There was a moment where fans everywhere wanted to see Idris Elba play the famed character that is James Bond in the upcoming film. It took Idris a moment to reject the idea, but before he could have a final answer a lot of people had their opinions of a Black man playing a White character. As we posted before, journalist Katie Hopkins said "No Idris Elba, you cannot be James Bond. You will not be 007, no matter how many tweets you put out saying ‘I’m Elba, Idris Elba.’"
Ice T clapped back to Katie, and now Idris has come through to defend casting controversies. “Artistic license is artistic license. If an actor has the attributes to do something, they should be able to do it,” he told TimeOut London, via Attitude magazine. “They’re acting.”
He added: “You don’t necessarily have to be gay to play a gay character. Though you do have to be black to play a black character.” Idris then called the debate around him starring as James Bond "nonsense."
"It’s a fictional character. I’ve got mad respect for how Ian Fleming described him. He said he was a white guy, looked like this … That’s how it was written. But then there’s interpretation," he explained. "If we were always bound by the confines that something has to be [one way], people would never have expanded on things and come up with some of the most genius ideas.”