The new James Bond novel, “Trigger Mortis” comes out next week. Author Anthony Horowitz landed himself in hot water this week following an interview with the Daily Mail. When asked what he thought about the idea of casting actor Idris Elba as the next James Bond,  he replied that Elba was a bit ‘too street’ to play the suave spy.

Reaction from the Twitter-sphere was swift. Horowitz soon

calling his remarks ‘racially-charged’ and ‘classist.’

The novelist has

and admitted his choice of word was poor.

Darnell Hunt is a professor at the Center for African American Studies at UCLA and heads the annual Diversity in Hollywood report. He tells Take Two, there was no mistaking what Horowitz meant by ‘street.’

“Well, it’s pretty obvious, ‘street’ is code for black,” Hunt tells Take Two.

“It’s unfortunate because Idris Elba is an amazing actor. His repertoire, the films he’s been in, the TV shows, they span the gamut.”

While some might argue that Horowitz, a Brit, may have have intended for his remarks to be interpreted differently, Hunt says the writer never would have used the term ‘street’ to describe a white actor of equal edginess.

“White actors aren’t burdened with this notion of who they are as a person racially. By default, whiteness can do anything -- it can represent anything,” he explains.

But, he says, this isn’t the case for most black actors, especially when mentioned in the same breath as the traditionally white James Bond.

Regardless of what Horowitz meant, Hunt says that writers don’t take part in casting for films -- this means his remarks will have little to no bearing on the final selection process.

Still, Hunt contends that Hollywood’s diversity problem remains just that.

“There’s been this long-standing conventional wisdom that films make most of their money overseas in an international market, and so therefore we shy away from casting actors of color because they can’t carry the films internationally --  they won’t make as much money. Of course, that’s nonsense.”

Hunt says the best way to get more actors of color on the screen is to change the racial makeup behind the scenes.

“I think that behind the scenes is -- in some ways -- more important than in front of the camera, because behind the scenes sets in motion a number of choices that are [going to] be made that ultimately impact what we see on the screen.”

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