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Idris Elba Smoked Weed To Get Rid Of ‘Nightmares’ He Had From Filming War Documentary Beasts of No Nation
Idris Alba had a tough time filming the 2015 war documentary and had to smoke "a lot of weed" to cope with "vivid nightmares which he explicitly describes! Find out!
Idris Elba had vivid “nightmares” after filming Beasts of No Nation!
The Luther actor has a long list of critically acclaimed roles, including the 2013 Nelson Mandela biopic. But just like other humans, he might need some chemicals to keep himself on his toes, as he tends to “absorb the character” he portrays!
Elba copped with the dark and vivid nightmares through weed
The Hijack actor, 51, recalled the horrible imprint the war movie had left on his mind. He played the warlord and commandant, whom he thought was twisted and complicated.
“The Commandant is a very twisted, conflicted human being. He would have these commands he would use to almost hypnotize those young soldiers,” he said about his character to Entertainment Weekly.
When asked how he coped with the intense scenes and thoughts, he said, "Can I be honest? I was smoking a lot of weed at that time and that would get me out of that." The story of the film revolves around a young West African boy, Agu, who is assigned to be a soldier under the watchful eyes of the commandant, played by Alba. 
Idris Elba on vivid filming experience of Beasts of No Nation
The film's subject is riveting and intense, and on top of that, it hits close to Elba’s home. "Essentially, this was a fictional West African country. "I went for a West African General. But it was definitely influenced by where my parents are from," he says during an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
The story, which is loosely based on the civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia, felt realistic to the Nelson actor while he was playing. "I'm one of these actors who I absorb my character. I absorb their experiences, so I can understand a little bit,” he said.
As an immersive actor, he recalled reading through some dark and disturbing stuff, which gave him nightmares! “It was either me in these nightmares, or it was the Commandant, and it was all this vivid imagery that I was exposed to," he said.
Elba reveals he used to sell weed before acting
On the subject of weed, the Prometheus actor recalled that he used to sell drugs to earn money back in the day. "I used to sell weed,” he revealed on The Jess Cagle Show back in 2022. "I did that for a little bit just to, you know, help pay the way.”
As a struggling actor, he would take on anything that would earn him some dollars. He also DJ’ed and was a doorman at Caroline's comedy club, and some comedians still remember him as the “tall English guy with funny accent and little hair.”
“Yeah, I did all kinds of things to be honest, all kinds of things," Elba added.
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