--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: Idris Elba by David Simon: TIME 100 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38e6585dcd3e16b3/69888fd65f570fb124b208c6/time-100-2016-idris-elba.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 20, 2016 # Idris Elba by David Simon  LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 14: (EDITORS NOTE: Image has been digitally manipulated) Idris Elba attends the EE British Academy Film Awards at The Royal Opera House on February 14, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Marsland/WireImage) LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 14: (EDITORS NOTE: Image has been digitally manipulated) Idris Elba attends the EE British Academy Film Awards at The Royal Opera House on February 14, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Marsland/WireImage)Mike Marsland—WireImage/Getty Images Logistics undid me. From a floor below the writers’ office, the folks in production were saying Episode 311 hadn’t left the building yet, or more precisely: Idris Elba’s copy of the script was still waiting for a P.A. to ferry it over to set. I still had time to finish some page changes then head to the trailers, find my actor and break it to him. I imagined the conversation going like this: “Good news, bad news. Bad news is we’re killing you.” “Hell is the good news?” “We wrote an amazing death scene …” Maybe it’s funnier for the writers, but truth was I felt sanguine about ending Stringer Bell’s arc in the third season of _The Wire_. For one thing, it made sense thematically to impale both Bell and Bunny Colvin simultaneously on the horns of reform. For another, I knew Elba, as true a leading man as I’d ever encountered, was not going to starve. Before I could leave, the phone rang. “I just read 311.” “Whhaaaat? They haven’t delivered it yet.” “One of the other guys showed me his.” “’Dris, I’m sorry. I was on my way over to set to tell you.” “So, I’m out of work.” “Brother, you’re never going to lack for work again. You’re going straight to features. Don’t you realize that?” Long pause, deep sigh and then: “From your mouth to God’s ear.” No, my naive friend, He had precious little to do with it. _Simon is the creator of_ The Wire ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4299764/idris-elba-2016-time-100/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4299764/idris-elba-2016-time-100/"},"headline":"Idris Elba","datePublished":"2016-04-20T16:50:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:13:32.348Z","description":"A true leading man","url":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4299764/idris-elba-2016-time-100/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38e6585dcd3e16b3/69888fd65f570fb124b208c6/time-100-2016-idris-elba.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38e6585dcd3e16b3/69888fd65f570fb124b208c6/time-100-2016-idris-elba.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/2016-time-100/4299764/idris-elba-2016-time-100/","name":"Idris Elba"}}]}] ```