea made the whole thing disgusting and off-putting, because it became about race. It became about nonsense, and I got the brunt of it.”