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Idris Elba appeared on a recent episode of UNINTERRUPTED: The Shop, and the Londoner ended any rumors of him eventually portraying another iconic Brit on-screen: secret agent James Bond.
“It is not a goal for my career,” the 50-year-old actor replied when asked if he has any plans to become the next 007. “I don’t think that, you know, playing Bond will satisfy some of my personal goals.”
“It will definitely satisfy the will of a nation,” Elba added, though. “I’m not gonna lie, every corner of the world I go, and I’m talking about different cultures, they always go, ‘Bond.’ And I feel it is beyond me at this junction. It’s beyond me. You know, it’s not a question of, should I, do I, will I? It is what the will of the nation dictates sometimes.”
In January, Bond film producer Barbara Broccoli revealed to Deadline that Elba has “been part of the conversation” to join the long list of esteemed actors to play the spy. But five months later, she told the outlet “that filming is at least two years away.”
“Nobody’s in the running,” Broccoli said in late June. She also added that “[t]here isn’t a script and we can’t come up with one until we decide how we’re going to approach the next film because, really, it’s a reinvention of Bond. We’re reinventing who he is and that takes time.” And Elba’s recent admission now confirms her statement.
“I’m not that guy but in everyone’s world, I might be,” PEOPLE‘s Sexiest Man Alive said on The Shop. “And that, job done. Because the truth is, you know, a lot of people are really seeing Idris playing Bond as the alternative Bond. And as long as that alternative is existing, that’s great for the growth of fucking casting.”
Click on the video below to watch the latest episode of The Shop, “Superheroes need help,” and listen to Elba give his full take on the James Bond conversation.
