Lupita Nyong’o has dismissed criticism over her casting as Helen of Troy in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, saying the film’s cast was “representative of the world”.
In an interview with Elle magazine, Nyong’o addressed the online backlash over her dual role as Helen of Troy and her sister Clytemnestra in the forthcoming adaptation of Homer’s epic, much of which seems to be based on comments about her race.
“This is a mythological story,” the Black Panther star said.
“I’m very supportive of Chris’s intention with it and with the version of this story that he’s telling. Our cast is representative of the world. I am not spending my time thinking of a defence. The criticism will exist whether I engage with it or not.”
“It’s quite something to be a part of The Odyssey because it is so grand. It spans worlds. So that’s why the cast is what it is. We’re occupying the epic narrative of our time,” she added. “I can’t spend my time thinking about all the people who still don’t love me. You’ll find the representatives who believe in you, and you’ll get on with it. I want to believe I’m built to last.”
The Odyssey stars Matt Damon as the hero Odysseus, Anne Hathaway as his wife Penelope and Tom Holland as their son Telemachus. Also featuring Zendaya as Athena, Charlize Theron as Calypso, Jon Bernthal as Menelaus and Benny Safdie as Agamemnon, it follows Odysseus along his perilous journey back home after the 10-year Trojan War.
In January, Tesla founder Elon Musk said Nolan had “lost his integrity” by casting Nyong’o as Helen in response to a user on X claiming the “ face that launched a thousand ships” was “fair skinned, blonde”.
“Casting choices that make the premise incoherent are admissions that the story was never the point and an insult to the author,” the user wrote.
Last week, Musk again stirred controversy by agreeing with the Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh 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,” he wrote.
“Nolan is technically talented but a coward. Too afraid to do anything that even slightly challenges the spirit of the age.”
Social media users as well as celebrities like late night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel and actors Alec Baldwin and Whoopi Goldberg slammed Musk for his comments.
“I actually feel kind of sorry for these men because it must be so sad to be so racist that you can’t even appreciate beauty when it falls outside the Eurocentric standard,” one person wrote on X. “Just a sad, bland, boring life.”
“I would suggest looking in a mirror if you have any concerns about people’s looks, if this is where we’re going,” Goldberg said on The View.
“Dear Elon,” Baldwin wrote on Instagram, “but she IS the most beautiful woman in the world.”
Nyong’o rejected the idea that Helen’s defining characteristic should be her beauty. “You can’t perform beauty,” she told Elle. “I want to know who a character is. What’s beyond beauty? What’s beyond looks?
“That’s the thing about doing such a well-known text, which has been studied and interpreted and derived from. The research could be endless. The good thing about working with a writer like Chris is that it’s on the page. The investigation starts with the pages you’re given. That’s what I based it on.”
Nolan didn’t respond to the backlash but told Elle that he was “absolutely desperate” for Nyong’o to do the role.
“The strength and the poise were so important to the character of Helen,” the Oppenheimer director said. “And Lupita makes it look effortless. I am sure there’s a tremendous amount of discipline and training that goes into projecting that kind of poise and feeling the emotion bubbling beneath the character, the layers of the character right there underneath.”
The Odyssey releases in theatres on 17 July.
