Last month former 007 Roger Moore caused some controversy when he was quoted as saying that James Bond should be “English-English” when asked for his thoughts on Idris Elba potentially playing the superspy. Although Moore subsequently suggested his quotes had been “lost in translation”, Yaphet Kotto – who played the villain Dr. Kananga / Mr. Big in Live and Let Die – has now waded into the debate, stating that Bond “cannot be black.”
“He cannot be black,” Kotto told the Big Issue. “Political correctness be damned, [we] have to stay with what is literally correct. James Bond was established by Ian Fleming as a white character, played by white actors. Play 003 or 006, but you cannot be 007. A lot of people say we should be allowed to play everything. Don’t be ridiculous. If I say I want to play JFK, I should be laughed out of the room. Black men should stop trying to play roles created by whites. These roles are not written for black men. We have pens [to create] roles that no one else has established.”
Kotto also revealed that he was asked not to participate in publicity for 1973’s Live and Let Die, which saw him becoming the first black actor to play a Bond villain: “They were afraid the public would react negatively to a black villain so they didn’t play my character up. That hurt me a lot, man. I went through a lot of goddamn emotional hell because they were afraid people would be angry that a black guy was not being Sidney Poitier. I was the opposite of everything he created.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pnc360pUDRI&list=PL18yMRIfoszFLSgML6ddazw180SXMvMz5
Originally published April 11, 2015. Updated November 29, 2022.
