Standing 6-foot-2-inches, Idris Elba's size helps to sell his characters. As a detective in 鈥 Luther,鈥 he often averted protocol and went rogue. On 鈥淭he Wire,鈥 he played a shrewd, intimidating crime boss in the drug world. In the 2022 movie 鈥 Beast,鈥 he protected his daughters from a ferocious lion while on holiday in South Africa. But, in his new Apple TV+ series 鈥 Hijack,鈥 it's his mental strength that helps him navigate a crisis, not his build.
Elba plays Sam, a passenger on a flight from Dubai to London that turns into a hostage situation. The first two episodes of 鈥淗ijack鈥 debut Wednesday on Apple TV+, with one new episode released weekly.
鈥淚'm used to being cast as a big man," said Elba. 鈥淚n this situation Sam is vulnerable. He isn't there to fight.鈥
Sam's strength here is that he works as a corporate negotiator, and his ability to assess high-stakes situations like mergers and acquisitions, serves him well. 鈥淚t's all a bit of a psych game,鈥 he said. "Pitting one against the other and figuring out what your weak spot is. And then, of course, being able to make people feel comfortable, not threatened,鈥
Space 鈥 or lack thereof 鈥 was an integral part of filming. The set was an actual plane which Elba said "really helped" the look and feel of the scenes.
鈥淲e thought about builds and then we thought, 鈥榃hat if we just bring a plane in and shoot within what we鈥檝e got?'" said Elba, who was also an executive producer on the show. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e just got the space that you鈥檝e got... It felt a little bit like a play and the camera could only go so many places.鈥
The seven-episode series also unfolds in roughly the same amount of time it takes to fly from Dubai to London.
鈥淚t鈥檚 difficult to to make that happen because you shoot things out of sequence, but each minute of every episode is important," said Elba. The show cuts between what's happening in the air and on the ground as officials try to piece together what they're dealing with and how to react.
鈥淚t just made sense to get these real time decisions as a way to propel the narrative forward rather than sort of jump out of time sequence,鈥 said Elba, adding that the two perspectives are 鈥渞eally reflective of each other the whole time.鈥
鈥淚t was very intense," added , who plays a counter-terrorism official. 鈥淎s the series progresses, the tension multiplies and so did the number of people in the room." In the end, Panjabi says there was a feeling of resolution that was freeing. 鈥淚 should tell people I spent six hours on screen saving your butt,鈥 she tells Elba to laughter.
Elba felt his own kind of relief at the end of six months of filming, in part because his adrenaline was often running high even between scenes.
鈥淵ou stay keyed up. You go to your trailer or whatever, chill out, but you can鈥檛 undo your mindset. Your body does not know it鈥檚 acting."
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