Idris Elba has revealed the hilarious moment his steamy shower with his wife Sabrina was abruptly ended by a rogue bat.
The 49-year-old actor – who will star in upcoming Beast – shared the amusing anecdote from his time filming in South Africa and admitted he was “appalled” by the animal.
Idris, who married Sabrina in 2019, also admitted he never got to act out his reaction to seeing the bat, and his wife “still makes fun of him to this day.”
Amusing: Idris Elba has revealed the hilarious moment his steamy shower with his wife Sabrina was brought to an abrupt end by a rogue bat (pictured in May)
In an interview with Men’s Journal, Idris said, “I was filming in Limpopo. My wife was there and we wanted to have fun in the shower.
“A little morning romance, you know? She got in, then I followed her and closed the door. But then I looked down and this bat has been clinging to the inside handle of the shower door for life.
“A small, wet bat. i hate bats It was freaky as f***. I jumped out of the shower so fast. My wife still pokes fun at it to this day – “You left me in the shower with a bat!”
wings up! The actor shared the amusing anecdote from his days filming in South Africa and admitted he was “appalled” by the animal (stock image).
Idris went on to reveal that he first developed a fear of bats when he was in Australia in 2019.
The Luther star was in the process of promoting his survival film Beast, which sees a widowed husband on a trip to South Africa with his daughters taking on a giant rogue lion in pursuit.
However, the actor has since revealed that the lion was created with special effects and a backup stuntman wearing a large foam mask showed up during filming and it proved difficult for him to recreate the same level of fear.
Idris told The Chron’s Alison Boshoff: “I’ve never made a film where I’m imagining – and struggling with – something that’s not really there, so close at hand.
Role: Idris is set to star in Beast, a survival story about a widowed husband taking his daughters on a trip to South Africa against a rogue giant lion that is pursuing them
“I’ve fought with swords and guns in other films and against things that aren’t there.
“But how scared can you be when a guy in a gray suit and with a big limp head is trying to hit you? So those were skills I had to learn.”
He added: “I don’t like watching movies that I’m in.
Funny: The lion was created with special effects and there was a backup stuntman with a large foam mask during filming
“I usually go to a premiere, watch the first ten minutes and then leave. But for some reason I stayed… which was torture!
“However, I was just fascinated by how we were able to achieve the ferocity of this lion.”
Elba plays a man who takes his two daughters to Africa, where he first met his late wife when her life is turned upside down.
“It’s about a family who return to a small village in West Africa to mourn the loss of a loved one, my ex-wife and the mother of my children,” he explained on The Tonight Show this week.
Plot: “It’s about a family who return to a small village in West Africa to mourn the loss of a loved one, my ex-wife and the mother of my children,” he explained on The Tonight Show this week.
“Basically, they’re cornered by a rogue lion who’s somehow been snatched from his pride by poachers,” Elba continued.
He added that the film is “basically a survival story,” adding that his character and his daughters “are having a hard time dealing with the death of their mother, so it’s really about the beast that comes for them , the beast of grief, the beast of family ties and how it all comes together
“We based this lion in the film on a lion that has been extinct for a long time, it’s called the Barbary lion,” he said.
“It was a huge lion, much bigger than the average lion, so for the film we just reinforced the fact that it was really big,” Elba added.
They also laughed at stuntman Owen wearing a makeshift “Tiger” suit, which Fallon jokingly described as “the scariest thing I’ve seen in my life.”
Beast hits theaters August 26th.
Glamorous: Idris (pictured at the Beast premiere earlier this week) married his wife Sabrina in 2019 and revealed she still pokes fun at him for his fear of bats