Here are some photos of Idris Elba and Naomie Harris at a NYC screening of Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. I’m also including a couple of photos of Idris and Naomie from last week, where they did a panel discussion at the Apple store in Soho. Those are the pics where Big Dris is wearing a purple t-shirt and striped scarf. I kind of like Idris more for “power clashing”. He does have style, I cannot deny it. And he can wear the hell out of a suit too. Naomie’s pale dress is Burberry – yay! Love Burberry.

As for Idris, he’s still hustling for a Best Actor nomination. I see him getting nominated for Best Actor in a Drama at the Golden Globes, for sure. I don’t know if he’ll manage a SAG or Oscar nomination though. We’ll see. Idris recently sat down for an interview with USA Today. Some highlights:

How he stays “rooted in reality”: “I hug trees. I’ve got a tree tattooed on my arm. My daughter (Isan, 11) and I, every New Year’s if we’re together, we go out at the stroke of midnight and we go sit by a tree and have a picnic and chat. It’s really good for highlighting that that was then and this is now.”

Being asked to play Mandela: “I had a lot of reservations about it. Whoever plays Mandela has to do such a great job. He’s a real man. It’s a lot of responsibility — he’s a living legend. And I don’t look like him. What are you saying, that all black people look the same?”

Whether he and Mandela are ladies’ men. “My director likes to point out that Mandela was a ladies’ man. What the (expletive)? That’s why you hired me, because you think I’m a ladies’ man?” Elba says with a laugh. He denies sharing that characteristic with Mandela. “What I do see is the ambition. He’s got drive and I have a lot of drive, annoyingly. I never want to sit still. My agents are like, ‘Calm down.’ But why take six months off?”

His father passed away recently: “My father passed recently. I based my character in Mandela on my dad. He was the only 70-year-old man I knew. Watching the way my dad got out of chairs was my basis for Mandela. Watching that film with him when he was alive was really surreal. He was so impressed. He (understood) what I was doing for the first time.”

He met Queen Elizabeth: “Sweet and bright and full of life,” he says.

He met another Queen, Queen Oprah: “I was just sitting with Oprah Winfrey, who has been a landmark, a pinnacle for success. If you sit with Oprah Winfrey, you’ve made it. My mum believes that. It’s been surreal to have this attention thrown at me. It’s a massive honor.”

He doesn’t want to overshare: “You have to keep the mystery as much as you can. If I’m honest, in the future, I’ll be doing less press.”

His girlfriend, Naiyana Garth, is pregnant: “Recently my private life is creeping into my work life and that annoys the (expletive) out of me. This is my work. My life is different.”

[From USA Today]

I know I talk about this a lot, but I love that Idris is a monarchist. I get the feeling that most English actors are ambivalent towards the monarchy, but Idris always has nice things to say about Prince Charles and the royal family. And now Big Dris has met the Queen! I hope the Queen liked him. Perhaps she thought he was handsome and stylish?

As for the weird way his girlfriend’s pregnancy announcement came out – the first reports came from people reading Garth’s Twitter, where she was openly discussing her pregnancy. So… I mean, it’s not like some nosy reporter was going through his trash. People just checked her Twitter feed!

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.