Idris Elba let go of James Bond because everyone was gross about it
While the actor was at first complimented to be considered for the role, that feeling was quickly overtaken by the racist discussion that followed
Aux News James Bond
It’s no secret that James Bond is a special role that—unlike so many franchises that swallow up its lead actors—actually benefits the actor who portrays the international man of mystery. Being in an elite club opposite the late Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton, Daniel Craig, and George Lazenby has its perks. Yet one person who seemingly everybody thought would make a pretty good Bond found the experience of being fan-casted in the role pretty discouraging.
Idris Elba’s name has been attached to Bond conversations for the last decade—pretty much as soon as Luther hit the BBC. Elba is a cool, physical, and talented actor who, sure, we guess, could pull off a tuxedo. For many, he felt like the guy, and to Elba, even being in the conversation was a compliment. However, in a recent interview with SmartLess, Elba discussed how quickly a racist public ruined it.
“The truth is, I was super complimented for a long time about this,” Elba said. “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.”
Elba, who has long discussed the challenges of being a Black actor and how difficult it can be for people to see him as anything other than that, was at the center of a maelstrom that seemingly continued for a decade. Considering how long Daniel Craig has been threatening to ditch MI6, Elba’s name has bounced around fan castings and rumor mills, and, of course, the backlash to the very idea of a Black James Bond overtook the conversation and quickly soured it.
“Essentially, it was a huge compliment that every corner of the world except from some corners, which we will not talk about, were really happy about the idea that I could be considered,” Elba added. “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.”
Earlier this year, Elba told Esquire U.K. that he was no longer “describing myself as a Black actor” because “it put me in a box.”
“As humans, we are obsessed with race, and that obsession can really hinder people’s aspirations, hinder people’s growth,” he said. “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.”
His comments created controversy for Elba, who clarified on Twitter that he doesn’t want his personhood “defined by race.”
“There isn’t a soul on this earth that can question whether I consider myself a BLACK MAN or not,” he tweeted. “Being an ‘actor’ is a profession, like being an ‘architect,’ they are not defined by race. However, If you define your work by your race, that is your prerogative.”
This wouldn’t be the first time he expressed disappointment in the conversation surrounding his playing James Bond. In 2019, he told Vanity Fair, “You just get disheartened when you get people from a generational point of view going, ‘It can’t be.’ And it really turns out to be the color of my skin.” For his part, Elba recognized early that this was a no-win scenario for him. “And then if I get it, and it didn’t work, or it did work, would it be because of the color of my skin? That’s a difficult position to put myself into when I don’t need to.”
102 Comments
So called “anti racists” are some of the most racist people I’ve ever come across.
to be fair, racists ruin everything.
They really do. This is just another example where we could’ve had the coolest Bond ever and they had to ruin it by opening their stupid traps.
I don’t see him as a black actor—-i see him as Charles FREAKING Miner!
I genuinely forgot he was in The Office. But that’s probably because I re-watch The Wire like half a dozen times every year so there’s very rarely room in my brain to see him as any character but Stringer Bell.
Good man
Dude killed it in that role. I was legit blown away when I learned he was British. I loved that Key & Peele sketch about him, though…that was gold.
Every time I see him with his natural accent, my brain shuts down and wonders why Stringer Bell is talking like a Brit.
You watch a show with 60 hour-long episodes 6 times a year? Meaning you lose 15 entire, 24-hour days by watching the same show over and over each year? Do you ever watch anything else? I’m not even sure I spend 360 hours actively watching TV (so excluding background noise viewing) at all within a year.
I would like to introduce you to the concept of hyperbole. Try it out sometime, you might like it.
I tried hyperbole, and it was literally the greatest thing in the history of mankind and any other species!
That’s the spirit!
Here’s a thought on who should be the next Bond:
Nobody. Stop making them. Every Bond filn for the last twenty years keeps looking into the camera and going ‘man it’s weird we keep this colonialist dinosaur running around, huh’ and Casino Royale was the only move that did anything with that but it’s still true. Given what a miserable little backwater shithole Britain has become, James Bond is a Rule Britannia masturbation fantasy that has become exhausting to indulge.
No. No more.
“Given what a miserable little backwater shithole Britain has become, James Bond is a Rule Britannia masturbation fantasy that has become exhausting to indulge.”
“Last twenty years”? Goldeneye did it 28 years ago.
Ah fuck me, you’re right.
Not a fan of the Brosnan ones?
They’re dumb in a way that’s kind of fun, but they also line-up with that unexpected 1990s British cultural revival that nobody saw coming. Britain was punching above its weight: had it made other choices it might not have spiraled into total obsolescence.
