Idris Elba has chemistry with everyone except his daughter, apparently
Isan Elba didn't speak to her father for weeks after missing out on a role in Beast
As anyone who’s watched a romantic comedy knows, chemistry can either make or break a movie. It’s also important in other kinds of stories, such as, say, a survivalist thriller about a family trying to evade a lion attack.
Idris Elba recently dropped by The Breakfast Club to discuss his latest project Beast, in which he plays a father whose trip to a South African game reserve with his two teenage daughters takes a menacing turn. The kids are played by Iyana Halley and Leah Sava Jeffries, but the cast could have looked a little different.
“Interestingly enough, my daughter auditioned for this role, she wants to be an actress,” Elba recalls. “It came down to chemistry in the end. She’s great, but the relationship in the film and the relationship between me and my daughter, the chemistry wasn’t right for the film, weirdly enough.”
As noted in The A.V. Club’s review, the role demanded a certain resentful tone after the death of the character’s mother, and it’s safe to assume that the father and daughter’s real-life dynamic doesn’t look anything like that. However, it didn’t make the rejection any easier for the 20-year-old Isan Elba.