“The Odyssey” is predicted to be the biggest hit of the summer, but it’s already getting a lot of backlash for various reasons, especially when it comes to casting.
Chief among these complaints is the fact that Christopher Nolan cast Elliot Page, a woman masquerading as a man, in one of the roles, and that Lupita Nyong’o, a Kenyan-Mexican actress, will play Helen of Troy.
Nyong’o isn’t making anything easier on herself as she just criticized Homer for his treatment of women.
“I want you to imagine, really quick, that you’re sitting in a movie theater, and you’re sitting next to Homer,” interviewer Jake Hamilton said. “Let’s say he speaks English. Let’s say he understands what movies are, and you watch ‘The Odyssey.’ When it’s over, you can lean over and go, ‘Okay, cool. What do you think about how I did this?’ What is an aspect of your performance that you’d love to get his thoughts on?”
Other members of the cast being interviewed had benign answers, but Nyong’o dove into a rant that has earned some eye rolls.
Nyong’o replied, “I would be like, ‘So, Homer, how do you feel about the screen time given to these women considering how little you spent with them? Okay?'”
“And then do you lean forward and look at him like that?” Hamilton said while leaning forward and making a face.
“Yes. Like, ‘Hmm? Remember us?'” Nyong’o said.
Homer, however, did give a significant amount of attention to women in his writing.
“OK. So Helen’s beauty sparks a war. Athena is a strategic goddess guiding Odysseus. Penelope embodies clever loyalty. Circe turns men into pigs, which frankly is still the most realistic female character arc in literature. Calypso traps the hero on an island for seven years. Cassandra can literally see the future but nobody listens, making her the first woman in recorded history to experience a meeting,” one person wrote in a popular post on X.
“The Sirens weaponize music. Nausicaa saves Odysseus when he washes up naked and useless. Andromache gives one of the most devastating anti-war speeches in the Iliad. Hecuba is basically the emotional wreckage of empire in human form. Aphrodite starts half the problems in Western civilization by being hot and petty. Hera is running divine opposition research. Thetis gets Zeus involved because Achilles is having a workplace dispute.”
The commenter concludes, “But apart from Helen, Athena, Penelope, Circe, Calypso, Cassandra, the Sirens, Nausicaa, Andromache, Hecuba, Aphrodite, Hera, and Thetis… WHAT HAS HOMER EVER DONE TO GIVE FEMALE CHARACTERS ATTENTION?”
Nyong’o, who also appeared in “Black Panther” and “12 Years a Slave,” was cast in Nolan’s film to play a character famed for her beauty. This has led to backlash online, as fans point out that the actress looks nothing like Helen of Troy as described in Greek mythology. “The Iliad” describes her as “white-armed” or “pale-armed,” while in “Doctor Faustus,” her face is said to be so beautiful that it “launched a thousand ships.”
Some critics are speculating that Nolan may have chosen a “diverse” cast in homage to DEI standards — and potential Academy Award nominations.
The movie is already getting rave reviews from mainstream critics, but the reactions on social media are a lot more mixed. YouTube no longer shows the number of dislikes on videos, but some estimates that use a workaround to see YouTube dislikes show the film’s final trailer has over 500,000 thumbs-down reactions. It has 69,000 likes.
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