Idris Elba is getting candid about why he stopped referring to himself as a “Black actor.”
In an interview for the Spring 2023 issue of Esquire UK, Elba, 50, revealed that he “stopped describing myself as a Black actor when I realized it put me in a box,” per People Magazine.
“We’ve got to grow. We’ve got to. Our skin is no more than that: it’s just skin,” he added.
Though he stopped describing himself as a “Black actor,” Elba said he accepts that he “might be the first to look like me to do a certain thing.”
“And that’s good, to leave as part of my legacy,” the actor continued. “So that other people, Black kids, but also White kids growing up in the circumstances I grew up in, are able to see there was a kid who came from Canning Town who ended up doing what I do. It can be done.”
Elba went on to address the “very real” racism he’s experienced during his career. However, the 50-year-old actor believes society is “obsessed with race.”
“Racism should be a topic for discussion, sure. Racism is very real. But from my perspective, it’s only as powerful as you allow it to be,” he said. “If we spent half the time not talking about the differences but the similarities between us, the entire planet would have a shift in the way we deal with each other.”
Elba said he began his acting career because he thought it was a “great profession” he could do “a good job at,” and not because he “didn’t see Black people doing it” and “wanted to change that.”
“As you get up the ladder, you get asked what it’s like to be the first Black to do this or that. Well, it’s the same as it would be if I were White,” he explained. “It’s the first time for me. I don’t want to be the first Black. I’m the first Idris.”
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