Idris Elba may have made a mark with his role on The Wire, but that doesn’t mean he watched the show. “I wanna stay in the present, and I wanna talk about the future. But if you will indulge me, a little bit of past, because — and I promise I'll make it fast,” Poehler told her guest. "But I'm such a huge fan of The Wire .”

Elba played erudite but cold-hearted gangster Stringer Bell in three seasons of The Wire, one of the leaders of the drug ring being surveilled in the police operation that gives the all-time-great show its name.