Naomie Harris Dodges Blame For Idris Elba Bond Rumours

Surely no other non-Bond actor has been so frequently discussed in relation to the role of James Bond than Idris Elba has these past few years.

Back in December 2013, Naomie Harris - the current Miss Moneypenny actress, who co-starred with Elba in ‘Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom’ - appeared to take responsibility for starting the rumour that Elba would be the next Bond in a discussion with a journalist.

However, in a bit of an about-face Harris has now refuted this claim to The Independent.

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Asked about starting the Elba as 007 rumour, Harris insisted, “No, that is not true! Do you know what happened? A journalist said to me, ‘You’ve just finished working with Idris Elba on Mandela, do you think he’d make a great Bond?’ And I said, 'Yeah, absolutely, I think he would.’ And then the headline is 'Naomie says Idris Elba to be next Bond’.”

This is a somewhat different account of the incident than Harris gave to Esquire in December 2013, at which point she recalled, “A journalist once asked me, 'Who do you think is going to be the next Bond?’… I said, 'I’ve just finished working with Idris so, if I had the chance, I would vote for him.

“The next thing there were headlines going: 'Naomie Harris says Idris Elba to be the next Bond’. And Idris has had to live with that ever since. Now, nearly every time he does an interview, he gets asked about it.“

Elba, for his part, would seem to have long since grown exhausted talking about it, having time and again denied being in talks with the Bond producers to take over from Daniel Craig.

This writer for one maintains Elba is highly unlikely to wind up Craig’s successor, not because of issues of ethnicity but simply because the ‘Thor’ and ‘Pacific Rim’ actor is already 42 years old.

Given that Craig is expected to shoot at least one more Bond movie after the upcoming ‘SPECTRE,’ it is unlikely the role of 007 will be vacant for three or four years at the earliest - and as any new Bond actor would most likely be signed up for a minimum of three films, it seems fair to assume they’d cast just a little younger.

In her new interview with The Independent - in which she declares Craig her favourite 007 actor, calling him “amazing” and “the ultimate Bond” - Harris gives her thoughts on the question of whether a non-white actor might ever take on the legendary secret agent role:

“I hope we get to the point where we’re not saying, 'are we going to have a black Bond?’ That’s not the point. The point is to have somebody who fills the shoes of Bond in the way they should be filled.

“He’s this iconic character and whoever fits, whatever colour they are, it doesn’t matter. It’s about their characteristics, their charisma, their humour and their physicality as well – to be able to perform all those stunts. So whoever that is, I say good luck to them.”

On making her 007 debut in ‘Skyfall,’ Harris was herself the first woman of colour to be cast as Miss Moneypenny, following on from Lois Maxwell, Caroline Bliss and Samantha Bond.

She will reprise the role in ‘SPECTRE,’ due in cinemas on 6 November 2015.

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Picture Credit: WENN, Sony/MGM-UA