Lupita Nyong’o responded to backlash from conservatives like Donald Trump Jr. and Elon Musk over her casting as Helen of Troy in The Odyssey.
“I’m very supportive of [director Christopher Nolan’s] intention with [the film] and with the version of this story that he is telling. Our cast is representative of the world,” the Oscar winner, 43, told Elle in an interview published on Thursday, May 21. “I’m not spending my time thinking of a defense. The criticism will exist whether I engage with it or not.”
Nolan’s film is based on the ancient Greek epic of the same name by Homer, in which Helen of Troy is described as the most beautiful woman in the world. The filmmaker has amassed a star-studded cast for The Odyssey, including Zendaya as the goddess Athena, Matt Damon as the heroic Odysseus and Tom Holland as his son Telemachus, plus Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Anne Hathaway and Elliot Page as other characters from Greek mythology.
Musk, 54, first took aim at The Odyssey’s diverse casting in January when he complained via X that “Chris Nolan has lost his integrity.” More recently, Musk agreed with conservative commentator Matt Walsh’s contention that “not one person on the planet actually thinks that Lupita Nyong’o is ‘the most beautiful woman in the world.’”
“Christopher Nolan knows that he would be called racist if he gave ‘the most beautiful woman’ role to a white woman,” Walsh alleged on May 12. “Nolan is technically talented but a coward. Too afraid to do anything that even slightly challenges the spirit of the age.”
Musk replied, “True.”
That same week, Musk accused Nolan of “desecrating Homer” with his multiracial casting approach.
“[Nolan] will never live it down,” Musk predicted via X on May 15.
The tech billionaire’s anger over The Odyssey reached a fever pitch on Friday, May 22, when he accused Nolan of being “an anti-White racist.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Nolan’s rep for comment.
His criticisms of The Odyssey were echoed by Trump, 48, who posted a meme on Saturday, May 16, comparing Nolan’s version to 2004’s Troy, which starred white actors Brad Pitt and Diane Kruger. Trump took particular issue with Nyong’o and trans actor Page’s casting in Nolan’s The Odyssey.
“Maybe one of theses [sic] days Hollywood will least [sic] to stop pushing this crap on us,” he vented.
Amid the backlash, Nyong’o pointed out to Elle that The Odyssey is “a mythological story” rather than a historical adaptation.
“This is an industry where commerce is governing the art. The commercial part of it is unimaginative,” she also pointed out. “So the lack of imagination exists anyhow, and then it’s just exacerbated by the racial component.”
Nolan briefly addressed The Odyssey’s casting controversy earlier this month, likening his approach to the movie to his 2014 groundbreaking space epic, Interstellar.
“For Interstellar, you’re looking at, ‘What is the best speculation of the future?’ When you’re looking at the ancient past, it’s actually the same thing. ‘What is the best speculation and how can I use that to create a world?’” Nolan told Time on May 14.
The two-time Oscar winner went on, “Hopefully [audiences will] enjoy the film, even if they don’t agree with everything. We had a lot of scientists complain about Interstellar. But you just don’t want people to think that you took it on frivolously.”
The Odyssey opens July 17.
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