Idris Elba unfazed by backlash over not calling himself ‘Black actor’

Idris Elba is being condemned on social media for not calling himself a 'Black actor'. However the actor said the backlash over his comments is just ‘stupid.’

The Luther actor told Esquire UK in February that he stopped calling himself a 'Black actor' because inhibited his career. Elba has since come under fire for rejecting his ‘Blackness’.

“I feel as I get older – I’m 50 now – we all have fears of saying too much, oversharing and whatnot,” Elba now told The Guardian.

“And in this day and age, it’s really difficult to have an opinion if you’re in the public eye because it gets overly scrutinised, taken out of context, thrown into some sort of bullshit, zeitgeisty social media argument.”

Elba pointed to the controversy around his 'Black actor' comment as proof that social media is a “conflict incubator,” adding, “Me saying I don’t like to call myself a Black actor is my prerogative. That’s me, not you. So for you to turn around and say to me, I’m ‘denying my Blackness’. On what grounds? Did you hear that? Where am I denying it? And what for? It’s just stupid. Whatever.”

Elba himself took to Twitter in the aftermath of his Esquire interview to tell off his detractors, writing, “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 Prerogative [sic]. Ah lie?”

Elba's new movie, Luther: The Fallen Sun, begins streaming March 10 on Netflix.