Idris Elba: Pulling Bastille Day was right decision after Nice attack

Idris Elba has voiced his support for the decision to withdraw his new thriller Bastille Day from French theaters in the wake of the truck attack in Nice that claimed 84 lives on France’s national day.

In a recent interview with Complex, Elba said he wasn’t personally involved with the decision to pull the movie — in which he plays a former CIA agent trying to foil a terrorist attack in Paris — but he thought it was the right thing to do.

“Of course it’s called Bastille Day, and it’s a film that tackles violence on that particular day,” Elba said. “So I suspect the filmmakers were like, ‘This doesn’t feel right to have out there. It’s insensitive.’ A lot of people were tragically killed and hurt, and obviously we don’t want to look as if we’re being opportunistic or anything like that.”

The British actor added, “I’m heartbroken about that situation, though. Not just because I was in a film called Bastille Day at all, but more about the shed of innocent lives.”

Studiocanal asked French exhibitors to pull Bastille Day on Saturday, two days after an attacker drove a large truck into a crowd at a Bastille Day celebration in the seaside city of Nice, killing 84 people and injuring more than 300 others. The Islamic State claimed Saturday that the attacker, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, was one of the group’s “soldiers.”

Bastille Day isn’t the only fictional work to have its rollout affected by a recent attack. USA Network postponed the premiere of Shooter to the fall after the sniper attack in Dallas that killed five police officers.

Watch Elba’s interview below.