The final Bond film should be Bond trying and failing miserably to sneak into places because all his enemies are far better equipped and treat him with a kind of very polite pity. He dies a bystander to a villain plan he never came close to uncovering.
“But my secret gadget was based on the finest computer technology Britain has to offer – the Sinclair Spectrum! How could it have failed?”
I think you and I had a great discussion on this before, Dino, but Goldeneye still remains the high watermark. I really think there’s still room for Bond, and, no, they don’t have to lean into old-school misogyny…but nor do they constantly have to hang a lampshade on “OH LOOK HOW TERRIBLE HE IS!!!!” and basically apologise for the film’s main goddamn character every five seconds.
Thanks for the reply, but I don’t remember the discussion you mention.
Never Say Never Again also had the “this guy is out of touch with the modern world” thing going.
I’ve been saying this all along. Skyfall was just “worse Goldeneye”.
It would’ve pained me to say this ten years ago, but I’m at the same point. The past three movies have been self-referential masturbatory fests. They take so long to get made nowadays that every time a movie comes out it’s some kind of anniversary and the producers feel compelled to “honor the legacy” by exploiting the past while absurdly clinging on to the “gritty, realistic” tone from Casino Royale that they don’t actually look for new things to do. And the rights to the franchise are owned by a mega corporation that will mine the brand recognition to death. Cubby Broccoli is rolling in his grave.
I remember watching Quantum of Solace (a 2008 movie that put its female lead in brownface) and realizing with embarrassed horror that Casino Royale was a fluke and that everyone involved had learned all the wrong lessons.
Skyfall’s theme is a banger, though.
I totally agree. I think they could salvage it but this thing they’ve got into where the plot is about Bond… ugh. Can’t wait to find out who his ex-girlfriend turns out to be. M probably.
I agree. The UK needs to kill Bond, and in its place establish Mr. Bean as their preeminent national IP. That way they can cast all the cis white men they want in the title role of bumbling idiot Englishman and nobody will complain.
We did that already. It was called Johnny English and it was awful.
Great idea, bad name. Reboot, call it Hal Britannia, and cast Robert Webb as lead.
It’s been done.
Yes, but also Henry Cavill
Bond in the age of Brexit.
Cool story, bro…ny.
Tired line, dude.
Yours is a tired subculture, brony. Seriously, though: I read through all your ranting in this thread and it’s about the most unimaginative, painfully-white-boy-suburban-basement-dwelling-but-desperately-trying-to-prove-otherwise hot take I’ve heard a billion times before. We get it: you’re angry that Bond isn’t an Marvel movie.
Spot on. The UK can have a sadistic, lethal, ladykilling (in both senses!), stylish, imperialist badass assessing as a treat. It is after all only a movie series. But it’s a damn shame Elba didn’t do it, he’d have absolutely ruled in that role. Least we might get Cavill now.
“We get it: you’re angry that Bond isn’t an Marvel movie.”… what the absolute fuck are you talking about?
“Exhausting to indulge”
Oh fuck off.
The last Bond movie I saw was Casino Royale, Craig was fine, no problem with him, it’s just that I realized that I don’t think I’ve truly enjoyed a Bond film since I was about 14. They’re not bad movies, they’re fine for what they are, but I started to feel like I was just seeing them out of habit. I guess I’m just not in that place anymore. That being said, casting Idris Elba might have gotten my butt in the seat for at least his first one.
Or, you can stop watching them and fuck off.
I totally get where he’s coming from re: not wanting to be “defined by race.” It’s maddening to hear ignorant people insist that racism would just go away if minorities and liberals “just stopped talking about race,” because it’s so blatantly not true but we really wish it was. I would love to just exist as a person of color in spaces without being asked where I’m from. I don’t have magic cultural powers that imbue me with all the knowledge of my ancestors. I don’t have the same experiences and values as someone else just because we share the same skin color. So if someone else is proud of their race and is pro-Black, pro-Latinx (*shudder*), pro-whatever-their-identity-is, power to them. But my identity’s not about that, and I wish there wasn’t so much pressure to be pro-insert_race.
I’m very pro Latinx, for the record
Power to you
If you were then you would know that they don’t use that word, only people like you do.
