“They just have so much of who I am wrong, they feel like I must be a playboy. I must be noncommittal. I must be the kind of guy that jumps in and out. And, you know, I suppose if you look at my history or you know anything about my history or you can read on Google who I was married to or what’s happened, you know, it might appear that way. But it’s completely misunderstood. People think they know about me and my past and my relationships and they don’t. There’s very few people that can say they really, really know me and I can say, ‘Yes, you really, really know me.’ Very few people. Very few.”

I ask him about a rap lyric he wrote that fame brings you to the “devil’s door.”

“I live a duality, do you know what I mean?” he says. “I got an O.B.E. It’s Officer of the British Empire, but I’ve always known it as a British sweetheart, treasured.

“But I’m a naughty boy. Do you know what I’m saying? I sort of live a full life, and naughty. And I’m one knock away from the devil’s door. Because, you know, I’m human, man. But at the same time, I’m honored by my country and I’m like, yeah,” as long as he doesn’t mess up or be a jerk, he says, using raunchier words. “There’s responsibility to be a leader on the right moral side. Don’t go out there and get coked off your face and get caught in orgies. Not that I would.”

I reassure him that Mick Jagger has been knighted, so other naughty boys are in the Queen’s pack of aces. And I wonder if there’s any other challenge on the horizon, noting that he would make a remarkable Othello.

“Don’t like the story,” he says brusquely.

But why?

“Jealousy’s a real poison and I’m not into it,” he says.

Is that because you get jealous?

“It’s a poison,” he repeats, laughing. As we get ready to leave, I pose the question I know Mr. Elba doesn’t like: “I have to ask about James Bond because George Clooney has now said you would be a ‘perfect James Bond and it would be a great step forward.”’