Too dark for Bond. Too musical for an actor. And at the end of the day, too successful for all the envious people! Idris Elba doesn’t need double-zero status. The many zeros on his bank statement are enough!
He has a British passport with a matching accent. Mountains of muscles spread very respectably over his 1 meter 90 astral body. He also has experience with firearms, fast cars (he recently broke the speed record for the British Flying Mile in a Bentley Continental GT) and even airplanes (he can be seen at the controls of a high-speed jet in Discovery Channel footage). As well as top-class acting expertise. Only the license to kill – that’s what Idris Elba has not (yet). Instead, he has a public debate on his hands that was thought to have finally crumbled to dust in its mothballs. Ever since it became possible to govern the United States of America with a dark complexion, the skin color debate was thought to be consigned to the history books. But now, when it comes to Daniel Craig’s successor, we are back to square one. A colored 007? Apparently that really is going too far. With the words “Idris is a bit too street for a James Bond”, none other than Bond author Anthony Horowitz took the cake. As Elba himself confirmed, a possible casting for the role is not off the table. But before he can really get a word in edgewise, the next small-minded people are already shouting their mustard without being asked. Even in the film adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower”, the dark-skinned Golden Globe winner is not wanted in the leading role of Roland Deschain, a “white” gunslinger. Elba’s big screen success as Nelson Mandela in the film of the same name might have the potential to offer a moral cudgel to this tiresome discussion, but it doesn’t really help the actor in the characterless reality. The shitstorm on the relevant online networks remains darker than Elba’s pigmentation could ever be. But at least this time a clever celebrity voice is speaking out. Stephen King tweets: “The color of the gunslinger doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me is how fast he draws.” Idris himself is oblivious to the whole thing, which passes his black ass by. “At some point you learn to deal with criticism. The more derogatory it is, the better it works.” After all, the London native is not only familiar with unobjective jibes because of his skin color, but also because of his “side job” as a DJ. “I know about the stigma that follows actors who make music,” says Elba. Anyone who attempts such a balancing act can’t do both right, they say. The multi-talented artist doesn’t understand why people think in black and white here either. But, as I said, he doesn’t give a damn either. Instead, Idris raps with Jay-Z, writes songs for Angie Stone, produces his own songs and occasionally plays at his favorite club, Pacha Ibiza. Now that Madonna has chosen him as the opening act at her Berlin concert, his actions have finally been vindicated. As does the success of his own clothing collection for Superdry. As do his countless other roles, advertising contracts, collaborations and jobs. And now it’s even written in “People With Money” magazine: Elba is one of the highest earning artists of the year. And as we all know, numbers are not racist, they are real!