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I still think ethnic backgrounds do bring something extra/different to certain roles. There is a certain coolness about Eddie Murphy's Axel Foley that I don't think a white actor could emulate, but I think a black actor similar to Murphy could (Will Smith for example).
As for Bond, its more to do with my obsession with the original books. If I had it my way, the characters in the novels would appear on screen exactly as Fleming wrote them in the books. Goldfinger and Oddjob appear exactly as I imagined them in the novels, so does Rosa Klebb and Irma Bunt.
I still have issues with Craig having blonde hair, because he doesn't match the description of Fleming's Bond.
I'm probably being old-fashioned and stuck in my ways with these views, I know.
This is where my point of public perception came in, you remember the hostility Daniel Craig suffered before the release of Casino Royale, but today the blonde hair is forgotten because the world has accepted him as Bond, still white & hetro though!
can't argue with that....
sorry for the double post, but I can't argue with that either...
The hair colour is just enough for me to get over, mainly because Craig's eyes look like I imagined they would look in the novels. There is still an essence of Fleming's Bond that I see when I look at Craig.
I don't honestly believe I would get that same feeling when looking at a black actor portraying Bond. Bond is white, with blue eyes, a cruel face and dark hair.
With Connery and Lazenby they got it partly right, as they both have dark eyes. Moore's hair was too fair. Dalton and Brosnan are probably the closest to how Fleming wrote Bond in terms of appearance.
I guess I should post a disclaimer and say that I am absolutely not racist (my boyfriend is half black).
Completely agree. This is the point I've been making/trying to make.
I think that's true. We won't get a black Bond while there's still a black moneypenny and a black Felix (although will these actors even stay on after the Craig era or will it be like the Brosnan era, when the actors changed? We'll see I guess).
AMEN ! FINALLY SOMEBODY ON HERE WITH SOME SENSE
How about making Bond a gay black woman?
that way EON covers all political correctness and everybody is happy !!!
You should count yourself lucky @SpectreNumberOne, this happens very rarely. Like contracting AIDS.
If they ever make a Black Panther movie (Marvel superhero), and they cast it with some WHITE dude, I will refuse to see it.
Soooo...... a short blond white guy is ALREADY pushing it, Bond-wise IMO. :))
The franchise has survived for 50 years by keeping the character himself slightly dated and old-fashioned in many ways. Sure, they gave him dark humour, one-liners and the ocassional gadget (which cropped in the novels too from time-to-time), but underneath you still get the impression of an Etonian Imperialist with refined taste and an old-fashioned behaviour towards women. To me, all the actors have brought this to the role, even Aussie Lazenby.
Bond's world around him has changed over the years, but he has remained fundamentaly the same. I think you would lose that Fleming essence if Bond suddenly became black. Once that is gone, then the character will be James Bond in name only. It will then be more of a generic action hero, with nothing remotely to do with Fleming anymore. How would the novel LALD stand up if Bond was black? The storyline just wouldn't work.
Craig's portrayal has actually brought the character closer to Fleming's 1950's hero than ever before, and SF is now the most successful Bond film of all time (or soon will be), so there is still an appetite for the dated, old-fashioned character that Fleming wrote about.
I don't see any reason right now why you would want to change that in any way....but maybe that's just me.
your absolutley right, you just destroyed RC7's whole argument. great post
If Craig's Bond was genuinely Fleming-esque, he would have treated Wright's, Leiter, very differently. Perhaps it's best to evolve rather than stand still.
I don't think I would be able to accept that either. I grew up with the DC Comics, and I could only ever see Bruce Wayne being white, with dark hair. Keaton was badly miscast. Bale is closest to how I imagined him from the comics.
I'm Blackman!
Not sure on that, as Fleming's Bond often had black men in the novels as allies who help him out. Quarrel was his very close right-hand man in two novels, and Bond is seething with anger and wanting revenge when Quarrel is murdered in Dr. No.
I'm very familiar with the novels, I read them over again every year. I wasn't suggesting Wright would not be an ally, but in Fleming world, Bond would consider him inferior. It's no secret Fleming was an imperialist, embodying the traits that naturally came with that.
:D
Yeah, they've never done Leiter properly for me.