As Sam Nelson, a first-class passenger on a Dubai to London flight that’s taken over by terrorists in Wednesday’s AppleTV+ series “Hijack,” Idris Elba creates a different kind of hero.
When everyone else freaks as an armed crew bark orders, threaten murder and pistol whip the pilot, Sam keeps cool. A professional business negotiator, he’s versed in knowing that no solution is possible until both sides find common ground.
“As a producer and talent, I was interested in doing something that hits the mark on television. I love television,” Elba, 50, said yesterday in a virtual press conference from his native London. He looked very much the star in matching short sleeve shirt, sox and shorts.
Asked if his good looks ever get in the way with a role, “I’m getting a lot of love today, thank you very much. It’s all subjective,” he said. “I’m sure I’m not good looking to everyone. My size and shape – all my life, ‘Oh you’re a big man!’ I’ve taken on roles that feed into it.”
On “Hijack,” “I’m playing against type. Sam is not always a hero. He’s quite vulnerable.”
While “Hijack” is a star vehicle Elba is hardly the whole show. As the 7-hour flight covers 7 hour-long episodes in real time, we meet the crew, many passengers and each hijacker.
A whole other drama happens on the ground in London as security experts, politicians and law enforcement debate the plane’s fate. Can it be allowed in British airspace? Or, even with over 200 British citizens aboard, must it be shot down before it might dive bomb the city itself?
Pains were taken thru months-long filming to be as realistic as possible. That meant the plane was kept intact. Usually, sections are broken away for specific scenes.
“I’m six foot three,” Elba noted. “Luckily, the first-class cabin had the extra leg room. I think the fact that we didn’t break the plane apart, that this is a real plane just in a studio, and the confinement of that, just really applied to the drama. Even for the crew figuring out how we would do it, it all fed into the claustrophobia.”
How would he react on a hijacked flight?
“Well look, I would shut up and mind my own business. I wouldn’t be Sam,” he answered. “I wouldn’t think it out that clearly.
“If I could make eye contact with a hijacker and if I thought for a second he would listen to me, I’d say, ‘Dude, this is very stupid.’ I don’t think I’d be the hero guy trying to outsmart the hijackers. But I’d certainly like to help the staff.”
“Hijack” streams on AppleTV+, starting June 28.