Idris Elba Brings Some Authority to Disney Fantasies

Idris Elba has made a career of playing authority figures, straddling both sides of the law in roles as cops (Luther), drug kingpins (The Wire), and warlords (Beasts of No Nation). The 43-year-old actor has a certain gravitas to his voice, a commanding boom warning that nonsense will not be tolerated in his presence. It made him a natural choice to voice Chief Bogo, the large and stern water buffalo who is the head of police in Disney’s Zootopia (out on Friday).

“The character’s just a very uptight dude,” Elba told Yahoo Movies last week, noting that the character’s secret fondness for pop music added to the challenge. “It was quite funny, as big and strong as he is, to try and find ways to make him less strong. And even with a big voice, to play him interesting. We had these funny moments; he is quite a tough man, but sometimes he’s quite soft and quite funny.”

Elba’s voice is going to become very familiar to Disney fans in the next few months, as the actor is featured in the studio’s next three releases. First up after Zootopia is Jon Favreau’s live-action/CGI remaking of The Jungle Book, in which Elba plays the tiger Shere Khan, the angry king of the jungle. Viewers who recognize his voice may also catch fleeting suggestions of the actor’s face, thanks to new quasi-motion capture technology.

Related: Here’s Why ‘Zootopia’ Features Disney’s Most Detailed Animation Ever

“They filmed me, but only just to see what my face is doing; they didn’t mirror that to the character,” he explained. “So the tiger doesn’t look like me, but there are certain things that its face will do and voice will do at the same time as mine. That’s one of the challenges of suddenly having talking animals: how do you humanize that? I basically sit there for a few hours just making silly voices and reading stuff and trying to scare the s–t out of my microphone.”

Being in The Jungle Book is especially thrilling for Elba, who says the 1967 original cartoon was his favorite Disney movie as a kid. Back then he loved Baloo, the carefree singing bear who is being voiced by Bill Murray in this update. But Elba is clearly happy to be working with Disney, as he also lends his authoritative British brogue to Finding Dory.

He won’t say yet which aquatic creature he’s voicing, but the specific role is hardly the point of doing this kind of work.

“I have kids and I love the idea of my kids being able to see and hear my voice in these animations,” he says. “I loved cartoons, and so do my kids.”

Related: ‘Zootopia’ Review: New Disney Toon Is Beastly Good Fun

Specifically, his young son is a big fan of the animated series Peppa Pig, which means that Elba spends much of his time at home watching a British series aimed at pre-schoolers. Not that he has all that much time to chill in front of the TV these days. Aside from working on just about every Disney film, Elba is also a central figure in two big franchises: The Dark Tower, the long-awaited film adaptation of Stephen King’s epic sci-fi western book series; and Star Trek, which he joins as the villain Krall in this summer’s sequel.

Again, he can’t say much about his role in the film, but did report a positive experience… except in the makeup chair. “On the bad days, it was five hours,” he said. “On a good day, it was two hours.”

It’s a good sign for Elba’s career that he’s in so many projects he can’t talk much about — he could only offer that he thinks the troubled Dark Tower adaptation will “probably happen” — and doesn’t even have time to consider the change in Oscar rules that were spurred by whitewashed nominations in a year when many thought he deserved a nod for Beasts of No Nation.

“I’m going to sound really ignorant, but I haven’t paid attention to what’s happened there yet, if I’m really honest,” he admitted. “I just haven’t paid attention to what the Oscars have changed. But all good, I’m sure.”

Watch the trailer for ‘Zootopia’ below: