Idris Elba admits becoming a director is a "bit of a cliched journey".
Idris Elba
The 45-year-old actor has made his directorial debut with the new crime movie 'Yardie', and Idris has revealed it's something he's always aspired to do.
The Hollywood star shared: "It's a bit of a cliched journey for any actor to go into directing, isn't it?
"I definitely always saw myself sitting in the hot seat one day. I remember watching Ridley Scott work and thinking, I want to do that, watching Guillermo del Toro work, watching Cary Fukunaga work and thinking, Wow."
Idris also revealed how his own directorial approach has been influenced by the people he's previously work with.
Speaking to the Irish Times newspaper, the London-born actor explained: "I operated second camera on this film because that's what Cary does on his films. I remember wondering why he does that, but when you get into his process, you realise it's because you can see the lies.
"You can get distracted when you're a director just looking at a screen. But when you're right there, there's a relationship between the naked eye and the camera, and you can see what doesn't look right."
However, it has taken Idris years to establish himself as one of Hollywood's best-known actors.
And he can still remember the dark days of his career, when he was having to scramble around looking for work.
He said: "The worst time was when I had no work for three or four years.
"I was coming back to England. I'd grab a job, I'd get some money, and I'd go back to America. But I never really got to the place when I thought: I'm done. I've done millions of jobs and this has been my main job since I was 18."
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