Idris Elba & Rebecca Ferguson on Scary Lessons from ‘A House of Dynamite’ (Exclusive)

Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson are dishing on their apocalyptic political thriller “A House of Dynamite” from Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow.

“Extra” spoke with Idris and Rebecca about the what-if film, which follows the American government and military personnel tracking a nuclear missile headed toward the U.S. as they race to determine who is responsible and how to respond. 

The two talked about how the very serious subject matter is a much-needed conversation starter.

Rebecca shared, “I haven’t been as enlightened and at all educated in the matter of not just nuclear weapons… but not really understanding the power of it and the fact that, as we have said so many times now, one entity has the possibility of pressing a button and nuking a world. A person who is the least trained on the matter.”

Idris stressed the importance of education, saying, “The world is doom and gloom right? You turn on the news, it’s all there. That saying that what you don’t know can’t hurt you is not true. What you do know, right, you can have a further understanding — and that can help protect us all.”

Elba emphasized, “It turns out in ‘A House of Dynamite,’ the person that sleeps in that house has a box of matches when he goes to bed. That ain’t good.”

They also reacted to the 13-minute ovation the movie received at the Venice Film Festival, which Rebecca admitted she finds a bit “silly.” 

She explained, “I don’t understand the comparison of a good film compared to the minutes of clapping. Kathryn was ready to leave that within two minutes… She walked out after 13 minutes while they were still going on, but the value of the film has nothing to do with the mirroring of amount of claps.”

Elba quipped, “I loved it. 13 minutes? I could have done 13 minutes more."

Rebecca added, “I think it was mostly our team just standing there clapping."