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Idris Elba Talks ‘Star Trek Beyond’ And Roland’s Accent In ‘The Dark Tower’ [Video]

By Anne Sewell
Published on: 22:59 PST, Jul 21, 2016

Idris Elba was at San Diego Comic-Con recently for two reasons. He was there about his appearance as the villain, Krall, in Star Trek Beyond – which opens in theaters Friday – but he also spoke more about his new and exciting role in the adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower.

While discussing his role in Star Trek Beyond, Elba described to Entertainment Weekly how the film kicked off San Diego Comic-Con with an outdoor screening on Wednesday night.

Reportedly the event was quite something, with a firework display and laser show, along with a full orchestra performing the movie’s score live with the film. During the evening, respect was paid to the late Anton Yelchin, who recently passed away in a vehicle accident at his own home. The whole thing was spectacular and very moving, according to Idris.

Elba also described how his villainous character, Krall, has a very different look, with prosthetic alien ridges jutting from his face, which made his vision a little difficult. He explained how this limit to his vision actually led to an accidental punch that left Chris Pine – in the role as Captain Kirk – with a black eye.

Of interest to note, and as reported by The Wrap, the movie itself included a simple and tender tribute to Anton and another renowned “Trek” star who recently passed away in the credits.

Reportedly the way it was done is after the Enterprise dives through colorful nebulas, a memorial message appears, reading: “In Loving Memory of Leonard Nimoy.” This is followed a moment later with a second message: “For Anton.”

In related news on the Inquisitr:

Speaking of The Dark Tower, the Entertainment Weekly interviewer, Anthony Breznican, was interested to know of Elba’s character – Roland the Gunslinger – what accent he uses in the film. When asked about his own English accent and how it was decided which accent to use in the film, it took some time, said Idris.

Elba explained that Roland is not from our time or place, he is from Mid-World – another dimension separate from ours – where there are also different types of speech – low and high speech.

So what would Roland sound like? According to Idris, he asked about the character having an English accent, but this apparently wouldn’t work. He said Roland is not particularly American either, seeing as he is from Mid-World.

What they finally decided on was a flat Western accent and Elba went on to explain why he and the film’s director, Nikolaj Arcel came to that choice. He said they ended up with sort of a hybrid of “old-worldy, formal, flat American.”

Not that his character says a whole lot in the movie. Stephen King had stressed from the onset that Roland should be as stoic as possible, sticking mainly to monosyllables like “yep,” “nope,” and “draw.”

According to Entertainment Weekly, during their exclusive visit to the set of The Dark Tower in South Africa last month, they watched Idris shooting for two days, and during that time, he never said a word (apparently this is the cause of asking what accent he adopted for the movie).

Reportedly, while he may have been stoic and silent, Elba took out a whole load of otherworldly fiends along the way.

Filming is completed on the epic tale, which has been extricated from various books in the Dark Tower series by Stephen King and the finished work will be in theaters on February 17, 2017.

In the meantime, readers can watch the full interview with Idris Elba in the video included below.

[Photo by John Phillips/Getty Images]

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