Idris Elba’s 10-year-old son sometimes asks him to do his Knuckles voice at home.

The British actor made his debut as the voice of Knuckles the Echidna in 2022’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and he reprised the role for the spin-off TV series Knuckles and the new film, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which was released earlier this month.

During an interview with Extra, Elba shared that his son Winston is such a big fan of Knuckles that he asks his father to perform the voice even when he’s off-duty.

“Sometimes my son, who’s 10, he’ll say, ‘Do the Knuckles voice,’ or, ‘Leave me a message in Knuckles’ voice,'” he said, before adding that he needs “a warm-up” and “a refresher” before attempting the voice.

Elsewhere in the interview, the Luther star shared that he enjoyed returning to the character and getting to add more warmth, understanding and nuance to his vocal performance this time around.

“It is definitely a different skill set. Your voice is so incredible, you can do all sorts of things and if you’re not worried about how you look, you can get your voice to do crazy s**t. So, I loved the experience of that,” he shared.

Elba also noted that he recorded all of his lines on his own and only got to meet his fellow voice actors Keanu Reeves and Ben Schwartz and live-action co-star Jim Carrey on the press tour.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 has been a commercial success, taking almost $213 million (£170 million) at the global box office after only 10 days in cinemas. A fourth film is in development.

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