Idris Elba reminisced about his humble beginnings as an actor in New York during his opening monologue for his first time hosting Saturday Night Live on March 9.
The British actor, best known for playing drug trafficker Stringer Bell on HBO’s The Wire, recalled his first job in show business about 20 years ago as a comedy club bouncer just down the street from NBC’s headquarters.
“That was my night job when I started in this country,” Elba, who donned a slick dark green suit, told viewers. “It was a decent job, I made some great contacts, by which I mean I sold weed.”
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Elba, who last year launched his new record label 7Wallace Music, also joked about his backup plan was if his acting career didn’t take off.
“My mom would call me from London, saying, ‘Idris, you have to have a backup plan.’ I said, ‘Mom, listen, relax, I’ve got a backup plan, don’t worry — I’m a DJ. She would cry.”
As fate would have it, Elba actually does DJ under the name DJ Big Driis (he’s performing at this year’s Coachella), and plays a struggling DJ on the upcoming Netflix comedy Turn Up Charlie.
During the SNL monologue, Elba shared how his sister used to work for Bad Boy Records at the time when Notorious B.I.G. was murdered in 1997.
“My sister took me to this Biggie memorial and everyone was there,” he remembered. “It was like being at a wax museum where the wax figures were smoking blunts and drinking Alizé. I remember thinking, if it’s possible for me to be standing in that room right now, then anything is possible.”
Watch Elba’s full SNL monologue in the clip below.