{"id":16850,"date":"2024-03-12T00:47:18","date_gmt":"2024-03-12T00:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/12\/idris-elba-on-building-a-wind-powered-eco-city-and-why-he-doesnt-watch-the-wire\/"},"modified":"2024-03-12T00:47:18","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T00:47:18","slug":"idris-elba-on-building-a-wind-powered-eco-city-and-why-he-doesnt-watch-the-wire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/12\/idris-elba-on-building-a-wind-powered-eco-city-and-why-he-doesnt-watch-the-wire\/","title":{"rendered":"Idris Elba on building a wind-powered eco-city, and why he doesn\u2019t watch \u2018The Wire\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

British actor Idris Elba, best known for roles including Stringer Bell from \u201cThe Wire\u201d and John Luther from the eponymous TV show, has ambitions beyond the screen. For his latest role, he wants to build a \u201csmart eco-city\u201d that runs off wind power on an island off the West African country of Sierra Leone. <\/p>\n

Sherbro Island is known for its pristine beaches that are a nesting ground for green sea turtles. Sherbro Alliance Partners, co-founded by Elba in 2019, is collaborating with the government to develop a special economic zone on the island to attract people from around the world to live, work, invest and play. <\/p>\n

The actor was brought up in London, but his mom is from Ghana and his dad from Sierra Leone. He has acted as a brand ambassador for the latter country and is a strong advocate for building up the African creative arts economy. <\/p>\n

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em> <\/p>\n

Elba: First of all, it\u2019s a beautiful little island off the coast of Sierra Leone. It\u2019s about the same size as Chicago, there\u2019s about 40,000 inhabitants on it in different regions across the island. And Sherbro Island used to historically be the point of no return in the slave trade. It was where England had their capital city of Sierra Leone [when it was a colony], in a city called Bonthe, which is still there. And the relics of the city are still there: the grid system, road system, the old houses, the churches. It\u2019s an incredibly historically rich part of Sierra Leone. There\u2019s 19 miles of beachfront there. <\/p>\n

At some junction, my business partner Siaka Stevens, who is the grandson of the former president [of the same name who served from 1971 to 1985], said: \u201cLook, someone needs to cultivate Sherbro Island for tourism.\u201d That was seven years ago. Where we are now is that we partnered with the government to figure out a plan of how we can bring in tourism. Well, it started as tourism \u2013 now we\u2019re building a smart, eco dynamic city. <\/p>\n

Obviously, this is Sierra Leone: it\u2019s one of the poorest countries in the world, so investment isn\u2019t rushing through the door. So what we needed to do is understand how to package an investment opportunity around this beautiful island without destroying it, being climate conscious, and being conscious that there is a youth culture across Africa of the average age of about 20, that wants something. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve suddenly found myself in the middle of trying to figure out how to pull this together, and what I did was get the best-in-class thinkers on how to build a robust investment framework for the international players to look at Africa in a different way. And that\u2019s what Sherbro Island is. That\u2019s a very long-winded way of saying it\u2019s my retirement plan. <\/p>\n

Elba: Huge amounts of curiosity, huge amounts of goodwill. There\u2019s no doubt, everyone understands that the opportunity of Africa is incredible. There\u2019s a leapfrog opportunity with Africa when it considers the emerging economies, the emergence of tech, the emergence of the populace: 1.4 billion people across a land span that big, has room and space to grow. <\/p>\n

Elba: The opportunity for Africa is to reframe how not only Africans see themselves via telling stories, but the opportunity is to have the world see Africa in a different way. And that\u2019s where the creative industries can play a pivotal role. <\/p>\n

The fulcrum of the creative arts is that every single type of industry falls within it. You and I are speaking from microphones that are manufactured somewhere and based on their use in this industry, the cameras we are being shot on, the makeup that we\u2019re both wearing. This is such a massive intersection of industries that create jobs and create opportunities. If we look at the creative industries as just singing, dancing and telling stories, we\u2019re limiting what it actually is. It is an incredible opportunity for engineering, creativity, storytelling and heritage and propaganda. <\/p>\n

We need support from governments saying the creative arts industry does need support and an incentive for it to grow. I\u2019ve made nine films in Africa, nine or eight films. Each time I\u2019m there, I see the opportunity\u2019s growing, I see the quality of the work growing, and I just want to contribute more. <\/p>\n

Elba: I was on \u201cAbsolutely Fabulous\u201d when I was a wee lad and that was definitely a standout moment because it was my first bit of comedy, but it was with the legends. <\/p>\n

Elba: I auditioned extensively over four weeks. I auditioned in New York. It was a tough gig to do. Alexa Fogel is an amazing casting director. She always has an eye for an amazing talent and she gave me an opportunity to audition for it, but she told me: \u201cWhatever you do, don\u2019t walk in there with your English accent. This is about Baltimore, they\u2019re not interested in East London.\u201d And that was it, I auditioned amongst some amazing young actors, and on my last audition, I got the job. <\/p>\n

Elba: No, I haven\u2019t watched most of \u201cThe Wire.\u201d It\u2019s just because it\u2019s an incredible time of my life. I can\u2019t watch it through that lens. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve racked up some box sets. I\u2019ve got \u201cThe Wire\u201d to get through. I\u2019ve got \u201cLuther\u201d season one to five to get to. <\/p>\n

Elba: My experience has been positive. I mean, moving to the States as a young actor was like, \u201cYou\u2019re doing what? You\u2019re going to Hollywood?\u201d It\u2019s more commonplace now. For the most part, when I got there, it was really tough. That was a struggle. But it was positive. I grew in confidence. I went through a very tough time; at one point I was homeless. In my early years, \u201cThe Wire\u201d changed my life completely, and my daughter was born at the same time. So that really changed my life. I\u2019m always in and out of America. I live in England now, closer to my mum. My dad\u2019s passed and so I\u2019m home in England now, but I\u2019m always there. <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

British actor Idris Elba, best known for roles including Stringer Bell from \u201cThe Wire\u201d and John Luther from the eponymous TV show, has ambitions beyond the screen. For his latest role, he wants to build a \u201csmart eco-city\u201d that runs off wind power on an island off the West African country of Sierra Leone. Sherbro <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":16851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16850","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}