Dwayne Johnson has claimed Idris Elba refused to say a line in 'Hobbs & Shaw' in which his character referred to himself as "the black James Bond".
Idris Elba
The 47-year-old wrestler-and-actor has spilled that 46-year-old Idris rejected a line in which his villainous alter ego, former MI6 agent Brixton Lore, compared himself to 007 because he felt it was "too close" to the never-ending rumours about him taking over the part of the iconic big screen spy from Daniel Craig.
Dwayne claims he was responsible for coming up with the alternative line in which Idris describes himself as the "black Superman".
Speaking to Variety, the 'Rampage' star said: "Everyone loves 'the black Superman' line. Everyone's taking credit for it - Idris, our director, our producers, I'm sure, Jason [Statham] ... I came up with that. I'm on set because they originally said, 'Oh I'm the black James Bond,' and he goes, 'No I don't wanna, it's too close to what everybody's talking about.' I said, 'What about the black Superman?' And everyone's like, 'Great!' [But] now everyone takes credit."
Although Dwayne is convinced he came up with the line, Idris remembers things differently, and is adamant it was in fact him who "improvised" the memorable moment.
The 'Luther' star said: "That line was just improvised, I was in one of these takes and I was really riffing, and then it came out and [director David Leitch] loved it, and so we kept it."
It seems producer Hiram Garcia can back up Idris' story as he claims it was him and not The Rock who improvised the Superman saying.
Hiram concurred: "[Idris] just shouted it out. He was talking trash, shouted it out, and we said, 'This is incredible!' [The line] was his ... so he ran with it. He loved it, and that line really stuck, and we're so happy the fans responded to it."
Tagged in Dwayne Johnson Idris Elba