Idris Elba Teases His Beyond Villain Role

In an interview for this week's Entertainment Weekly, Star Trek Beyond's Idris Elba teases his role of the film's big bad. Considering the trailer already showed the Enterprise being destroyed early in the film, and this image from EW shows him in a ship corridor, doesn't seem to be much of a leap to assume he is responsible.

Your character has been shrouded in mystery. Please tell me everything about him.
I play Krall. This is a man with a definite purpose. I say a man, but he’s not a man. Or is he?

Is he a new species in the Star Trek universe?
Yes. What’s interesting about him is that he has a real beef with what the Enterprise stands for. Krall’s a character who’s deeply steeped in hatred — in my opinion, a well-earned hatred — for the Federation. It felt quite political. There’s a relatability to what’s happening in our world. Not everybody’s happy with what everybody calls the good guys.

There’s that line in the trailer, “This is where the Frontier pushes back.” It feels like a refutation of the whole foundation for the Federation.
There’s some history that we explore, to understand why he feels the frontier needs to push back. There’s definitely an opposing argument to the good that the Federation think they do. There are purists that believe in independence, and believe that we’re all made differently for a reason, and will fight tooth and nail to defend that. There’s massive relatability to modern world politics in that sense.

What it like working under all that makeup?
Typically, my day would start at 4:15 in the morning. I’d be in the chair until around 7:30, shoot about 8:30. Shot ‘til around 9 at night, maybe later. Get home, unwind, get to sleep, and then wake up in the morning and do the whole thing again. It was definitely an extensive process. I learned so much about working with prosthetics, and how that can influence the performance. I’m claustrophobic by the way; I don’t like rubber masks on my face.

What is Krall’s relationship like with Kirk in Beyond?
Working with Chris [Pine] was a good old laugh. He’s a funny boy, and a wicked professional. But in terms of Krall and Kirk… can we say, Jaws and Dory?