Before 'The Wire,' Actor Idris Elba Used To Sell Drugs And Work As A Doorman To Make Ends Meet

Idris Elba is quickly becoming a big star in Hollywood.

He's the title character of BBC's detective series "Luther" and was one of the leads of this year's summer monster movie "Pacific Rim." (Elba is the one you heard yelling "We are canceling the apocalypse" in nearly every promo for the film.)

He also has an upcoming role in "Thor: The Dark World" and will play Nelson Mandela in a biopic this November.

But before he was the Asgardian doorman Heimdall in "Thor" and played a drug dealer on HBO's critically acclaimed show "The Wire," life imitated art.

In the October issue of GQ, Elba revealed that before his time on HBO he was selling drugs as a doorman and performing as a DJ to make ends meet.

"I was running with cats," says Elba. "I mean, I was DJ'ing, but I was also pushing bags of weed; I was doing my work. I had to. I know that sounds corny, but this is the truth."

Elba tells GQ that while he was also working as a doorman for a comedy club called Carolines where comedians such as D.L. Hughley and Dave Chappelle would pass through.

During the same time, Elba was DJ'ing at New York dive bars to make rent and served as a bouncer.

Though Elba's popularity has spiked since his popular BBC show and his many film roles of the past year, he continues to DJ on the side under the name DJ Big Driis or Big Driis the Londoner.

You can read the rest of Elba's GQ interview here.