On his way out of the airport, TMZ caught up with Idris Elba and asked the question we’d all been dying to hear the answer to. Will Idris Elba be the next James Bond?!

Find out what he had to say after the jump!

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Elba has been the center of controversy since James Bond author, Anthony Horowitz, said he was “too street” to play the widely admired character. The comment caused widespread outrage as fans tried to contextualize what EXACTLY the author was trying to say. He assured that it was not a color issue and more so “a question of being suave.”

Horowitz later issued a public apology to Elba, but from the looks of things that hasn’t heightened Elba fans’ chances of seeing the actor play Bond. Elba responded to the apology with the ultimate suaveness. The response came via Instagram, he posted a picture captioned

Always keep smiling! It takes no energy and never hurts! Learned that from the street! (wink)

To be quite honest, we’re not surprised or mad at Elba for his decision to completely opt out of that possibility. On to bigger and better things!