Idris Elba: Marvel superhero films are torture

Actor played Heimdall in Thor

(Marvel)

While the rest of the world continues its semi-ironic enjoyment of Captain America 5: Age of Iron Man v Guardians of Future Past etc etc, Thor and Avengers: Age of Ultron star Idris Elba has admitted that Marvel films are "torture" and that they "ripped his heart out".

In an interview with the Telegraph, the actor explained how depressing it was switching from playing Nelson Mandela to playing a gold armour-clad Norse god dangling on a string in front of a green screen.

"I’d just done eight months in South Africa. I came to England and the day I came back I had to do reshoots on Thor 2." he said.

"I was like, ‘This is torture, man. I don’t want to do this.’ My agent said: ‘You have to, it’s part of the deal.'"

Explaining the scene that led him to that emotion, he detailed: "I’m actually falling down from a spaceship, so they had to put me in harness in this green-screen studio.

"And in between takes I was stuck there, fake hair stuck on to my head with glue, this f*cking helmet, while they reset. And I’m thinking: ‘24 hours ago, I was Mandela’.

"When I walked into the set the extras called me Madiba. I was literally walking in this man’s boots.

"[Within] six months, the crew, we were all so in love with this film we had made. I was him. I was Mandela, practically.

"Then there I was, in this stupid harness, with this wig and this sword and these contact lenses. It ripped my heart out."

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Elba recently let slip that Chris Hemsworth (Thor) and Tom Hiddleston (Loki) would feature in Avengers: Age of Ultron, which director Joss Whedon said might result in him being sent an email with "an attitude of scold".