Idris Elba wants to "lean away" from acting to focus on music

Golden Globe-winning actor Idris Elba has spoken up about stepping away from his acting career and turning to his lesser-known music endeavours.

Now nearing 50, the London-born actor is hoping to further pursue his DJ career according to Vanity Fair. In an interview with the magazine, he said that he’s looking to "lean away from the acting work”.

Despite Elba’s ever-growing career in film, with a particularly busy schedule set for 2022, the actor’s passion for music has left him worrying that he won’t be able to work on music and be taken seriously.

Read this next: Idris Elba: "The musical part of my life is really liberating at the moment"

"Some may think, well, it will be the death of your acting if your music’s shit," Elba said in an interview with Vanity Fair. "I’ve dealt with the internal struggle of that over the years.

"So now I’m at peace and I’ve chosen: This is what I’m doing, and I’m going to do it. Some will love it and some will hate it,” he said.

In 2022, Elba is slated to appear as the voice of Knuckles in Sonic The Hedgehog 2, and appear as one of the lead actors in George Miller’s next romance film, Three Thousand Years of Longing and Beast.

Read this next: Shaquille O'Neal teams up with FREAKY on new dubstep track 'Backbreaker'

As he steps away from the world of acting, Elba’s already booming music career could be even more fruitful in 2022. Elba’s latest EP, ‘Cordi Elba’ came out earlier last month.

“The thing about making music is it’s a very consuming process,” he tells Vanity Fair. “It’s very difficult to shoot a movie and then go off into the studio or make a song. It’s like trying to build a soufflé while making a brick wall.”

[Via Vanity Fair]

Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Editorial Assistant, follow her on Twitter