Idris Elba Confirms Illicit Connection to Dave Chappelle Before Landing 'The Wire'

This week, Idris Elba made a surprising revelation not appropriate for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 audiences. During a stop at The Jess Cagle Show, the Luther star said he did "some things I'm not proud of" during his early years in the U.S. when his acting career wasn't going as well as he hoped. He even sold weed to Dave Chappelle before scoring his breakout role on The Wire.

When Elba moved to the U.S. to pursue his acting career, his career "fell flat on its face very quickly for about four years," Elba told Cagle, reports Entertainment Weekly. In those years, he "did a lot of things, some things I'm not proud of." When asked what he wasn't proud of, Elba said, "I used to sell weed. Can I say that on the show?"

Elba only did that for a "little bit" just to help pay the way between DJ'ing gigs. "I was a doorman. I was a doorman at Caroline's comedy club [in New York], which is fascinating now, when I meet the comedians that you kind of remember the English guy," Elba recalled. "Tall English guy with the funny accent and the little hair."

"David Chappelle remembers me 'cause he used to buy weed from me," Elba continued. "Anyway, moving on. Yeah, I did all kinds of things, to be honest, all kinds of things."

Elba's comments were corroborated by Chappelle back in May 2021. In his three-hour interview with Joe Rogan, Chappelle said he "used to buy weed from" Elba when the actor was a security guard at the Carolines comedy club on Broadway.

Elba, 49, started his acting career in the U.K., but he decided to move to New York for more opportunities. After an appearance in a 2001 Law & Order episode, he was cast as drug dealer Stringer Bell on The Wire, which is still one of his best-known roles in the U.S. When he moved back to London in 2011, people were only just discovering the show at the time, he told Cagle.

"At the time, The Wire was sort of like [a] distant cousin to The Sopranos," Elba said of the HBO series. "Season 1 was sort of like a sleeper hit. People were like, 'Have you seen this show? It's kind of interesting.' Especially in the African American community... By Season 3, it was up there with The Sopranos as a show that everyone was watching. But for the rest of the world, it didn't happen for another seven to eight years."

Elba voices Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which opens on Friday. He is also returned to the title role of Luther for an upcoming Netflix movie. The original series ran from 2010 to 2019 and earned Elba four Emmy nominations. Luther and The Wire are available to stream on HBO Max.