Idris Elba is trying to clear the air amid backlash he received when he described himself as not being a “black actor”. He had previously told Esquire magazine that he had stopped describing himself as a ‘black actor’ because he felt it limited his career.
He received a lot of brickbats for that statement as people saw him as denouncing his identity as a black person. He told the Guardian newspaper, “I feel as I get older – I’m 50 now – we all have fears of saying too much, oversharing and whatnot.
“And in this day and age, it’s really difficult to have an opinion if you’re in the public eye because it gets overly scrutinized, taken out of context, thrown into some sort of bullshit, zeitgeisty social media argument.
“Me saying I don’t like to call myself a Black actor is my prerogative. That’s me, not you. So for you to turn around and say to me, I’m denying my Blackness,’ On what grounds? Did you hear that? Where am I denying it? And what for? It’s just stupid. Whatever.”
Elba spoke about how people have an obsession with race which is a huge obstacle to growth.
“There isn’t a sound on this earth that can question whether I consider myself a BLACK MAN or not. Being an ‘actor’ is a profession, like being an ‘architect’, they are not defined by race. However if YOU define your work by your race, that is your Perogative. Ah lie?
I stopped describing myself as a Black actor when I realized it put me in a box. We’ve got to grow. We’ve got to. Our skin is no more than that: it’s just skin. Rant over,” said Elba.
Elba who will soon be seen in a new movie titled Luther: The Fallen Sun. The actor also clarified rumours on the possibility of him being the next James Bond saying he has no interest in playing the super spy.
NOTE: Idris Elba picture is from Wikipedia – GabboT, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons