Idris Elba’s body doesn’t know when he’s acting. After summoning tears or rage, incarnating the trauma of characters like the tormented titular police detective on the show Luther , he’s often left feeling depleted. He is restored by throwing himself into the other passions that have come to define him as a multihyphenate, whether that’s deejaying at a royal wedding or driving around in a truck distributing food to the unhoused . “The energy they give you—they’re not taking anything from me.