Idris Elba Reveals He Was Once Held at Gunpoint: 'Nearly Lost My F—ing Life'

'The Wire' star thought his life was over during a misunderstanding.

By Andrew Roberts

Idris Elba detailed a scary moment from some time in the U.S. in an interview with The Daily Mail. According to The Wire star, he was once held at gunpoint while attempting to protect the gunman's girlfriend from another man.

"I nearly lost my f-ing life after attempting to stop a man threatening his girlfriend outside a club," Elba said. "A guy [was] whaling on his missus, screaming in her face, 'I'll f-ing kill you,' and so on. I come round and I go, 'Look how beautiful she is. Why would you talk to this beautiful princess like that?'

"He pulled out a gun, stuck it right in my face, and goes, 'You talking about my girl?' He thought I was trying to hit on her," he adds. "I remember thinking, 'Don't play negotiations like that... Consequences, man.'"

Clearly, the man didn't shoot Elba, but he doesn't expand on the details after the mistaken analysis of the situation. It could also just be a non-story where apologies are made, guns are put away and everybody has some dip.

PEOPLE adds that Elba spoke about some other scary situations while speaking with PEOPLE about his new AppleTV+ series Hijack, playing a corporate negotiator who is put up against airplane hijackers. As it turns out, Elba isn't the best flyer.

"I've never been afraid to fly," he tells the outlet. "But I don't really love long, long flights. And turbulence is freaky." He's not wrong, especially when you forget you're on a plane and it comes along. They also got Elba to go into detail about his scars and the tales behind them.

"When I was three or four years old, I was climbing up a [jungle gym] and decided to jump over the side of it. As I did, there was a rusty nail that nicked my left wrist right near my artery. It just started to bleed out," he says. "I remember I was fascinated at how white my flesh was, like, 'Whoa, look at that!' And I passed out." He makes it clear that he also survived this incident.

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