Forget all this talk about Idris Elba as James Bond—Rush Limbaugh wants Bond to stay white.
You know, just in case you were wondering.
Elba as Bond had been aimless speculation for years—until things got a lot more serious in the last week or so when the Sony hacking scandal revealed emails from Sony Picture co-chair Amy Pascal seeming to endorse the dashing Black British actor as the next star of the franchise, which is owned by Sony.
During a rant on his talk show, Limbaugh let fly with his opinion that James Bond should stay white.
“James Bond is a total concept put together by Ian Fleming,” Limbaugh said. “He was white and Scottish. Period. That is who James Bond is, was. But now Sony is suggesting that the next James Bond should be Idris Elba, a black Briton, rather than a white from Scotland. But that’s not who James Bond is and I know it’s racist to probably even point this out.”
Limbaugh’s point about Bond needing to reflect Fleming is a bit ridiculous, as many of the former Bond’s including Roger Moore, George Lazenby, David Niven, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig were not Scottish. But all played Bond to little complaint.
It also might be helpful if someone told Limbaugh that Bond is a fictitious character, not a real person.
Despite Limbaugh’s opposition, Elba has already stated that if he is offered the role, he will gladly take it.
In an Ask Me Anything session on reddit, the actor said of the role, “Yes, if it was offered to me, absolutely.”
He recently opened up to NPR, about all the rumors of him playing Bond—and both the praise and backlash he has gotten for being a prospect for the role.
“I just don’t want to be called the first black James Bond,” Elba said. “Do you understand what I’m saying? Sean Connery wasn’t the Scottish James Bond and Daniel Craig wasn’t the blue-eyed James Bond. So if I played him, I don’t want to be called the black James Bond.”
When she endorsed Elba, Pascal was succinct and unequivocal in her email. “Idris should be the next Bond,” she wrote.
