Idris Elba Says Daughter Wouldn’t Talk to Him for Weeks After She Lost a Movie Role
She didn't get to play Elba's daughter on-screen for an interesting reason.
Idris Elba is currently promoting his new movie, Beast, but while on the press tour, he revealed that his daughter, Isan Elba, almost played his child in the film.
Unfortunately, the 20-year-old didn't get the part for one specific reason, which led Isan to stop talking to her father for "about three weeks."
In an interview with The Breakfast Club radio show, which is hosted by DJ Envy, Angela Yee, and Charlamagne tha God, Elba said, "Interestingly enough, my daughter auditioned for this role. She wants to be an actress and she auditioned and it came down to chemistry in the end."
The 49-year-old actor continued: "The relationship in the film and the relationship between my daughter was, the chemistry wasn’t right for film, weirdly enough."
A producer of Beast, Will Packer, then commented on the decision and said "some of the nuances of that real life relationship sometimes doesn’t translate on-screen.”
While Elba stated that Isan was "very gracious" about losing the role and even attended the movie premiere with him, she clearly still took the loss hard–which led to her give Elba the cold shoulder.
Even though she couldn't act in Beast with her father, he declared that people will "definitely be seeing" Isan on-screen soon.
In Beast, the actress that got the role instead of Elba's biological daughter is Iyana Halley. She plays Meredith Samuels, one of the two daughters of Elba's character (Dr. Nate Samuels) in the recently released thriller. The second daughter, Norah Samuels, is played by Leah Jeffries.
According to IMDB, Liyabuya Gongo, Thapelo Sebogodi, Chris Langa, and Kazi Khuboni, also star in the film.
In the new movie, Dr. Samuels takes his kids to a wildlife reserve in South Africa run by Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley) in an attempt to bond and heal from the loss of their mother. But instead of peace and quiet, the family must face off against a rogue, extremely murderous lion.
The movie was released on Aug. 19 and is currently playing in select theaters. For showtimes near you, check your local listings.
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