The media have published the latest batch of leaked Sony e-mails. It includes executives discussing Idris Elba replacing Daniel Craig as James Bond.
That, of course, would make Elba the first Black James Bond. And that prospect has caused near-universal excitement.
A Black James Bond?
Mind you, other leaked e-mails outed these same executives as closeted Hollywood racists. That makes their consideration of a Black James Bond seem more diversionary than visionary.
The Sony e-mail leak revealed a suggestion by executive Amy Pascal to bring in a new – and groundbreaking – face to star as the next James Bond: Idris Elba.
With Daniel Craig’s days as 007 numbered in the movie’s franchise (he is contracted to shoot one more film), Elba as a replacement is a very huge, and possible, deal.
(Vibe, December 24, 2014)
Rush Limbaugh is the most popular radio talk-show host in the Western Hemisphere. And, unsurprisingly, this leak fired up that conservative firebrand. His rant against the blackening of this iconic movie character has gone viral.
I might be the only Black person who agrees with Limbaugh. But it’s probably the only thing on which we agree.
I refer you to my post on Blacks denying Limbaugh membership in the NFL owners’ club. Because, in it, I make abundantly clear how anathema I find everything else he says.
Anyway, here, in part, is what Limbaugh said about Elba playing Bond.
James Bond is a total concept put together by Ian Fleming. He was white and Scottish. …
Now [they are] suggesting that the next James Bond should be … a Black Briton (sic) … but that’s not who James Bond is and I know it’s racist to probably point this out.
(E-News, December 23, 2014)
Limbaugh spewed this half in defensive jest. But he was making a serious point. And he’s right.
Idris Elba playing Bond is ludicrous. It’s like George Clooney playing Shaft. And don’t get me started on calls for a woman to play James Bond.
Is a Black Bond any different from a Scottish Bond?
The ignorance Limbaugh betrays in this respect is instructive. He insists only a Scotsman should play Bond. The problem is that only one Scotsman has played him. That’s Sean Connery, the original Bond.
Limbaugh is a self-professed Bond fanatic. So his ignorance shows why producers can take license with Bond’s nationality. Fleming’s “total concept” be damned. But taking it with Bond’s race cannot pass.
That brings me to Elba’s naiveté. Elba insists there’s no difference between a Black playing Bond and a Brit playing him:
I just don’t want to be the Black James Bond. Sean Connery wasn’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.
(NPR, September 28, 2011)
But casting a Black to play Bond would require too much suspension of disbelief. Bond hails from and operates in a White, Eurocentric zeitgeist. So this would be like watching a black fly fluttering in white milk and pretending there’s nothing off about that sight.
Not to mention the disrespect this would show for Fleming’s “total concept” and his fans’ reasonable expectations.
That’s why Elba whining about being called “the Black James Bond” smacks of wanting to have his cake and eat it, too.
Black pride
My opposition is unapologetically racial. I refuse to believe Hollywood cannot create an iconic Black character to rival Bond. And it’s a form of racial self-abnegation for Elba to suggest otherwise.
Moreover, there’s the insult to Black pride inherent in this prospect, which should give pause to those situational racists at Sony. Because they would likely market their first BlackJames Bond as if he were the first Black president of the United States. And I can think of little more offensive than that.
Instead, Elba should challenge Sony executives to greenlight a Bond-like character for him. Granted, sequels and old franchises suggest that Hollywood has become bereft of creativity. So Sony executives could turn John Luther into a movie character.
Luther, of course, is the detective Elba popularized on TV. But there’s no reason John Luther couldn’t rival James Bond or Jason Bourne in movies.
Hell, they could even feature “009” as a Black character and call him whatever they want, just not James Bond. After all, Fleming introduced 009 as a mysterious, unnamed MI6 agent in Thunderball. Script that!
And contrary to popular belief, agents 001 through 007 are already named characters. Real Bond fanatics know this. But Elba as a Black James Bond? No, hell no!
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