Daily Mail Commenters Are Really Angry About Idris Elba Playing James Bond

When leaked emails from Sony appeared to show Idris Elba in the running to replace Daniel Craig as James Bond, MailOnline's commenters had a field day.
Despite 007 being played by at least eight people in the past, some of the Mail's readers threw their toys out of the pram when they heard Ian Fleming's classic spy character could be played by a black man.
The comments range from implying that black and white people are different species to equating fictional character James Bond to Nelson Mandela.
We really, really hope these are just trolls and not real people.


http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/12/23/idris-elba-james-bond_n_6371644.html?utm_hp_ref=uk


And yet near every film about Jesus has been played by Americans and Europeans and not a Jew, Moses played by English and Americans, an Australian has played Noah or how about John Wayne playing Genghis Khan, all okay of course but a fictional character based on a British secret agent being played by someone who is British and they thrown their dummies out.
You cannot make it up how funny and sad some people are.

You can believe it because, put simply, they are racist.
James Bond could easily be an MI6 cover name for agent licence number 007. Nothing in the books suggests it is his real name, therefire any agent allocated that number could be JB.
Felix Leiter was every age and colour too - Bond's American counterpart.

Not necessarily racist imo, just traditionalists who want to see the same sort of film played by the same sort of actors.
Not every thing is about racism.

Personally, I detest James Bond films but think Idris Elba is hot

When you mention James Bond, you have to think, Sean Connery.

eddie wrote:Not necessarily racist imo, just traditionalists who want to see the same sort of film played by the same sort of actors.
Not every thing is about racism.

Personally, I detest James Bond films but think Idris Elba is hot

Hi Eddie

That argument on traditionalists though falls flat as many of the films diverge from the accuracy of the books. If people are going to moan about accuracy to the books then surely this would apply to all the films made and not one of the characters to a later film that might be made ? The fact that they never do shows this is very much based on a racial prejudice of what people see as English people not counting those black as English even though blacks have been in this country longer than Anglo Saxons.

I was going to say, haven't there been black people in the UK since long before any of us were born? Or our parents or grandparents or great-great-great-great grandparents?

It's the same thing as the Marvel Ultimates storyline where Peter Parker is killed and replaced as Spider-Man by Miles Morales, a black Hispanic kid. The racists still haven't gotten over that, even though Ultimates is a completely different continuity of the comics and in the main Marvel continuity Peter Parker is still Spider-Man.

Also, this: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/british-actor-idris-elba-cannot-star-as-james-bond-because-he-is-black-says-shock-jock-rush-limbaugh-9943509.html

If you agree with Rush Limbaugh you seriously need to re-think your life. He says it would be like George Clooney portraying Barack Obama; I say that Obama is an actual real person, despite the right making him into a fictional Muslim Kenyan socialist

Also, I doubt Fleming ever actually described Bond's skin color in any of his stories He might have been black the ENTIRE TIME

Ben_Reilly wrote:Also, I doubt Fleming ever actually described Bond's skin color in any of his stories He might have been black the ENTIRE TIME

The character is based upon several people, so thus is the parts and views of many people and thus not just one person, and of people in the forces. So again I agree Ben the fuss here is silly and like I say even worse that if the films are not accurate and keep advancing in technology and people do not complain at this, then they have no bases for complaining about a Bond that is Black English.
I mean did we not just have Johnny Depp Play Tonto in the Lone Ranger?

Okay I know I should not do stereotypes, but this one is for fun.
Lets have some honesty here bout a white English guy being able to sweep women off their feet and leave them pining for more after sex, that is just not a reality. Where from what I hear from women experiences with Black men, they are always left impressed in more ways than one.
Then surely it would make more sense to have Bond played by a well hung smooth talking Black guy to being more realistic?

Gandhi was played by Ben Kingsley, nuff said lol

Seriously though as long as the character isn't historically nonsensical there should be no problem. Bond has been played by an Australian and an Irishman so whatever.

Friar Tuck in Robin Hood was another, I didn't get that and still don't...

well I wouldn't have minded cause as Eddie said he's hot but thank the good lord it's Mr. Craig again cause hes even hotter!

I must go lie down for a minute......

     DAILY FLAIL readers are always really angry over something or other, aren't they ?   SEEMS to be a prerequisite..

THEY probably wouldn't be happy otherwise...


