Lupita Nyong’o shrugs off racist ‘Odyssey’ backlash over Helen of Troy casting

Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o said she’s losing no sleep over racist criticism of her casting as Helen of Troy, the mythic beauty whose face “launched a thousand ships” and ignited the Trojan War. Nyong’o, director Christopher Nolan and the producers of “The Odyssey” have faced backlash from a faction of culture war provocateurs questioning why the Kenyan-born actress was cast in the role. “I’m very supportive of Chris’s intention with it and with the version of this story that he is telling,” Nyong’o told Elle magazine in an interview published on Thursday. “Our cast is representative of the world.” As for the critics, Nyong’o said engaging with them would be pointless. “I’m not spending my time thinking of a defense,” she said. “The criticism will exist whether I engage with it or not.” Nolan’s “Odyssey” is slated to be one of the year’s biggest films, with an A-list ensemble that includes Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Elliot Page and Charlize Theron. Hype around the movie has been building for more than a year, with tickets for early showings sold out since July. The movie debuts July 17. But in recent weeks, some right-wing voices have criticized the film, citing what they describe as historical inaccuracies and casting choices designed to appease the left. Elon Musk, who has waged a years-long campaign and become one of the most high-profile people to take on what he has called the “woke mind virus,” weighed in on X last week, claiming that Nolan was being historically inaccurate and capitulating to “DEI lies.” Musk, who has 240 million followers on X, also lobbed personal attacks at Nolan saying the director “desecrated the Odyssey so that he would be eligible for an Academy Award.” Early Friday, Musk called Nolan “an anti-White racist.” The tech billionaire’s outburst became fodder for late night comic Jimmy Kimmel, who used his show to offer a remedial lesson in Greek mythology to clear up any confusion about Helen of Troy’s nonexistent link to reality. “She was mythical like Santa Claus or election fraud (so it) doesn’t matter what color a myth is,” Kimmel told fans on his show this week. “And if you really want to get into it, Helen of Troy was half-bird. Helen was the daughter of Zeus ... who disguised himself as a swan so he could mate with a human woman who then laid an egg and out hatched Helen of Troy, who again was not a real person. This is not history, this is made up. She was pretend, so it makes no difference to anyone but crazy, angry people what color she was.” Casting choices have increasingly become culture-war flashpoints in debates over representation and historical accuracy. Major Disney remakes — most notably The Little Mermaid and Snow White — have drawn similar waves of intense but ultimately limited backlash. Some on the right have predicted the controversy will cost “The Odyssey” at the box office, though there is little to support that claim. The film’s trailer, which debuted in December, racked up more than 120 million views in its first 24 hours.