Directing Yardie was a nerve-racking experience: Idris Elba

Actor Idris Elba is directing his first film Yardie. About the experience, he says, "Yardie is a small project. It's not designed to be a big money-making film. Of course, this is a business and I want to be proud of it. I think there's a misconception that the higher you get, the less the success matters. That's not true. I've directed this thing. I've conjured it and to watch it go out into the public domain is great. I mean, it's nerve-racking. But I can cover up my nerves by just ploughing on."

Yardie is based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Victor Headley, which tells the story of a young Jamaican who is sent to London to facilitate a drug deal. Elba is determined to avoid glamourising violence in the new film. 

"There's a lot of violent energy in the book that I was nervous about portraying on screen because of the type of violence it is. The term 'yardie' is a derogatory term in the first place. So the energy I wanted was cultural energy. I wanted to feel like I've just gone to Jamaica. I wanted to I feel like I'm in the 1980s."