[Sometimes] I sit in front of my [gaming] console with my headphones on and I play. I love that. It's a nice form of escapism.

I still sing on bits and pieces. Singing's something that I love to do, but it's not something that I pursue as a career.

I've been DJing mostly, and most DJs end up producing. That's just me.

I'm rebelling against being handed a career, like, 'You're the next this; you're the next that.' I'm not the next anything, I'm the first me. I can't be myself, I can't just be Idris Elba. But that's just the nature of the business.

I've always been DJing; it's just I'm making more of a push for it, making it more public.

It could be Grammy night, Oscar night, whatever - I don't feel the pressure to be there.

If you go to Africa and you're white, you're probably not going to get that much work either. But the fact is that there is a longer history of black integration in the U.S. I don't have any resentment about this: I did the maths, calculated it against my ambition and decided to leave England.