Nola Ojomu at the British web
site metro.co.uk offers her take on the idea of a black actor portraying Ian Fleming’s iconic James Bond
character.
James Should a black actor be
the next James Bond? Does it matter if his character is white or black? Those
are the questions that have been on everyone’s lips ever since the Sony leaks
revealed producers were interested in getting Idris Elba to play 007 – and opinion
has been extremely divided.
Don’t get me wrong, someone
like Idris Elba has the talent, looks and charm to play the world’s most iconic
spy. I can totally understand why so many people would love to see him or
another black actor suited and booted, wooing the ladies and saving the world
in style. But the fact he is a black man means he simply isn’t suited for this
particular role.
Idris Elba seems to be the
people’s choice for the next James Bond. The character of
James Bond was created back in 1953 by Ian Fleming (seen in the above photo) with a very clear
description and back story. Fleming described his character as a Scottish man
in interviews and his parentage was made pretty clear in the 1964 book You Only
Live Twice, where his mother was revealed to be Swiss and his father was
Scottish: a Highlander from near Glencoe.
Fleming himself has Scottish
roots and spent a lot of his childhood in Glencoe and we saw how important
Bond’s history is in the latest films Skyfall and Spectre. Plus Fleming used
many of his own interests to shape Bond. His love of scrambled eggs, golf and
gambling all come from Fleming’s own tastes and Bond uses the same toiletries
and cigarettes Fleming loved.
Small details like this that
helped to shape the spy we know today make it harder to understand how that can
suddenly change in order to allow a black man to play the part.
While a character like Doctor
Who has the power to regenerate into a completely different person, Bond is
meant to be a normal man. Yes, I know we’ve already let go of some of the
realism attached to the story by having different actors portraying him over
the years but changing his ethnicity won’t work without having to start
tweaking important parts of the character and his story.
You can read the rest of the
piece via the below link:
You can also read my Crime
Beat column on the idea of a black James Bond via the below link:
http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2015/10/my-crime-beat-column-should-black-actor.html
And you can also read my open
letter to Bond producer Barbara Broccoli via the below link:
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