John Boyega took to Twitter to defend Idris Elba, who sparked a conversation online when he told Esquire UK that he no longer refers to himself as a “Black actor.” According to Elba, the label puts him in a box and limits his career. He said that “as humans, we are obsessed with race and that obsession can really hinder people’s aspirations, hinder people’s growth. 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 continued, saying “I stopped describing myself as a Black actor when I realized it put me in a box. We’ve got to grow. We’ve got to. Our skin is no more than that: it’s just skin. Rant over.” After the interview, people accused Elba of renouncing his Blackness with the statement. However, some individuals came to Elba’s defense to agree. Hollywood’s need to put labels on actors and performers plays a huge hand in the way they are able to stereotype actors. John Boyega responded to the discussion on Twitter.
John Boyega Speaks
When Elba realized that the statement was causing backlash, he responded to the negative comments on Twitter with an overall response. He said, “There isn’t a soul on this earth that can question whether I consider myself a BLACK MAN or not. Being an ‘actor’ is a profession, like being an ‘architect,’ they are not defined by race. However, If YOU define your work by your race, that is your Perogative. Ah lie?”
Soon after, someone said that “[Elba]’s not wrong lmao. Many Black and POC actors have talked about being typecast into stereotypical roles because of their race.” Boyega said, “I think we should fixate on who is typecasting and putting actors in boxes because of this. Not on making weird adjustments for them. We continuously focus on what we have to do so they don’t do this or that. Very worrying. We BLACK and that’s that.” The biggest highlight from Boyega’s statement is that more individuals should be paying attention to and questioning the typecasting that happens in Hollywood. It, like Elba said, puts Black actors into boxes.
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