In a new interview with Vanity Fair (via Entertainment Tonight), Elba admitted that portraying an iconic character, like “James Bond,” would be a career defining moment. Although he would be honored to play the role, it’s not something he’s ever expressed interest in:
“Of course, if someone said to me ‘Do you want to play James Bond?,’ I’d be like, Yeah! That’s fascinating to me. But it’s not something I’ve expressed, like, Yeah, I wanna be the black James Bond,” said Idris Elba.
Elba also revealed how he felt once he heard the backlash of people who don’t want “Bond” to jump color lines:
“You just get disheartened,” he adds, “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. 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.”
Truth be told, Elba would make likely kill it as “Bond.” However, the controversy of being the first Black “James Bond” could be bring more drama to him than he feels like dealing with nowadays. If it ever happens though, those tickets sales would likely be record breaking and have Hollywood shooketh…kinda like the mega success of the predominantly Black cast of Black Panther did.
