Idris Elba doesn’t want to be known as ‘black James Bond’

When Daniel Craig signed his new deal to play James Bond for a few more films, it ended talk of another actor stepping into the role and becoming just the seventh human being to ever play the role. One of the main actors that people were lobbying for when it came to the role of the next Bond was English actor Idris Elba.

Had Elba been cast as Bond, he’d have broken the barrier of becoming the first black actor to portray the British spy. But while that led to people dubbing him the ‘black Bond’, Elba takes issue with that, in part because it boarders on being racist. As Elba points out, we don’t refer to Daniel Craig, Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton or Pierce Brosnan as ‘white’ James Bonds, so there’s no need to the racial adjective.

Per Huffington Post:


He has a point, and even if there wasn’t venom behind calling him a ‘back Bond’, it has been at the very least a little ignorant of most of us, myself included. As far as playing Bond, Elba still considers it an honor but won’t lobby for the role. Instead, he states that if his country calls upon him to step into the role, he’ll consider it.

He sounds like James Bond already.

Tags: Bond 24 Idris Elba James Bond Movies