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..."whitest of the gods" in the new "Thor" movie.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/apr/27/idris-elba-thor-race-debate
<div id="article-er">
<div id="main-article-info">
<h1>Idris Elba defends Thor film role</h1>
Race debate stirs
after London-born star of The Wire wins role as Norse deity Heimdall in
Kenneth Branagh's new film Thor
</div></div><div>
Idris Elba goes through his paces as a
Norse deity on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross. Photograph: Brian J
Ritchie/Rex Features
</div>
Even for an actor who has played a vampire-hunter with a guilty
conscience, a Baltimore crime lord with a taste for Adam Smith, and an asset manager with a
stalker, the role of the Norse deity Heimdall â€" guardian of the burning
rainbow bridge between the world of men and the world of gods â€" was
always going to be a bit of a challenge.
But playing a god in
Kenneth Branagh's forthcoming film Thor has turned out to be the least
of Idris Elba's worries, after fans of the comic books turned
on the star of The Wire for reasons
that have nothing to do with his acting ability and everything to do
with the colour of his skin.
When news emerged late last year that
the 37-year-old black Londoner had been chosen to play Heimdall, "the
whitest of the gods", a being who can hear the sap flowing in trees and
look across time and space, many devotees of the Marvel comics on which
the film is based flocked to online forums to weep, gnash their teeth
and unleash a tide of indignation.
A fortnight ago, the actor told
Jonathan Ross that his take on Heimdall was "Norse by way of Hackney,
Canning Town". And at the beginning of the month, he told a press
conference that he saw his casting as an encouraging step.
His
view was not shared among the more vehement of the comic books' fans.
"This PC crap has gone too far!" wailed one. "Norse deities are not of
an African ethnicity! "¦ It's the principle of the matter. It's about
respecting the integrity of the source material, both comics and Norse
mythologies."
Fellow fans were quick to nod their horn-helmeted
heads.
"At the risk of sounding like a bigot, I think this is
nuts!" said another. "Asgard is home to the Norse Gods!!! Not too many
un-fair complexion types roaming the frigid waste lands up there. I
wouldn't expect to see many Brad Pitt types walking around in the [first
mainstream black superhero] Black Panther's Wakanda Palace!"
Elba,
who was born in Hackney, north-east London, to a Ghanaian mother and
Sierra Leonean father, has addressed such concerns in a string of recent
interviews.
"There has been a big debate about it: can a black
man play a Nordic character?" he told TV Times. "Hang about, Thor's
mythical, right? Thor has a hammer that flies to him when he clicks his
fingers. That's OK, but the colour of my skin is wrong?
"I was
cast in Thor and I'm cast as a Nordic god," he said. "If you know
anything about the Nords, they don't look like me but there you go. I
think that's a sign of the times for the future. I think we will see
multi-level casting. I think we will see that, and I think that's good."
Elba,
who shot to fame as the erudite and thoughtful gangster Stringer Bell
in critically acclaimed US television serial The Wire, also used his
interview with TV Times to warn viewers against pigeonholing his new BBC crime drama, Luthe</span>r just because it was about a black policeman.
"I
think we'll put ourselves in a corner if we just describe Luther as a
black detective," he said. "There haven't been many in the past, but the
fact that he's black is neither here nor there."
The actor added
that while it was "great to have a character who happens to be black in
the central position "¦ he still bleeds, just like anyone else".
Elba
is working in the US and was unavailable for comment yesterday.
However,
his publicist flatly dismissed any suggestion of a row between fans and
film-makers, telling the Guardian that the actor was merely being
mischievous. "There's no controversy," said Rupert Fowler. "Idris was
being flippant in the [TV Times] interview."
His UK agent, Roger
Charteris, said Elba had chosen the role of Heimdall on artistic rather
than political grounds. "He just wanted to do the movie and work with
Kenneth Branagh.
"He liked the script and he liked the movie and
he had always wanted to work with Kenneth Branagh. It wasn't like a
statement: 'Oh, I'm going to do this.' It's always a purely creative
decision."
Or perhaps Elba was seeking to emulate his fellow
British actor and Wire costar Dominic West. Last year, West â€" who has
played the Ukrainian-Russian son of Pablo Picasso, a Spartan statesman
and a French detective â€" revealed he had decided to accept the part of
the Australian scientist Professor Howard Florey in a BBC TV drama about
the discovery of penicillin, in protest against non-English actors
playing famous English roles. "I was sort of smarting from Russell Crowe
coming over here and playing Robin Hood and all these foreigners coming
over here and stealing our great heroes," he said, his tongue lodged
firmly in his cheek. "I felt I was striking a blow back by being a Brit
playing a foreigner."
The Equality and Human Rights Commission
said: "It's up to the casting director and producers to decide who is
suitable for a role. It is not actually illegal to discriminate for
authenticity purposes in the theatre. There is an exception under the
Race Relations Act which says if it is required for the role, you can
ask for someone of a certain colour."*******************************************************************
I was a big fan of the Marvel "Thor" comics growing up as a kid in the 70's. I was really looking forward to this movie....now, I'll have to boycott it. It's getting to the point where I may never go to the cinema again, or at least, very rarely. When will this sh*t end!?
