Idris Elba says filming for new series Hijack felt ‘like flying to Mars’

The British actor described the ‘claustrophobia’ of acting on an aeroplane.
Idris Elba appears in new Apple TV+ series Hijack (Victoria Jones/PA)
PA Archive
Hannah Roberts27 June 2023
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Idris Elba has said that he felt like he was “flying to Mars”, when he filmed for the new Apple TV+ series Hijack, as he had to act on an aeroplane for around six months.

The seven-episode series follows Elba’s character, Sam Nelson, who is on a plane from Dubai to London that has been hijacked.

Director Jim Field Smith said that the aircraft was a millimetre by millimetre replica of an airliner, which meant that the cast felt like they were “boarding a long haul flight every single day for 120 days”.

Elba, 50, described what it was like to film in such a compact space, in the middle of summer, and said: “It all sort of led into the claustrophobia of it.

“The crew, the actors, everyone was sort of tight, and it was almost like watching a documentary being made, or being in the documentary.”

He added: “As an actor, it felt like I was flying to Mars – ‘Am I still on this flight? It’s like six months later. I’m still on this flight’ – or like three seasons of a show.”

In the show, Elba’s character, Nelson, is a corporate negotiator who tries to use his professional skills to save the passengers on the plane.

Elba said that the role involved a lot of crawling and sneaking around and said that this was difficult to pull off given that he’s over 6ft tall.

He said: “Sam does a lot of sneaking around the plane. You know, me sneaking on a plane is like: ‘Bro, what are you doing? We can see you.’

“It meant that I either had to get lower, or we had to figure out another way and that added to the sort of drama and the reality of this thing.

“The fight sequences were certainly hard to shoot. They were choreographed within the space.

“If we hurt ourselves, we just took a breather, and carried on.”

Filming for the series also took place outside the aircraft, where Max Beesley and Archie Panjabi’s characters, DI Daniel O’Farrel and Zahra Gahfoor, were working out the intricacies of what was taking place on flight KA29.

Panjabi said that they were also restricted in terms of space and said: “We were packed like sardines, too. But we did have a good laugh on the show. It was intense.”

The first two episodes of Hijack launch on Apple TV+ on Wednesday June 28 and will be followed by one new episode every Wednesday until August 2.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in