Idris Elba ‘nearly lost my life’ trying to protect gunman’s girlfriend

Idris Elba was once held at gunpoint outside of an American nightclub when he tried to defend a girlfriend from her raging beau.

The 50-year-old opened up on the harrowing experience for the first time yesterday, declaring: “I nearly lost my f***ing life after attempting to stop a man threatening his girlfriend outside a club.”

Speaking to the Daily Mail, the Hijack star explained that he was walking out of the nightclub when he spotted a man “whaling on his missus” and “screaming” that he would kill her.

Being a notorious gentleman, the actor intercepted the two as he shared: “I come round and I go, ‘Look how beautiful she is. Why would you talk to this beautiful princess like that?’”

However, the situation went from bad to worse as the man thought this was Idris flirting with his girlfriend instead of merely trying to talk him down.

In the next few moments the man “pulled out a gun” and put it to Idris’ face questioning if he was really “trying to hit on her” in this life-threatening moment.

He added: “I remember thinking, ‘Don’t play negotiations like that… Consequences, man.’”

The actor didn’t reveal how the situation was resolved, but he evidently managed to get away without any serious injuries.

Idris revealed his harrowing encounter just weeks after his Hijack costar, Max Beesley, told Express.co.uk about his own experience at the wrong end of a gun.

The 52-year-old revealed he had been robbed in Ladbroke Grove, London a few years back.

The star had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time and was put “in a chair with a gun at the back of my head”.

While the Suits star always thought that in a life-or-death situation, he would “go to work and take care of business”, actually going through it left him completely frozen.

He added: “Even if I’d had a weapon, I’d have said, ‘Brother I’ve got a gun here, man, do you want to take it?’ I was terrified.”