Posted on 09/01/2015 3:46:41 PM PDT by Perdogg
James Bond writer says Adrian Lester would be a better Bond than Idris Elba; Twitter explodes; Update: Horowitz apologizes
Folks are furious today at Anthony Horowitz, the British novelist chosen by Ian Fleming’s family to continue write James Bond novels, and some comments he made about the appropriateness of black actor Idris Elba as the next James Bond. First up, here is what Horowitz is quoted as saying in an interview he gave to the Daily Mail:
(Excerpt) Read more at twitchy.com ...
All that you mentioned are the character traits the public has come to expect in both the novels and films.
However....
The defining quality is that Bond is a SECRET agent with a license to kill, with the need to blend into the crowd.
PC crowd not withstanding, Britains main adversaries remain white Europeans full stop.
To use a starker example, the script for The Honeymooners remake was mediocre and the film sucked, but I had no problem casting a black actor as Ralph Kramer. The audience can buy that there's a working class guy from Brooklyn named Ralph Kramden who drives a bus for a living, whether the actor playing the role is white or black. Furthermore, I'd argue Cedric the Entertainer did a good job and was faithful to the role as Jackie Gleson envisioned it. The problem was the script, not the actor.
On the other hand, James Bond's backstory in the source material makes it extremely unlikely the character would be black. Fleming's bio for James Bond is that he is:
"the son of a Scottish father, Andrew Bond, of Glencoe, and a Swiss mother, Monique Delacroix, of the Canton de Vaud. The young James Bond spends much of his early life abroad,becoming multilingual in German and French because of his father's work as a Vickers armaments company representative. Bond is orphaned at the age of 11 when his parents are killed in a mountain climbing accident in the Aiguilles Rouges near Chamonix."
What I've noticed about casting in the UK is their roles are even less accurate to the demographics of their country that US casting is. You see a lot of black actors from England cast in major roles. If you had to guess the racial makeup of the country by looking at their fictional roles in movies and film, you'd probably guess the UK is around 10% black. In reality, the overall UK population is only 3% black (compared to the overall US population being 15% black). Scotland is also far less black than the UK as a whole: according to the last census, there are 6,247 black scots, or 0.12% of Scotland's population. A non-white MI:5 agent would be much more likely to be a British person of Indian ancestry, but you see far more black British characters than east Indian British actors. The odds of an MI:5 agent with a scottish father and swiss mother being black is minuscule.
In addition to the unlikelihood of James Bond being black, both Idris Elba and Adrian Lester are a bit too old to be starting a career as Bond. There's a reason why Daniel Craig was cast at 37 and Sean Connery was 30. Fleming envisioned Bond as being in his "mid to late 30s" at the time the stories are taking place. Idris Elba is 42, Adrian Lester is 47, and Craig is currently making another Bond film so the earliest they'd take over the role would be around 3 years from now. Roger Moore was the oldest Bond ever when he started the role as 46, compared to Idris Elba being around 45 and Adrian Lester around 50 when they started -- that's too old to play Bond for 3+ movies. Moore was way out of place playing Bond at 57.
Many films is the past decade have ridiculous stunt casting that gives a middle figure to the source material: Jamie Foxx playing the Daddy Warbucks character and Benedict Cumberbatch playing "Khan Noonien Singh" were totally unbelievable, for example. But I have a sad feeling they could cast Cheech Marin as Pippi Longstocking, and a bunch of fanboys on the internet would defend it and say we're racist if we oppose it.
James Caan, who portrayed Sonny Corleone, is an Israelite.
Jamie Foxx as Daddy Warbucks = Bruce Jenner as a woman. Both are fantasy.
http://www.tmz.com/2015/09/02/cant-buy-me-love-star-amanda-peterson-overdose-opiates-cause-of-death/
And ROGER MOORE 4EVA!!! He could STILL play Bond!!!
http://www.tmz.com/2015/09/02/cant-buy-me-love-star-amanda-peterson-overdose-opiates-cause-of-death/
That’s a shame. Now we know. :-(
Yep. Sad.
RE James Caan:
Funny, I can’t picture Caan as anyone BUT Sonny Corleone. He was stellar in that role. I know he had a long list of movie roles after, but he played that part extremely well.
Great movie. The sequels weren’t too bad either.
The guy who played Fredo was good too. Again, he owned that role; I’ve seen him in other flicks, and he’s ALWAYS “Fredo”.
I can't picture him as anyone but Brian Piccolo.
Yeah I remember “Brian’s Song” too.
Sad story. Caan did a good job there as well.
But Sonny immediately pops into my mind when he’s mentioned - especially when he was beating the bat snot out of Carlo on the street.
There are videos on YouTube of Pacino and DeNiro auditioning for the role of Sonny.
Interesting... Pacino pulled off the Michael part very well; I can’t picture him as Sonny. Caan had the height thing going on that made him physically imposing. It woeked well for that role.
DeNiro... maybe.
Jim Caan and John Cazale never came close to the acting quality they showed in Godfather.
Sadly, Cazale died in 1978. I remember him “The Deer Hunter” too. Another great flick.
As for a new James Bond... I vote Jason Statham.
Agreed, the recent Casino Royale is a top 5 Bond movie
I vote for Sean Connery when he turns 80 : )
Felix is kinda old school of name but back in the day I bet their were plenty of Black Americans named Felix, not even counting Black Hispanics, like boxer Felix Trinidad.
Even still, Felix Jones, (Former?) NFL running back, born 1987. Good name, better than “Trayvon”.
I would envision a Black guy named “Felix Lieter” as one of Fred Sanford’s poker buddies.
Whatever, Lieter’s an American and a supporting character, make him Black, fine.
But as you say, Bond canon is “Scottish Father, Swiss Mother”. So unless he’s the brother of Chef from South Park, he ain’t Black.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PymGfXDXUyc
This is called “color-blind casting” by the way. Common in plays, I saw Lady MacBeth played by a Black woman, but plays are different, nothing wrong with giving non-White actors a chance with Shakespeare roles (all of which have been played by thousands of actors) other than “Othello”, Patrick Stewart once played a White Othello, everyone else was Black. That was a swell idea.
But James Bond? C’mon. How about a White “Shaft” then?
Pakistani Superman?
Why stop at fictional characters? How about next time they make a movie about Richard Nixon, he’s Chinese?
One would only watch it to complete having seen everything. It is limited to two sets. A Casino and a room where Bond is tortured. If one gives a lot of allowance for the time it was made and the very limited budget such a tv production had it is watchable. On a scale out of 10 I would give it a 4. This was made about a year after Casino Royale the book came out and is completely separate from the Bond movies that came out almost a decade later. Since it was done by an American production company they flipped Bond to be an American and Leiter was now a Brit.
Connery got better as he got older.
Great in “Hunt for Red October” and “The Rock”.
He’s also in “The Longest Day”, as one of the Brits coming ashore at Sword beach, bitching about almost being drowned before he gets a chance to fight.
Seen them all, and I agree with you.
Multiculturalism has become very complicated. I can’t keep up with it most of the time.
In the case of John Cazale, he was a shooting star. He was in some of the greatest films of the ‘70s (The Godfather I/II, The Conversation, Dog Day Afternoon, The Deer Hunter), turned in not a single poor performance, and then he died (he was dying when he filmed “The Deer Hunter” when he was engaged to Meryl Streep).
I marked an auction last week where they sell $1 items and in it was a signed photo of Cazale. It ended up going for nearly $700.
As for James Caan, I’d be hard-pressed to find a film he did a bad job with. Contrast these guys with so many of the pretty boy nobodies put up as “stars” today, so instantly forgettable.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.