I’m mixed, and I’d like to say amen to all that. I know exactly where he’s coming from too. I don’t have magic cultural powers that imbue me with all the knowledge of my ancestors. I don’t have the same experiences and values as someone else just because we share the same skin color. So if someone else is proud of their race and is pro-Black, pro-Latinx (*shudder*), pro-whatever-their-identity-is, power to them.Yup: positive stereotyping is still fucking stereotyping. You’re not seeing the individual, just a black/Asian/whatever. I do love watching people’s shoulders slump, but, when they figure out, fuck, I’m not proper Chinese. I’m not the first-gen they’d hoped, with fresh-off-the-boat parents who run some quaint immigrant small business (no one ever things about immigrants working for others, I’ve noticed), who can take them to, say, a Chinese restaurant and converse with the waiter in fluent Mandarin and thus get the good food that isn’t on the menu.My absolute favourite is when they realise that the Chinese side of my family has been here since the 19th century, longer than their family that stepped off the SS Orion in 1952 as Ten Pound Poms.
You should let them know that the “good” food is already on the menu. They just don’t order it.
If people sometimes asking you where you’re from is the worst trouble you’re facing, you’re… basically not facing any trouble.
“pro-Latinx (*shudder*), pro-whatever-their-identity-is, power to them.”
Yes, power to them, but make sure you hate “Latinx” and don’t respect it.
Thanks, asshole.
Latinx isn’t a real thing
Your opinion doesn’t matter
Yeah it does.
Nah
Yep.
Are you of Latin American descent?
Don’t you mean Latinx descent? And no. But I worked for a latino member of congress for 7 years and no legitimate person on earth says latinx. Period.
You’re such a fucking moron. You see the little (*shudder*) I put right after the word Latinx in my first comment? I hate that word.But if you’re not Latin American, then no, your opinion doesn’t fucking matter. It just happens to go double for you.
Given James Bond’s literary description as “rather of Hoagy Carmichael, but ther is something cold and ruthless” (from Casino Royale), this dude is certainly white. In the books there are a few mentions that a “00″ has a mandatory retirement age of 45. In On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Fleming made canonical Bond Scottish – a nod to Connery, who was filming Dr. No at the time.So James Bond is eternally white, mid-to-late 30s, and a Scot. My point? Instead of color washing an established character, make a new one! Heck, I know plenty of people upset that Moriarty the Patriot completely changed James Bond’s origin – but I loved it. If that series depended on James Bond as the MC, I’d baulked – but he was a side character, and darn good at it.Luther was/is utterly fantastic and brilliant. Alba is a stud, but just not Bond.
are you from the USA? latinx seems to be a US thing.
i see more people using ‘latine’ outside of the US, of which i am a fan! gendered nouns have always been my biggest language fail.
I am from/in the U.S., and I do prefer the term “Latine” to “Latinx.” I despise the term “Latinx,” but if someone else wants to identify as “Latinx,” I don’t want to be the asshole that tells them, “Don’t call yourself that!” I hate the identity police. Truthfully, I wouldn’t refer myself as “Latine” either. I’ve always thought of myself as “Hispanic,” which is only half-true anyway because I’m mixed. It messes with my sense of self.
i hear you. i am ambiguously brown, and when i lived in the US…o gosh, people had so many questions about all the categories and identities.
My place of work, which is the the US and has a plurality of Latine employees prefers, well, Latine. I would not be surprised if it eventually supplants Latinx as the preferred gender-neutral term. And that’s all good, evolving is what language does.
Idris is too busy making shitty movies and TV shows. He hasn’t made anything watchable since The Wire. Dude sucks.
I liked Luther and American Gangster. I have not liked the superhero movies or the animated movies he’s been in but I don’t generally like those movies (I see them because my kids like them) and I am consistently impressed at how Elba’s charisma and commitment elevates otherwise mediocre material. The writing in Luther was absurdly bad but I enjoyed most of it because his character was so compelling.
To each their own I guess but American Gangster is a terrible movie. There are so many better crime movies. After The Wire I’ve found Elba to be nothing but forgettable.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ We can certainly agree that there are many better crime better crime movies.
I liked it better when ScarJo said it
I still just feel like the broad majority of people thought he would be a super hot and incredible Bond and it’s too bad that the minority of people is so much louder and more determined
Honestly, I would have loved him as Bond at one point, but the man is 50. Considering they want actors to have the role for multiple movies, he realistically aged out of the part a decade ago. The calls for him to get the role now are just kind of weird – we’d be getting into late-Roger Moore-era territory after a couple of films.
What you mean you don’t want to see him seducing women half his age? You prude!
Yes it’s about the color of skin. James Bond is a white guy. Just like a white guy can’t play MLK. Some things just ARE, and there is no need to be aggressively racist about it from all sides.