A 'Black' James Bond certainly wouldn't be the first colour change for famous and 'iconic' characters :

HOW MANY times over the centuries have Caucasian models and actors been used to portray Adam and Eve, Noah, Moses, Abraham, Mary, Joseph and Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha, let alone Native American [Geronimo, Sitting Bull, Pocahontas..] and Chinese ['Kung Fu'] figures ?
 
"The Magnificent Seven" is the US adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" ~ especially rewritten for that racist corner of the US deep south still living in the 1940s...

Will Smith in "I Am Legend".

Eartha Kitt played the third Catwoman in the Batman TV series; while Halle Berry starred in the stand-alone movie..      

Yeah, people by and large get used to it. Another comics example is, most people picture Samuel L. Jackson when they think of Nick Fury, another character who was originally white.

Saw a documentary the other day and it was most interesting. The real James Bond was actually author Ian Flemming himself, who was a British OSS officer during WWII.

He was considered a master of disinformation, which seems quite fitting for a writer. Apparently he crafted the story that convinced the Germans that southern Europe would be invaded by way of Greece, not Italy.

He later worked at the right hand of William J. Donovan, who was the first head of the American OSS...later known as the CIA.

ahhh but Bond is a Naval Commander just like Ian's brother Peter who JB was partly based on.

ahhh but Bond is a Naval Commander just like Ian's brother Peter who JB was partly based on.

Cass wrote:ahhh but Bond is a Naval Commander just like Ian's brother Peter who JB was partly based on.

Having written a couple of novels myself, I know the tactic of plucking fruit from various different trees to give a character the right tone and persona.  Ian Flemming was an Englishman, living in Mayfair, London, however Bond was supposed to be a Scot.  Go figure.

Ian Flemming and his brother Peter started in the OSS together, by establishing and supporting Auxiliary units, commonly called the "resistance" in Italy.  Then Ian was shipped off to America to help Donovan.

What influences a writer's mind is probably as slippery as psychotherapy itself.  Ian Flemming's image of Bond was that of the singer, Hoagy Carmichael.  (Moonraker..."Rather like Hoagy Carmichael in a way. That black hair falling down over the right eyebrow. Much the same bones. But there was something a bit cruel in the mouth, and the eyes were cold.")  Who knows, perhaps Ian thought he was actually writing about brother Peter.

However, the consensus appears to be that Ian led a more eventful life than his brother Peter in the world of counterespionage, and Ian has admitted he used his own experiences as well as other aspects of his own life as inspirations for his stories.  For example, Bond was notorious for his fastidious tastes, most of which were actually Ian's.  Bond had Ian's golf handicap, his taste for scrambled eggs, and used the same brand of toiletries as Ian. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bond

The Bond stories were written by Fleming who, without doubt cast Bond as a white man. All Bonds have been white! why would any one want to change him to Black? Unless they have a bad case of the," Political Correctness."

Perhaps they just think he's a good actor for the role nicko?

Ben Kingsley played Gandhi remember? Is that a case of 'the racist' in your opinion?

nicko wrote:The Bond stories were written by Fleming who, without doubt cast Bond as a white man. All Bonds have been white!  why would any one want to change him to Black? Unless they have a bad case of the," Political Correctness."

I am thinking about what you said nicko...and then I ask myself why are you asking?  I mean, Hoagie Carmichael had dark hair, and Daniel Craig had light hair.  Didn't it similarly bother you that Flemming described Bond as looking like Carmichael, and then they cast an actor with different color hair?

You'll forgive me...but my suspicion is that Daniel Craig in the role of Bond didn't bother you because it didn't involve a black man. It's only people of African descent of whom you disapprove?  Would I be right?

Agreed Quill and why people are getting this all wrong.
Is being debated across the water and here are some of the points I made from some remarks.

One poster said:
So what if one is a real person & the other is pretend? What difference does that make?




Quite a huge difference, one does not exist and the other one did exist.
Anyway, when you concede to accuracy from the books to the film already, people do not have a case as seen to moan on who can play a fictional character. There are many Black English people now.
The films have very much adapted from the original books, where again people are not making a fuss over any of that.

