No nepotism here! Idris Elba revealed that his daughter Isan Elba auditioned for a role in his upcoming film Beast — and she didn’t land the gig.
“Interestingly enough my daughter auditioned for this role. She wants to be an actress and she auditioned,” Idris, 49, said on the Thursday, August 11 episode of “The Breakfast Club” radio show. “It came down to chemistry in the end. She was great but the relationship in the film and the relationship with my daughter — the chemistry wasn’t right or a film, weirdly enough.”
The Cats star revealed that despite the 20-year-old showing up at his side on the red carpet during the movie’s August 8 premiere, it took her a while to accept the news.
“My daughter didn’t talk to me for three weeks,” Idris said, to which host DJ Envy replied, “Yea, I’d be kind of upset too.”
While Isan may have blamed her father for not landing the role, it was producer Will Packer who ultimately made the call. “I talked to her, ’cause I’ve known her for a very long time, you know what I mean,” Packer, 48, explained. “I’m like ‘Uncle Will.’ That’s like, my little niece, you know, and she’s amazing.”
The Florida native went on praise the Thor actor for the way he handled the delicate situation and his refusal to play favorites while going through the audition process.
“I’ll give props to Idris because you talk about nepotism — two dads that are really hard on their kids and want the best for them? Idris Elba and Ice Cube,” Packer said of the Prometheus star. “Idris was definitely, like, ‘Listen, I want her to go in and go through the ropes, give her a shot, audition.’ He was very tough on her, he auditioned with her, and he was, like, ‘At the end of the day we’re going to make the best decision for the movie.’”
Packer added that “sometimes the nuance of the real-life relationship just doesn’t translate on screen,” but that the aspiring actress was “great” and fans would be seeing her on the big screen “sometime soon.”
Idris shared Isan with ex-wife Hanne “Kim” Nørgaard, whom he was married to from 1993 to 2003. The Golden Globe Award winner also shares son Winston, 8, with former partner Naiyana Garth. The two began dating in 2013 but called it quits after 3 years of dating. In April 2019, he tied the knot with model Sabrina Dhowre.
Beast, which hits theaters on August 19, follows a widowed Dr. Nate Daniels (Elba) and his two teenage daughters as they travel to a South African game reserve. However, things take a turn for the worse when what begins as a journey of healing becomes a fearsome fight for survival when a lion begins stalking them.
“This felt like a challenge. [Packer] and I have made films together and we try to make these epic thriller situations that may not even be too commonplace for black families and we try to make them relatable,” the American Gangster star told Quintessential Gentlemen during an August interview. “In this case, this is a really extreme story. I wanted to do something that was different.”
