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Idris Elba is an action star, there’s no denying that. And when pit against a giant lion in his latest thriller, Beast, he doesn’t disappoint.
Both the film’s director, Baltasar Kormákur, and the actor are no strangers to making survival thrillers. The filmmaker is behind movies like Adrift, Everest, and The Deep, while Elba starred alongside Kate Winslet in 2017’s The Mountain Between Us. This time around, the challenge is to see if the character Elba plays, Dr. Nate Samuels, can save his two daughters from a rogue lion lurking in the shadows during what was supposed to be a life-altering experience in South Africa where he met his late wife.
The doctor brings his girls Norah (Leah Sava Jeffries) and Meredith (Iyana Halley) there in hopes of reconnecting with them after their mom’s tragic passing. At first, Elba’s character is guarded and guilt-ridden, desperate to repair his relationship with his children, and before there’s any opportunity for healing, he finds himself having to do the impossible to protect his kids. Tough times sometimes have a way of binding people to each other though, and this trio heavily leans on each other to try to make it out alive.
As soon as they start exploring the place where their mother was born, Dr. Samuels and his daughters are faced with an external enemy—a lion who is looking for revenge after poachers killed his pride. After learning the lion’s motivation for the attacks, the film’s message becomes clear that the real beast that both the family and the animal are fighting against is grief.
“For me, it was really important that the lion isn’t the bad guy even though the film is called Beast,” Elba tells Complex. “The lion is a beast. Grief is a beast. Pain is a beast. Survival is a beast. These are themes that, when you look deeper into this picture, isn’t just about a lion chasing a man. It’s about a man chasing his life. It’s about daughters chasing their father. It’s about a family chasing the ghost of their mother.”
The most enchanting aspect of the film is Elba’s movie star charisma and his chemistry with his younger costars. For the most part, viewers might find themselves anxiously cheering for them to make it, while also dealing with moments of frustration at the characters’ choices throughout. But the film’s third act is really where things go left and they lose the plot. Watching the actor’s unrealistic hand-to-hand combat with a lion is rather disappointing, but it doesn’t take away from the totality of how exciting the film is to watch, and it remains the nail-bitter the trailer promises it will be.
Complex caught up with Elba to talk about his role in Beast, showing an authentic side of Africa in the film, and what he learned from his young costars.
When you first read the script, what about it made you sign up to play Dr. Nate Samuels?
There was a real sense of nostalgia. I come from an era where these sorts of films were the norm, like high-anxiety, ‘Run, chase, run, chase, look out, look behind you!’ You know what I mean? This was an opportunity for me to make a film like that. I’ve done thrillers before, but this was the first time it involved this cat-and-mouse aspect to it.
I was really intrigued by the family dynamic, the daughters, the nature of grief, this doctor who’s essentially someone that’s composed and tries not to panic, found himself doing just that, being completely unposed and panicking, but at the same time, he’s still a parent and needed to look after his kids. I just loved the script. I love Baltasar, the director. I wanted to work with him. He’s made some really incredible survivor movies, and I just wanted to get his take on what this might be like.
Aside from the physical aspect of this film, there’s a lot of emotional turmoil that Nate is dealing with because of his wife’s passing. Can you talk about what it was like to explore that side, and to play a husband and a father who was dealing with grief and regret?
Yeah. The film isn’t designed to be complex. You go. You sit down. You eat your popcorn and, “Man, there’s a lion. Run. Run. Run,” but at the heart of it, you want to care about those that are running, and, in this case, it’s this guy. He’s hard to get to know at first. He seems a bit closed off, and that’s because you realize he is closed off.
He’s got grief. Seeing him unravel, as an actor, that’s a real dream. It’s like you meet this one guy and, by the end of it, you’re rooting for him. In the beginning, you just feel like, “Oh, he’s a little bit closed off. He’s not very warm,” and obviously he’s got two beautiful girls, and you want to like him. I really enjoyed exploring that. I’m a father. As an actor, I like to bring relatable characters. I don’t have just to play relatable characters, but I like to play characters that people can relate to. Whether it’s a drug dealer or a detective or, as an Asgardian god, I want you to go, “Oh, okay, it reminds me of someone I know.” That was part of the drive on this film, playing someone relatable.
The young actresses who play your daughters, Leah and Iyana, were so wonderful in the movie. They both have such distinct personalities. What was it like working with them, and what did you learn from working with them?
It was great. We did get to bond with each other, and that was really important. They were really open, always learning, and worked hard. It was just really special to build this with them. We actually got close. I miss them. When you’re on a film set, you form a little family quickly and then you never see them again or you don’t see them for a while. This was pretty hard because we spent a lot of time together.
I learned that everyone has a different process. It was really interesting watching Iyana and Leah work. Iyana is very, very emotional and would bring that and control that emotion in the film, and some scenes really did affect her. Some actors are like that. If I do a lot of screaming and shouting in a film, I feel like I’m in a bad mood for the rest of the day. With Yana, when she’s being terrified and, even though none of this is real, the anxiety was in her. Yeah, I really loved working with them. I wish there was a Beast 2, but not really. [Laughs.]
I know you mentioned filming in South Africa. What was it like to be working in South Africa and to be able to tell the story about poaching to the world?
I’m African, proud African, and I get sometimes frustrated with the misrepresentation of Africa, so this was an opportunity to, “Let’s talk about poaching. Let’s talk about animals. Let’s talk about that. Let’s see actually what are the effects of poaching?” We’ve got people who talk about, “Oh, you go to Africa. You saw lions and tigers.” No, it isn’t. There’s no tigers in Africa and, secondly, lions don’t chase humans unless human beings have disrupted their natural environment, and that’s what happens in poaching, and that’s what happens here.
It was important to us as filmmakers to just delve into that without making a message. We’re not here to make messages, but we wanted to handle this with delicacy. For me, it was really important that the lion isn’t the bad guy even though the film is called Beast and you’ve got that sense of fear from the human beings. The lion is a beast. Grief is a beast. Pain is a beast. Survival is a beast. These are themes that, when you look deeper into this picture, isn’t just about a lion chasing a man. It’s about a man chasing his life. It’s about daughters chasing their father. It’s about a family chasing the ghost of their mother. It’s a lot of things.
I really hope that people watch this movie in the cinema, but then watch this movie again, be like, “Yo, let’s watch Beast.” “Yeah. Let’s have Beast night.”
Check out Beast in theaters on Friday, Aug. 19.