ELBA: But you know what, Jon? When you break it down like that, it’s unhealthy to have that much going on. [laughs] I don’t want to sound ungrateful or anything, but I sleep less, I’m constantly thinking, I’m constantly multitasking, and I really don’t know what the effects are going to be when I’m older. I don’t ever stop. Not because I’m greedy or anything, but I’m always creating, debating with the part of my brain that is dormant. Wondering how I can move in and create a bit more space and take a bit more time. But it’s almost like the more I achieve, the more capacity I have to achieve. I do worry sometimes about whether I’m going to burn out. Not burn myself out, but burn my art out, with audiences going, “Ah, yeah, I’ve seen enough now, thanks very much.”

FAVREAU: I don’t think that will happen because you create enough variety in what you do that it’s exciting to audiences. You’re challenging yourself in different ways. You’re learning. And everything that you’ve challenged yourself with to this point, from what I can tell, you’ve risen to. And you seem to be tuned into yourself well enough to know when it’s time to change the agenda. Careers go through cycles, and you seem to be really true to what your bliss is and what draws you.

ELBA: Can I ask you a question?

FAVREAU: Yeah. Please.

ELBA: I’ll tell you a story and ask you a question. So I was at a party not too long ago, and I ran into Ben Affleck. I’d had a bit to drink, and I was super excited to see him. And the reason why I’m excited to see Ben is because Ben, like yourself, is an actor who can direct. And I’ve sort of been in development to direct my first feature film. I’ve done a couple of music videos and a couple of shorts, and I’m going into that world of the feature. And I say to Ben, [slurring] “Oh Ben, hey, man. Bro, can you tell me … I just, like, I think you’re incredible.” I’m like, “I’m so interested in that transition. You’re an actor, and you’re directing, and I want to know what you had to go through and how you’re getting people …” And at the time, he was like, “Idris, just call me.” I didn’t call him ever. But I wanted to pose the same question to you if that’s okay.

FAVREAU: Well, the first thing I would say is, just on a gut level, I would buy Idris stock as a director. You carry your energy into a room in a way that would be good for a film set. I think you naturally have a certain presence that would work well with a crew. I think you’ve probably cultivated that by being an actor because, as you know, if both the energies of the lead actor and the director are good, the whole movie tends to go well. That’s intangible and hard to teach. The other thing I would say is that by working with this long list of directors … Well, my secret was that I got this wonderful paid apprenticeship, being an actor on all of these film sets. I generally wasn’t the movie star; I was number five on the call sheet. But I was still on the set, and that gave me tremendous access to everybody. And, as you said, what you like about a director like Ridley Scott or Guillermo is that he understands what every department is doing, and has a stake in every decision being made. Directing doesn’t have a built-in apprenticeship as other crafts do, which is unfortunate because you can learn so much just by watching other people. So I think that you’ve already had your film school. A trick that I used especially when I was less experienced, but still draw on sometimes, is just channeling the behavior of somebody that I respect, carrying myself in a way, imitating somebody that I’ve worked for that I like. It’ll get you through rough patches where you don’t know what to do.