Entertainment
David Oyelowo Is the First Black James Bond
Actor David Oyelowo attends the premiere of “Selma” at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Sunday, Dec. 14, 2014, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
(Vanity Fair) – Whether or not the endless rumors about Idris Elba taking over as James Bond ever come true, we really are, finally, getting a black Bond. Just not on-screen. The Guardian reports that Selma star David Oyelowo has been asked by the Ian Fleming estate to record the audio book for Trigger Mortis, a new officially commissioned Bond book written by Anthony Horowitz. Oyelowo, like most audio book narrators, will voice multiple characters, but still tells The Guardian, “I am officially the only person on planet Earth who can legitimately say: ‘I am the new James Bond’ – even saying that name is the cinematic equivalent of doing the ‘to be or not to be’ speech.”
And because asking a black actor to be the voice of James Bond doesn’t come without the endless baggage about Bond and race, Oyelowo spoke in depth about the racism he’s faced when playing other iconic characters, like Shakespeare’s Henry VI. “I had to have my agent filter mail … it was hate mail. It was: ‘How dare you enter a realm that is not yours to enter?” Oyelowo said. “This was over 10 years ago—so you’d hope that wouldn’t be the case now.”
Given the racist responses that have met even the rumors of Elba as Bond—not to mention when Elba played a relatively minor comic-book character originally written as white—it’s hard to be sure that much has changed. But Oyelowo is fighting for the move forward, and that includes throwing his weight behind Elba as Bond. “He has all the qualities that you’d want in a James Bond. Because films and TV affect culture, a black Bond would be a cultural event … a statement … beyond just entertainment.”
