Idris Elba’s Best Movie And TV Performances, Ranked

3. Nelson Mandela – Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Playing historical figures is usually a thankless job (unless you count the Academy, of course), since your performance is often measured on what people think a person was like in real life. In other words, do you kind of sound like the historical figure? Do you look like them? If I squint, will I forget that you’re you and think that you’re that other person? And that’s why Mandela is interesting, since Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom covers a long span of the man’s life, from when he was younger, to when he was thrown in jail, to when he was eventually released and became the man that most younger people think of him as.