You’re a special breed of stupid if you can’t tell me any differences between MLK and James Bond besides skin color. How about one being a historical figure and the other being fucking MAKE BELIEVE
Of course i know, thats not the point.
I believe it’s been settled that James Bond is a Timelord, and is not beholden to your ideas of race and gender, and every decade or so looks and acts a little different. The universe will not implode if his skin’s a little darker for a stint.
Probably a Verstappen fan-boy who thinks F1 drivers should be white, too. And speed skaters. And…
No. Where the hell so you get that idea haha
Just your racism, it says everything.
Sounds like you’re the racist tbh
Not true, Kevin Sorbo has been in talks to play MLK.
Being asked to be James Bond was like, ‘Ok, you’ve sort of reached the pinnacle.’ It’s not, though, is it? It’s a role you get for being a promising young(ish?) talent. Elba was probably already too high profile when people started talking about him for the role. He would have got it coming off The Wire, like Craig got it coming off Layer Cake and Munich.
“It’s not, though, is it? It’s a role you get for being a promising young(ish?) talent.”
Sure, except not ever.
Layer Cake is legit one of my fav movies!
“It’s not, though, is it?”
Yeah, what a great idea, telling someone what they should think.
Like the old joke goes, “What do you call a Black man flying a plane?”
“A pilot you racist”
He’s too old. But come on, it’s been talked about for so long, let’s have him just do one Bond film. One and done, just to piss off the Nazis, then hand it off to someone younger. This is a good plan.
Cast him as Q. Mix up the formula and have the tech guy be the one who fucks.
Man, you know his Q would get it. The Bond girls would come in, see Q, and then look at Bond and think, “this is who I slept with?”
Realistically, though, I think he’d make a great M. He’s the right age for it and has the presence to pull it off.
And in that one movie, have the villains be a Proud Boy-type group of white racist punks* whom he guns down by the hundreds without mercy. Really turn the fucking screw.
* or the British equivalent, I suppose, or both
Frankly, I think one-and-dones should be the way forward, at least for a while. Bring in top filmmakers who would usually be reluctant to work under the demands of a greater franchise, and just let them make totally standalone entries with no semblance of shared continuity, and each getting to cast their own Bond.Test Tarantino’s desire to make his novel accurate version. Nolan must surely have a Bond film in him (and just think of the novelty of a straightforward Nolan film). No need to worry if Cavill or Elba are too old to be in the role for a decade or more, because they done after the one movie anyway. It even gives them the freedom to take the plunge and cast a woman, because it’s not a long term change, it’s just a one-off.
I’m at the point where I feel all IP should have a ten year lifespan and should then be packed away for about 25 years before we are allowed to partake in it again and then simply enjoy the original in a TCM kind of way. No remakes, reboots, reimagining, nothing. Just, “Hey, remember this? It was kind of cool and was one of the pieces of pop culture that defined its decade. OK. That’s it. Now, if you want something new it has to be legitimately NEW stuff created for THIS moment in time.” This cultural human centipede routine has got to stop. It’s robbing us of our souls.
i’m mostly just disappointed that Idris Elba seems to be in just one bad movie after another. Feels like he needs a better agent, Luther and The Wire aside.
And when he is cast in the MCU, it’s freaking Heimdall! Kevin Feige has done a great job, but that was a huge mistake, you have Idris Elba, you find a bigger role for him than that. He was a great Bloodsport for DC, but again, not a character anyone really cares about.
He’s in Apple TV+’s new show Hijack. No idea if it’s any good.
I’ve been of the particular opinion that, if they really wanted the franchise to evolve, they should have given 007 to the character who has already proven in the films that they’re ready to take the mantle; Naomi Harris as Moneypenny.
Elba was just too old by the time they were talking about him as bond. They need a bond in his 30s because he has a solid 15 years of movies once it starts.
I really dgaf about Bond but holy crap someone let him play Roland again!
I don’t keep up too much on entertainment news, so this is the first time I’m hearing that Idris turned down the Bond role. Im very disappointed, he would have been great. I really mean that.
He would’ve been perfect because the recent series of Bonds don’t need him to anonymously slip into a crowd anymore. Every movie, every villain knows exactly who he is from the start. If Bond were more grounded spy movies, he’d have a hard time blending in Europe or Asia. But that hasn’t been a need for Bond for many many years now.
Surprised there aren’t fifty comments from racists whining like every other time this topic gets brought up.
They’re currently being racist over at The Root. Expect them after lunch.
its “cast” not “casted”
Probably for the best, since the Broccolis were never going to let it happen.
Republican racism is alive and well! 👍