Again countless people have played fictional characters where there ethnicity is completely different to the ethnicity of the character in the book. Morgan Freeman in Shawshank Redemtion, meant to be white Irish America in the book. This shows fiction can be very much adapted to film, where as seen in this instance with Morgan the ethnicity was changed, but none of the words, his character used or even his name. The part was perfectly played by him and made the film one of the most popular films of all time. Thus because it was fiction it did not matter, what ethnic group the actor was, as long as they were American. And as we have Black English and British people, the only important fact in who plays the part 007 is that they should be British and Idris Elba is very British and English.
That is why it would work if he played the part because there are many English Black people.
Little thus changed from the book to the movie in Shawshank, but plenty has in the Bond movies.


A historical story is a different matter all together though, as we are talking about historical facts, if you start to deviate from the facts, you make the movie historical fiction.
That is the difference shady for you, you want to make changes to historical people, then you make it historical fiction and it ceases to be historical at all.

Another point made rightly by Eddie was this:

James Bond is played by many different actors, none of whom, look identical.
So as the audience know, he isn't the same person in each film.
So it isn't beyond belief that he could be played by a black man, green banana or purple ziitty alien.

He is a FICTIONAL character!



To which I replied:


Exactly, we have had a Scottish and Australian actor play an fictional English character in James Bond.
Sean Connery happened to be one of the best Bonds, though the Aussi was rubbish, but neither were English yet nobody is kicking up a fuss over this. I mean using their logic here they would have never gone to see any of the Bond films with Sean Connery, being as he is not English and does not even sound English.
Yet a category called "white" clearly brings about racial views from some, with an absurd claim as to who are English people.

Well some simple facts, all humans migrated to these British Isles.
Blacks have been here for near 2000 years.
The nationality English was adapted here from the Angles, where before the people were not refereed to as English, but a variety of names.
The country is made up of people descended from countless ethnic groups, coming over many centuries which make up the population here. (Should we now reclassify people back to their original ethnic groups, if Black people cannot be English? If this is what people want, there would very few English people at all, only those solely descended from the Angles. Who of course are later arrivals to these shores than other ethnic groups.)
All names to countries have been invented to classify people from within those boundaries.
The English language and culture is a concept, not something you are born with and you thus have to learn how to be English.


When you look at the facts above, there is no reason to deny a Black Englishman the part of Bond.
Being English is a concept, as biologically races do not exist in humans. Thus people have and do identify as an English people, through being born here growing up being taught the English language and culture. To base it off your ethnic ancestry, would just make the vast majority of people not English and be classed as other ethnic groups and we would have to revert back to calling many people Britons.


http://inaflap.forumotion.co.uk/t22789p75-daily-mail-commenters-are-really-angry-about-idris-elba-playing-james-bond



Not looking to start a forum war either just showing what I have posted and the debate itself over there.

Fleming described Bond as white,end of argument!!

nicko wrote:Fleming described Bond as  white,end  of argument!!

James Bond is fictional and not real.

You ignore the point about Kingsley playing Gandhi nicko? Or does it not matter to you the other way around? Double standards much.. And Gandhi was real...

Oh dear, you'v spoiled my xmas now, I thought he was real. Still, Father Xmas came last night so he's real isn't he?

Don't give a fuck who's real or not, stupid argument!

nicko wrote:When you mention James Bond, you have to think,  Sean Connery.

Scottish?

Scottish is the wrong word, you should say, "a Scot"

Fair enough nicko, but don't be a hypocrite, Fleming wrote Bond as white, but it doesn't matter as he's not real, so get over it lol

What the fcuk doe's it matter one way or the other, Bond is WHITE you sanctimonious
prat.

It doesn't matter that's the whole point, you seem to be saying one thing while screeching the other.

Does it matter if he is white or not?

If it does, why? If it doesn't, what are going on about?

Let's face it...Flemming wrote a series of plays that are immensely popular today.

Shakespeare wrote a bunch of plays that were similarly very popular.  People use Shakespeare's plays today as vehicles to bring forth certain of the issues/ideas that were raised.  I've even seen a black Hamlet, and Caliban is often portrayed as black.  Good Lord, Shakespeare himself even used males to portray females.  Does that shock you, nicko?

Why on earth is it offensive to portray Bond as a black man?  In fact, it could be a brilliant adaptation.

veya_victaous wrote:

nicko wrote:
When you mention James Bond, you have to think,  Sean Connery.

Scottish?

