IN Bond - but not AS Bond

[AndyC]

Discuss @RyanF 's latest article here

 

[RyanF]

Michael Billington is to AH Bonds what Rab Butler is the AH Prime Ministers.

 

[Alex Richards]

The fascinating thing really is that I think a Black Bond would be much more readily accepted in 2006 than currently- there's a significant chunk of the Bond fanbase who, I think, are much more reactive against the idea of casting a non-white actor now then they were then.

 

[RyanF]

The fascinating thing really is that I think a Black Bond would be much more readily accepted in 2006 than currently- there's a significant chunk of the Bond fanbase who, I think, are much more reactive against the idea of casting a non-white actor now then they were then.

I 100% agree, heck I think even casting a white Australian or white Irishman would draw some ire these days. Somehow in the decade since this mentality has crept in that the character must be portrayed by a white British actor. It's the same sort of point I tried to make in an earlier article where American actors were in fact under consideration throughout the original run and it was only after Cubby made a few rejections to what the studio wanted that it became an ironclad thing.

Worth pointing out as well that Salmon is a much better fit for the role than frequently touted modern day choice Idris Elba.

 

[Alex Richards]

I 100% agree, heck I think even casting a white Australian or white Irishman would draw some ire these days. Somehow in the decade since this mentality has crept in that the character must be portrayed by a white British actor. It's the same sort of point I tried to make in an earlier article where American actors were in fact under consideration throughout the original run and it was only after Cubby made a few rejections to what the studio wanted that it became an ironclad thing.

Worth pointing out as well that Salmon is a much better fit for the role than frequently touted modern day choice Idris Elba.

Basically it's the alt-right/Rabid 'anti-Woke' sort who seem to have emerged in a 'this cultural thing can only belong to a single group of people' way.

I'm sure people complain more about ethnic minority background actors in historical settings (see 'why are there Black and Asian nuns in 19th Century Romania in Dracula. To which the response is 'why are you complaining about historical accuracy in an adaptation of Dracula where van Helsing is a Nun.')

The only place where the attitude seems to have a point is the bizarre manner in which Hollywood appears to have a default setting at the moment of 'we want to increase the cast diversity, therefore we're going to cast every ginger/redhead as a black person instead.' Because it does always seem to be the Gingers rather than anyone else. To the point where I'm legitimately starting to wonder if the Weasleys would have been cast as a Black British Wizarding family were Harry Potter being adapted from scratch today.