While I haven’t been a dedicated viewer/listener to Amy Poehler’s Good Hang pod, I have enjoyed the hell out of every episode I’ve listened to. She’s a great interviewer and she has an easy chemistry with every single one of her guests. In previous episodes, she’s interviewed some of her closest friends and most beloved coworkers, but in this week’s episode, she chatted with John Cena (who was a costar) and Idris Elba, who she doesn’t really know. Cena hyped Idris hard in his interview (they’re costars in Head of State), and then Idris came into the “studio” in person and he and Amy got along really well (the Idris part starts around the 9:50 mark).
The whole section about being Virgos took me OUT!! Amy is a Virgo, Idris is a Virgo, Idris questions the Virgo-ness of being a Virgo, which Amy correctly points out is a Peak Virgo trait. Then they’re both like, hey, Beyonce is a Virgo so it’s a pretty cool Virgo club, right? Which is true. Hugh Grant is also a Virgo, so are Sydney Sweeney, Chris Pine, Zendaya and like half of all lawyers. Amy called out Idris for believing in aliens “but not astrology,” lmao. They get into talking about being born in the early 1970s and growing up as Gen Xers, and what their 50s are like:
Idris Elba is getting real about some of the challenges of aging. The Heads of State actor, 52, opened up to Amy Poehler on the latest episode of her Good Hang podcast, where they discussed being in their 50s — both the good and the bad.
“I don’t love that, at this age, the age of [having] wellness and consciousness, is so upon us, yet our bodies fail us,” said Elba. Agreed Poehler, 53, “The biggest bummer,” joking in addition, “I mean, the fact that you can get hurt just getting out of bed.”
On the flip side, Elba said that for their generation, “Some of the coolest things — art, music, culture, some of the craziest world politics that set the dynamics for where we are right now — all happened when our emotions were blossoming, and our adolescence was growing.”
Another plus of his age now? “Your influences change,” Elba said later. “I think in my 30s and 40s, I was blowing with the wind a little bit with what was influencing me, what my goals were. And in the 50s, I’m like, ‘Nah. That wind has to pass around me.’ I’m not getting as easily influenced,” explained the 2018 PEOPLE Sexiest Man Alive.
At 52, Elba is also “not afraid of difficult things, or challenges that make me uncomfortable.”
“And to choose your own discomfort is like a privilege at our age,” Poehler noted, laughing. ” ‘It’s gonna be uncomfortable, but I’m gonna be in charge of it.’ “
I’m from the microgeneration behind Gen X – Xennial – but I’ve felt my waning interest in whatever the youth-culture is at whatever moment. Like, I still like to hear the new music and dip my toe into whatever cultural discourse is happening, but yeah – I am no longer subject to being “influenced.” And yes, the “wellness” movement being pushed on people in their 40s and 50s… it sucks ass.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Good Hang screengrabs.
