Burning Out Does Not Worry Me – Idris Elba

British DJ-turned actor, Idris Elba is currently one of Hollywood’s most revered actors, having featured in several box office hits since breaking onto the American movie scene.

Currently in the middle of shooting movie roles for upcoming movies, The Dark Tower (in theaters Feb. 17, 2017) and Thor: Ragnarok (in theaters Nov. 3, 2017), Idris is scared he might just run himself ragged.

‘It’s unhealthy to have that much going on,’ he said to Interview magazine in its August 2016 issue. ‘I don’t want to sound ungrateful or anything, but I sleep less, I’m constantly thinking, I’m constantly multitasking, and I really don’t know what the effects are going to be when I’m older. I don’t ever stop. Not because I’m greedy or anything, but I’m always creating, debating with the part of my brain that is dormant.

‘Wondering how I can move in and create a bit more space and take a bit more time. But it’s almost like the more I achieve, the more capacity I have to achieve. I do worry sometimes about whether I’m going to burn out. Not burn myself out, but burn my art out, with audiences going, ‘Ah, yeah, I’ve seen enough now, thanks very much.’

Reflecting on his passion for the turntable and how his acting career took a toll on the frequency at which he played, Elba also known as DJ Big Driis says he is now embracing his first love once again.

‘Once I got The Wire, my life changed. I couldn’t DJ as much and I couldn’t take it seriously because my career as an actor was just getting to a place where I was finally making it in America. I wanted to be on American TV so much. I didn’t park DJ’ing; I just sort of ended up becoming more of a studio guy,’ he tells Interview‘s Jon Favreau who directed him in The Jungle Book.

‘I had a bit more money and I could buy every little piece of equipment and drum machine that had just come out-I’ve got quite a collection now-and I continued to collect music.’

‘About five years ago, my career blossomed, but I really missed being out on the road, DJ’ing,’ Elba further said. ‘So I started picking up gigs here and there, and what occurred to me really quickly was that I was going to water down my passion for DJ’ing, because the type of gigs I was getting were celebrity DJ work, and that just didn’t sit right.

‘So I made a decision about five years ago to really do it properly, to do it at that level I had never done it, but take it seriously and not ride the coattails of being an actor. It took a while because I had to take my time to introduce myself into that world: doing remixes, being taken seriously,’ the 43-year-old Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom actor said of his return to disc jockeying.