It's so important to see the voiceless be represented. Otherwise, they'll be lost in history. It's beautiful to see Idris Elba use his influence for this.
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The Luther actor is narrating and executive producing a 4 part docuseries titled Erased: WW2's Heroes of Color. Releasing on June 6th, the show intends to tell the stories of soldiers who aren't represented in the history books but are integral in key war events like D-Day, Dunkirk, and Pearl Harbor.
Ultimately, a big drawing force in this lies in Elba's family tree. One of his grandfathers fought in World War II. The problem? There's nothing to show for it; no pictures, no stories passed down. It's all gone. "That part of my family's history has been erased somewhat," he says.
Details on Elba's New Docuseries
What really strikes Elba in the retelling of these stories is how they utilize their archives. They unravel footage, read soldier's journals, how actor's portray them, this is the crux of it all. He explains how it resonates with him while narrating. "It really did actually impact me just in the narration booth, watching the imagery, looking at the faces, wondering about my own personal connect. Could my grandfather be one of the people in one of the pieces? That was what I thought about. So, it did definitely resonate with me."
Furthermore, he emphasized to the directors and the editors how crucial it is to really place the viewer in these stories. Moreover, placing them in the action gives a truer understanding of its tragedy and how random it can be. "I was really encouraging of the filmmakers to really go for it," Elba continues. "Giving you a little glimpse of, from a fictional perspective, what it might have looked like and how heroic these soldiers were."
However, Elba also states how vital it is not to glorify these events. Rather, the series tries to convey how easily it could be one of us in these scenarios. "We don't want to glorify what's going on, but we actually wanted to paint the heroism in a way that was relatable to the way we've seen films of this nature," he expresses.
