Idris Elba has been in therapy for a year because of his acting profession

“I have some unhealthy habits that really formed over time.”

Recently starring in Apple TV+’s excellent aerial thriller, Hijack, Idris Elba is currently shooting the action film Heads of State alongside John Cena. The actor continues productions at a breakneck pace and he tells this week in the podcast “Changes With Annie Macmanus” that he has been following therapy for a year after having developed “ unhealthy habits » as a professional actor. The Englishman confides that he is a “ absolute workaholic » and can no longer even relax with family.

“I’ve been in therapy for… about a year now. That’s a lot, right? In my therapy, I’ve been thinking a lot about change… I’m thinking about changing my behaviors. It’s not because I don’t like who I am or anything like that. It’s just because I have unhealthy habits that have really formed over time and this job, in an industry where I’m rewarded for those unhealthy habits. I’m a real workaholic. And that’s not good for life, in general.”

Idris Elba continues his reflection and admits that “nothing too extreme is good in life in general. Everything needs to be balanced. But I’m amply rewarded in this industry for being a workaholic.”. He emphasizes how important his job “keeps him away for months” and invites him “to repeat this cycle…”

The actor also has a second job: DJ. He even has a music studio in his house. And so, he never stops: “My studio in my house is my favorite place. I’ll open my laptop and say, ‘I don’t know what to do today.’ And it will come out like this or that. And I’m exhilarated by that and also so relaxed. I can work for 10 days on a film, shoot underwater sequences holding my breath for six minutes, and then come back and sit in that studio and feel relaxed, even more so than sitting on the couch with the family. Which is unhealthy, right? This is the part where I have to normalize what relaxes me, it can’t just be work!”