Edited by: Highlander
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/apr/27/idris-elba-thor-race-debate
<div id="article-er">
<div id="main-article-info">
<h1>Idris Elba defends Thor film role</h1>
Race debate stirs
after London-born star of The Wire wins role as Norse deity Heimdall in
Kenneth Branagh's new film Thor
</div></div><div>
Idris Elba goes through his paces as a
Norse deity on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross. Photograph: Brian J
Ritchie/Rex Features
</div>
Even for an actor who has played a vampire-hunter with a guilty
conscience, a Baltimore crime lord with a taste for Adam Smith, and an asset manager with a
stalker, the role of the Norse deity Heimdall â€" guardian of the burning
rainbow bridge between the world of men and the world of gods â€" was
always going to be a bit of a challenge.
But playing a god in
Kenneth Branagh's forthcoming film Thor has turned out to be the least
of Idris Elba's worries, after fans of the comic books turned
on the star of The Wire for reasons
that have nothing to do with his acting ability and everything to do
with the colour of his skin.
When news emerged late last year that
the 37-year-old black Londoner had been chosen to play Heimdall, "the
whitest of the gods", a being who can hear the sap flowing in trees and
look across time and space, many devotees of the Marvel comics on which
the film is based flocked to online forums to weep, gnash their teeth
and unleash a tide of indignation.
A fortnight ago, the actor told
Jonathan Ross that his take on Heimdall was "Norse by way of Hackney,
Canning Town". And at the beginning of the month, he told a press
conference that he saw his casting as an encouraging step.
His
view was not shared among the more vehement of the comic books' fans.
"This PC crap has gone too far!" wailed one. "Norse deities are not of
an African ethnicity! "¦ It's the principle of the matter. It's about
respecting the integrity of the source material, both comics and Norse
mythologies."
Fellow fans were quick to nod their horn-helmeted
heads.
"At the risk of sounding like a bigot, I think this is
nuts!" said another. "Asgard is home to the Norse Gods!!! Not too many
un-fair complexion types roaming the frigid waste lands up there. I
wouldn't expect to see many Brad Pitt types walking around in the [first
mainstream black superhero] Black Panther's Wakanda Palace!"
Elba,
who was born in Hackney, north-east London, to a Ghanaian mother and
Sierra Leonean father, has addressed such concerns in a string of recent
interviews.
"There has been a big debate about it: can a black
man play a Nordic character?" he told TV Times. "Hang about, Thor's
mythical, right? Thor has a hammer that flies to him when he clicks his
fingers. That's OK, but the colour of my skin is wrong?
"I was
cast in Thor and I'm cast as a Nordic god," he said. "If you know
anything about the Nords, they don't look like me but there you go. I
think that's a sign of the times for the future. I think we will see
multi-level casting. I think we will see that, and I think that's good."
Elba,
who shot to fame as the erudite and thoughtful gangster Stringer Bell
in critically acclaimed US television serial The Wire, also used his
interview with TV Times to warn viewers against pigeonholing his new BBC crime drama, Luthe</span>r just because it was about a black policeman.
"I
think we'll put ourselves in a corner if we just describe Luther as a
black detective," he said. "There haven't been many in the past, but the
fact that he's black is neither here nor there."
The actor added
that while it was "great to have a character who happens to be black in
the central position "¦ he still bleeds, just like anyone else".
Elba
is working in the US and was unavailable for comment yesterday.
However,
his publicist flatly dismissed any suggestion of a row between fans and
film-makers, telling the Guardian that the actor was merely being
mischievous. "There's no controversy," said Rupert Fowler. "Idris was
being flippant in the [TV Times] interview."
His UK agent, Roger
Charteris, said Elba had chosen the role of Heimdall on artistic rather
than political grounds. "He just wanted to do the movie and work with
Kenneth Branagh.
"He liked the script and he liked the movie and
he had always wanted to work with Kenneth Branagh. It wasn't like a
statement: 'Oh, I'm going to do this.' It's always a purely creative
decision."
Or perhaps Elba was seeking to emulate his fellow
British actor and Wire costar Dominic West. Last year, West â€" who has
played the Ukrainian-Russian son of Pablo Picasso, a Spartan statesman
and a French detective â€" revealed he had decided to accept the part of
the Australian scientist Professor Howard Florey in a BBC TV drama about
the discovery of penicillin, in protest against non-English actors
playing famous English roles. "I was sort of smarting from Russell Crowe
coming over here and playing Robin Hood and all these foreigners coming
over here and stealing our great heroes," he said, his tongue lodged
firmly in his cheek. "I felt I was striking a blow back by being a Brit
playing a foreigner."
The Equality and Human Rights Commission
said: "It's up to the casting director and producers to decide who is
suitable for a role. It is not actually illegal to discriminate for
authenticity purposes in the theatre. There is an exception under the
Race Relations Act which says if it is required for the role, you can
ask for someone of a certain colour."*******************************************************************
I was a big fan of the Marvel "Thor" comics growing up as a kid in the 70's. I was really looking forward to this movie....now, I'll have to boycott it. It's getting to the point where I may never go to the cinema again, or at least, very rarely. When will this sh*t end!?
Edited by: Highlander
