For those of you who are already fans of The Big C, Showtime’s new comedy starring Laura Linney, this will just be welcome news. For those of you who haven’t caught the show yet…this is another reason to tune in…British actor Idris Elba will play Linney’s character’s love interest, Lenny, in four episodes beginning on September 20 and appearing on September 27, October 11 and the 18th. While I haven’t seen the episodes, I definitely expected some sizzle because Elba oozes charisma and I wasn’t disappointed. Last night’s episode was racy with Linney’s character exposing herself, literally to Idris’s character who’s painting a mural at the school where she teaches. Linney sought him out to play the part and he was only too eager to kiss all over her as he said recently during a panel at the TCA press tour. ”
While some of you may know him from his role as Stringer Bell on HBO’s landmark drama The Wire, Idris Elba’s career has been on the rise since he left the show in 2004 after his character, a drug lord in Baltimore, was killed off. Leading roles in Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls and The Reaping starring Oscar winner Hillary Swank followed and he was also in the horror thriller 28 Days Later. He also had a role in Ridley Scott’s American Gangster, although I don’t remember it as much as his work in the previously mentioned films. I recently watched his role as a happily married husband and father in Obsessed opposite Beyonce Knowles and even went to see Takers, the action heist film over Labor Day weekend. Typically this is not my type of film, but my friend urged me on lured by what she called the amazing eye-candy in the ensemble acting team including Matt Dillon, Hayden Christensen, Paul Walker, Micheal Ealy and Elba. A fun popcorn movie I enjoyed it and went along for the ride watching the slick action film and the great Los Angeles locations. Elba looked hot and the group definitely delivered but I did like his character’s relationship with his sister played by the wonderful Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Secrets & Lies and on the television drama Without A Trace).
A DJ and hip hop recording artist, Elba, whose mother is from Ghana and father from Sierra Leone, was born in the East End of London and eventually moved to New York to give acting a try. He struggled in those early years in America and then came his breakthrough role on The Wire. Last season he appeared in six episodes of The Office and he also stands out as a homicide detective in Luther, a new, six-part miniseries premiering on BBC America on October 17.
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