Idris Elba is looking back on his brief time on the American version of “The Office”.
The actor dropped by SiriusXM’s “The Jess Cagle Show” to promote his new movie “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” and also looked back at some of his career highlights.
When Cagle announced that the actor would be appearing on her show, a friend’s daughter immediately referenced his recurring character in season 5 of “The Office”, Charles Miner.
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“My friend’s daughter, who’s a teenager, was like, ‘”The Office”. That is my entry point,'” she laughed. “But you were obviously great in the arc within ‘The Office’, but that has been a show, especially over the last couple of years, that has taken on this other life, especially with young people, binging ‘The Office’. And have you noticed that more young people are coming up to you being like ‘Charles Miner, “The Office”. This is crazy.'”
The reaction from fans definitely surprised Elba.
“I played Charles Miner so long ago and now there is a little resurgence. Like, I saw a T-shirt with Charles Miner on it and my quote, which was, ‘I understand how sexy I am to women,’ or whatever that line was,” responded Elba. “And it was on a T-shirt. I was like, ‘Wow, I’m, I’m a cult classic right now.'”
Elba’s character Miner was the extremely attractive vice-president of the northeast sales who replaced Ryan Howard (B.J. Novak) at the end of season 4.
When asked about how he felt making people faint from his looks, Elba laughed.
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“I mean, come on. What kind of question? I struggle with that,” he teased. “I struggle with it, you know, I don’t want people to hurt themselves as they’re fainting.”
The 49-year-old also looked back on another role of his in the “Fast & Furious” franchise. Elba played the character Brixton in the spinoff movie “Hobbs and Shaw” — a role he was open to revisiting.
“That character is one of my favourite characters. I love Brixton because he was Superman,” he shared. “You know, he was just this guy that could do anything with that incredible bionic spine that he had. So, the answer is yes. Will they bring him back? I doubt it, but I’d like it if they did.”
The actor has gone through many roles during his prolific career, beginning in the world of theatre to the silver screens of Hollywood, but he wasn’t always so successful.
He recalled struggling when he first arrived in America, doing everything from DJing and even selling marijuana.
“I used to sell weed,” the star admitted. “I did that for a little bit just to, you know, help pay the way. I DJed quite a bit. I was a doorman. I was a doorman at Caroline’s Comedy Club, which is fascinating now, when I meet the comedians that you kind of remember the English guy.”
In fact, he met David Chappelle that way.
“David Chappelle remembers me cause he used to buy weed from me, anyway, moving on. Yeah, I did all kinds of things to be honest, all kinds of things,” said Elba.
