It’s as if Hollywood can only figure out what to do with Elba when it separates his lively, versatile voice from his body.
Stringer Bell was one of those exceptionally rare roles that give an actor a chance to demonstrate that they can do many things very well.
Elba did similarly strong work in Beasts of No Nation, as the Commandant who manipulates and deploys child soldiers.
The space between what Idris Elba is capable of doing and what Hollywood has been willing to give him to do is a measurement of the industry’s creative failure and timidity.