The man who brought Stringer Bell to life on The Wire has previously admitted to selling drugs himself at one time. But in an interview with Playboy, we get to know much more about British darling Irdris Elba’s after school activities. Specifically, he tells interviewer Rob Tannenbaum: “I didn’t start smoking weed until later in life … I mean, I’m not gonna lie — I’ve tried everything, just between you, me and the people who read this magazine. I’ve tried it all. I played one of the biggest drug dealers in the world on TV, so you think I’d know what I was talking about.â€
The Luther actor shared a few more interesting nuggets about himself in the Q-and-A: He “lived in a van for about three months†before The Wire began, he feels “awkward†at clubs though he’s a D.J., and he doesn’t get a lot of attention in the outside world (“I’ll sit in a pub and nobody will recognize me. I might see an attractive woman, but she doesn’t recognize me, so I’m not getting any love). Also, starring in Mandela has got him thinking of going method: “I admire actors like Daniel Day-Lewis who do only so many films and are unrecognizable because they plow into a character. That’s a lane where I think I’m going to end up, and Mandela takes me closest to that.â€