Horowitz: I’ve been warned off creating a black hero
After he sparked race row for saying Idris Elba is ‘too street’ for Bond...
BESTSELLING author Anthony Horowitz has revealed that he was ‘warned off’ including a black character in a new book – because it would be ‘inappropriate’ for a white writer to do so.
Speaking to today’s Event magazine, Horowitz – creator of the Alex Rider spy novels – says he was ‘upset and disturbed’ when an editor told him that devising black characters could be interpreted as ‘patronising’.
‘This is maybe dangerous territory but there is a chain of thought in America that it is inappropriate for white writers to try to create black characters,’ he says.
‘That it is actually not our experience and therefore to do so is, by its very nature, artificial and possibly patronising. Therefore I was warned off doing it. Which was, I thought, disturbing and upsetting.’
Horowitz, 62, who wanted to include a white and a black protagonist in a new series of children’s books, says he is now having second thoughts about including the black character. The father-of-two said: ‘ Taking it to its logical extreme, all my characters will from now be 62- year- old white Jewish men living in London. I haven’t yet decided what to do. I will have to think about whether this character can be black or white.’
Horowitz, who also created the TV drama Foyle’s War, was branded a racist and vilified on social media after saying during a previous interview with Event that the actor Idris Elba was ‘too street’ to play James Bond. The author says he was mortified by the fallout from the comment, adding: ‘It was unpleasant because it went against everything that I believe in. ‘The character I was being portrayed as was not the person I am.’ Horowitz said he said sorry to Elba at a film premiere. He says: ‘I went up to him rather nervously to apologise for the argument that happened. ‘ He could not have been more charming, more delightful and more humane. ‘I’m not abdicating responsibility, I’m still deeply sorry. I’m still annoyed at myself, it was stupid. ‘ It has changed me in that I’m now much more guarded, more careful, more discreet.’ Horowitz, whose new Alex Rider novel, Never Say Die, will be published on June 1, is also looking forward to a new TV series based on the books. He says: ‘ I’m very excited. We’ve done a deal with ITV.’
‘I WENT UP TO IDRIS NERVOUSLY TO APOLOGISE FOR THE ARGUMENT’ FULL REVEALING INTERVIEW IN EVENT