Idris Elba is "madly in love" with his family.

Idris Elba

Idris Elba

The 'Mountain Between Us' actor - who is married to Sabrina Dhowre and has children Isan, 17, and five-year-old Winston from previous relationships - is working hard while the career opportunities are there for him but he needs "balance" because he wants to spend as much time as possible with his loved ones.

He said: "Everything's a balance in life. I have to do the work, because it's a popular time for me, and it's best to have that. But also: I'm madly in love with my wife and my children.

"At home, I'm not famous: I'm me. And to my team and my family and the people that I work with every day when we build what we build, we're not famous. You know what I mean? It's day one every day."

The 46-year-old actor admitted he wishes he could be more "obscure" but still have a successful career.

He told Vanity Fair magazine: "Daniel Day-Lewis is an incredible actor but does not like to be in the public eye and manages to do the two. I can't do that. I wish I could. I wish I could just be obscure, and no one ever have to see me, and never have to do interviews, and still have the career that he has."

And in the current social media age, Idris feels there is more "pressure" than ever to keep his personal life public.

He said: "As you climb up the ladder, people expect you to have way more followers, and you become the marketing engine.

"There used to be a day where I could have no followers and still get paid and people still expect me to do press.

"But if I come along with 8 million followers, and they're all going to see my movie, the film companies want that. So the pressure to be more public is higher...

"And if you take a picture of you, or your house, do know that there are people zooming in to see what's behind you. That stuff - you have to think about it way more than people back in the day."


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