IF people actually took any notice during the Sean Connery era as James Bond, than they would have also noted that he had DYED his light brown hair black, to match that Hoagie Carmichael comparison from the novels...  

nicko is simply determined to prove what a brainless racist git he really is at heart !

For nicko (late Xmas present):


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a81KQGsp3tk

white men can't jump, black men can't swim!

I actually i agree with nicko that it wouldn't be in tune with the character, he is supposed to be a British sterotype.

unless they are gonna do the whole fake name thing someone mentioned above which could ad longevity but it not in the books

Actually, they have in the past recast Felix Leiter.....



.....as a black man...



And it didn't cause the end of the world.

Come on people, who really gives a fcuk about it!

veya_victaous wrote:I actually i agree with nicko that it wouldn't be in tune with the character, he is supposed to be a British sterotype.

unless they are gonna do the whole fake name thing someone mentioned above which could ad longevity but it not in the books

Why can't there be a black British guy with the real name James Bond?

I mean, here in the States this guy is named Mark McLemore:



... nobody thinks it's weird he's not a white Irish guy ...

Ben_Reilly wrote:

veya_victaous wrote:I actually i agree with nicko that it wouldn't be in tune with the character, he is supposed to be a British sterotype.

unless they are gonna do the whole fake name thing someone mentioned above which could ad longevity but it not in the books

Why can't there be a black British guy with the real name James Bond?

I mean, here in the States this guy is named Mark McLemore:



... nobody thinks it's weird he's not a white Irish guy ...

Because the James bond in the novels is described as white so for continuity he either has to remain white or 'James Bond' is a codename and any agent with the 007 number takes the same codename.
Since the guy would have to be nearing 100 years old by now (in his 30's in world war 2) it makes more sense for it to be a codename thus allowing them to use any actor and keep the franchise going into modern era without continuity faults.

Personally I still think it is a stereotype character and should remain as stereotypically British as possible. It would be like Crocodile Dundee as a Mexican or Moses as An Englishman or Ramses as an Aussie it is just not right

100% correct Veya, why others can't see this is a mystery.

100% correct Veya, why others can't see this is a mystery.

But Veya, James Bond was created as Scottish (granted only later after the popularity of Sean Connery playing the role), so none of the other actors who played Bond should have played him, yet you do not see people objecting to these other such inaccuracies in the other films.
At the end of the day it is fictional and the fact is with every film it has moved further away from Flemmings original stories. So to equate you cannot have a Black Bond is just silly, when as seen it is fiction and has had in many of the films inaccuracies to the books. A tad late in the day really to start moaning about them.

We know it's fiction you idiot, why do you keep going on about it?

nicko wrote:We know it's fiction you idiot, why do you keep going on about it?

Idiot?
Please come back when you have grown up and can offer an intelligent response.

Thank you

nicko wrote:We know it's fiction you idiot, why do you keep going on about it?

Because that's the final point, nicko.  I can't believe you asked that question, and yet do not see the light. Fiction = art = creativity.  Flemming wrote the script, but a director gets to present the script in the way he interprets it.  That's why I brought up Shakespeare and all the different interpretations his plays have received.

Didge is spot on.  They only reason why a black James Bond sticks out in your mind is because race sticks out in your mind.   It ain't Flemming, and it ain't Sean Connery: The fault dear Brutus lies not in the stars, but in ourselves...

That was a bit deep for me Quill, but I do get the gist of it. Happy New Year.

nicko wrote:That was a bit deep for me Quill,   but I do get the gist of it. Happy New Year.

You too...nicky. Happy New Year, and may it continue.

There is a Mexican Crocodile Dundee:



Llamas eso un cuchillo? Esto es un cuchillo.

I'v seen him on Liveleak, he was cutting some ones head off!!

Didn't know that Fleming actually described Bond as white in his stories. Still, they're pretty much history at this point, and wasn't the last Bond movie an original (non-Fleming) story anyway?

Like I mentioned before, Nick Fury was drawn and inked as a white guy back in the day, now he's Samuel L. Jackson and the only people mad about it are the sad little backwards racists. It's fiction, new storytellers have the right and duty to update it for the times.

Then again, I come from the only Western country that elected a minority head of state -- twice. Sure, Obama's not perfect, but he's sure-as-hell brought my country back from the devastation our last white president wrought ...