‘Our skin is no more than that: it’s just skin,’ Idris Elba claims he got turned off from playing James Bond
Idris Elba addressed the rumors of being turned off for playing the role of James Bond as the conversation “became about race”
Is black James Bond not acceptable?
Recently, during an interview on the “Smartless” podcast, Idris Elba confirmed the rumours that he got turned off from playing the character James Bond as the conversation “became about race”.
Idris Elba starred in The Wire and Luther, and has been mentioned as a beloved replacement for Daniel Craig aka 007. In 2015, the author Anthony Horowitz labeled Elba as “too street” to play the role of James Bond.
On the Smartless podcast with Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes, as the host, Elba explicitly mentioned that any desire in playing the character was tainted because of some “disgusting” reactions to the rumors.
“The truth is, I was super complimented for a long time about this,” Elba stated about Initially accepting the idea of playing Bond. “I was like, ‘This is crazy!’ James Bond…We’re all actors and we understand that role. It’s one of those coveted [roles]. Being asked to be James Bond was like, ‘Ok, you’ve sort of reached the pinnacle’. That’s one of those things the whole world has a vote in.”
He further added, “Essentially, it was a huge compliment that every corner of the world except some corners, which we will not talk about, were really happy about the idea that I could be considered. Those that weren’t happy about the idea made the whole thing disgusting and off-putting because it became about race. It became about nonsense and I got the brunt of it.”
Elba has candidly talked about his annoyance with being labeled as a “Black actor.” In February, the actor mentioned in an interview with Esquire U.K. that he had stopped calling himself a “black actor” as it became a barrier which caused limitations for this career.
At that time he said, “as humans, we are obsessed with race and that obsession can really hinder people’s aspirations, hinder people’s growth. Racism should be a topic for discussion, sure. Racism is very real. But from my perspective, it’s only as powerful as you allow it to be.”
“I stopped describing myself as a Black actor when I realized it put me in a box,” the actor noted. “We’ve got to grow. We’ve got to. Our skin is no more than that: it’s just skin. Rant over.”
