He essentially plays an American version of the rogue superspy on the trail of a terrorist in Paris alongside Richard Madden, a fellow Brit also playing American on-screen. Elba is quick to point out that the movie is fiction, removed from the recent terror attacks in Europe. "The film is about good versus bad in the city," Elba says, "completely different from what's going on in our own world. But that's not to say we as filmmakers are insensitive to the nature of violence, considering we made this movie before what happened in Paris."

Richard Madden stars alongside Elba in Bastille Day

Elba says that director James Watkins (The Woman in Black) intended to make a film in the style of classic 1970s action movies. "You can see that in the framing, the way he did the action, the tone, the face shots, whoop-bangs, crashing cars into cars, the fact it's a little bit old school and with very little CGI," Elba explains. "And what I like is that it deviates from what you think it is, a terrorist plot. That's not at all what it is. It's good guy versus bad guy."

Elba credits these kinds of roles with his physical fitness. "I don't do any gym routine," he says. "I can't, it's just boring. But if it's fight training, I'm all over it. The best physical shape I've been in is when I've been kickboxing. I could go to a gym all week and feel nothing, but training kickboxing is monster."

He's also probably too busy in his downtime to bother with the gym, as he is producing music as well as movies and TV series, and also delving into fashion. "These are all projects and passions I've been working on for years," he says. "Everything I do is part of a family of things. Working with my clothing, with my music and my film all somehow fit together. My production company is also part of the connective tissue, so nothing's a bolt-on!"

And Elba enjoys watching his career evolve in unexpected directions. "I do contemplate that it might not have worked out the way it has," he says. "But I'm a determined person. I've always been determined to see it through. Everything that's happened to me, good or bad, has got me here today. If I fail, I fail, but I just won't quit."

Watch the trailer for Bastille Day: