Patton Oswalt has a brilliant theory about why Idris Elba should be James Bond

Actor comedian thinks Bond is a 'street-level ass-kicker' in a suit

A lot has been said about Idris Elba's suitability as 007 over the past few days.

Bond author Anthony Horowitz thinks he's "too street", I asserted that the role is beneath someone of Elba's talents, and now comedian Patton Oswalt has given his two cents, claiming that Elba would be perfect precisely because of his badass-ness.

He told BuzzFeed:

"What’s so sad about this controversy is it isn’t even that the guy (Anthony Horowitz) is being racist or politically incorrect. It’s that he doesn’t understand how James Bond works.

“The whole idea of James Bond is that they found this fucking bruiser, this psychopathic bruiser, they cleaned him up so that he could wear a tux and infiltrate but then still be a total killer.

“The whole tension inside of James Bond is this suave British guy that in reality is just a street-level ass-kicker. That’s why Sean Connery is so amazing. He’s this working-class Scottish weightlifter dude, then they put him in a tux and he looks great.

“It’s why Roger Moore wasn’t good, because he was too suave. There was no ass-kicking to him.

“And it’s why Timothy Dalton — who’s a terrific actor, but he was all ass-kicking. Like, you couldn’t believe him in a tuxedo. He just looked like a thug no matter what you did to him.

“So Idris Elba is a perfect James Bond. Not because he’s white or black or hot, it’s because he looks like a suave, high-class, one-percent dude but also he has all this killer training.

“There’s this great fan theory that 007 James Bond is just a franchise — they give that code name and number to whoever their top agent is.

“Weirdly enough an actor like Chiwetel Ejiofor would be a terrible James Bond because he is super suave but you can’t imagine him, you know, killing someone with his bare hands.

“And then someone like Antonio Banderas would be amazing because he is both an ass-kicker and also can be really suave.”

“So Idris Elba is perfect. He’d be a perfect James Bond.”