Amy Pascal, this one’s for you.
Idris Elba addressed speculation that he could play the next iteration of James Bond on Saturday via Twitter.
“Isn’t 007 supposed to handsome? Glad you think I’ve got a shot! Happy New year people,” he tweeted, with a photo of himself sporting a salt and pepper beard and a googly eye. Is this his best attempt at hiding his good looks?
The resurfacing of the idea of Elba playing post-Daniel Craig James Bond was the result of a leaked Jan. 4 email in the Sony Pictures cyberattack, in which Sony chairman opined that the the “Luther” star could play the world’s most famous spy.
“Idris should be the next Bond,” Pascal wrote in a Jan. 4 email to Elizabeth Cantillon, the former executive vice president of production for Columbia Pictures.
Actually, Elba floated the casting decision back in 2011. “I’d definitely consider it,” Elba previously told NPR. “I just don’t want to be the black James Bond. 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.”
Nonetheless, Pascal’s simple vote of confidence inspired a lot of headlines and even had conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh arguing against it.
“Now (they are) suggesting that the next James Bond should be Idris Elba, a black Britain, rather than a white from Scotland,” Limbaugh said. “But that’s not who James Bond is.”
Limbaugh doesn’t run a movie studio, though.
For now, Craig returns as Bond in next year’s “Spectre,” with Sam Mendes back to direct.
See Elba’s tweet below.
Isn't 007 supposed to handsome? Glad you think I've got a shot! Happy New year people. pic.twitter.com/3g9lAl2Uo3
— Idris Elba (@idriselba) December 27, 2014