"Too Street" to play Bond

The James Bond books and films have been around for decades. Well known actors such as Pierce Brosnan, Daniel Craig, and Sean Connery have taken on the Bond role. However, actor Idris Elba has received negative remarks from James Bond author Anthony Horowtiz, on Elba’s potential role as the new Bond. Horowitz, who created the franchise, opposed Elba’s speculation on the 007 role stating that the actor was “too street” to play James Bond. This remark has sparked an immense amount of controversy regarding Horowitz and racism with this role. Horowitz later apologized stating his “clumsiness” of the words he chose.

Idris Elba responded to Anthony’s comment on Instagram posting, “Always keep smiling! It takes no energy and it never hurts! Learned that from the street!”

Although there was reconciliation it cannot dismiss the controversy of racism noted in this situation. Many people online interpreted Horowitz’s comment was saying Elba was too black to play a role that has originally been played by white actors. Horowitz later noted that what he meant was that Idris Elba was not ‘suave’ enough to play James Bond. In defense to Elba the Huffington Post comments that, “Idris Elba is an actor. He has mastered an American accent...and varying kinds of English accents. He’s played police detectives and single dads’, Norse gods, and soldiers. To dismiss him as ‘too street’ is to have a profound lack of imagination and respect of his skill as a performer.” Although Horowitz’s comment was not intended to be about race, it is argued that the Bond author has an inability to look beyond Hollywood racism.

This situation is a great example of stereotyping in the media. Although Horowtiz’s comment was meant to describe Elba’s demeanor and not his race, many people assumed that the phrase ‘too street’ had to do with the actor’s race. The stereotypes that are associated with his race can limit him from the ability to play James Bond. This is not an accurate statement, but that is how people have interpreted Horowiz’s comments. In Barker’s Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice black men have been associated with “crime and civil disorder” (275). Television tends to play into stereotypes that have been formed around specific races and ethnicities, which in turn, reinforces them to audiences in real life. By Hollywood categorizing races and ethnicities a certain way it makes it difficult for actors to break free of those racial stereotypes. This could have contributed to Horowitz’s inability to see Elba in this role.    

Idris Elba noted that he would be the first black James Bond, and if that would become its own identity. In an interview with NPR in 2011 Elba talked about how he did not want to have his race attached to the role of Bond. “I just don’t want to be the black James Bond…Sean Connery wan’t the Scottish James Bond and Daniel Craig wasn’t the blue-eyed James Bond, so if I played him, I don’t want to be called the black James Bond” (Variety.com).  This relates back to Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice, “Consequently, Asians, Africans, Hispanics and African-Americans are held to be ethnic groups, but the English or white Anglo-Saxon Americans and Australians are not…whiteness is seen as a taken-for-granted universal” (256). It is important to note that other James Bonds were not identified by their own ethnic groups.