Elon Musk has again weighed in on Christopher Nolan‘s upcoming big-budget adaptation of The Odyssey, this time agreeing with a racist comment made by a far-right journalist who criticized the casting of Oscar-winning actor Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy.
Nolan’s epic follow-up to his Oscar-winning juggernaut Oppenheimer is set for wide release in July. In the lead-up, the film has been heavily hyped while remaining shrouded in mystery. A cover story in Time magazine this week has revealed that Nyong’o has indeed been cast as Helen of Troy — who is described in Homer’s classic as the most beautiful woman in the world and “the face that launched a thousand ships” into war. The film also stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, Tom Holland as Telemachus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, and Zendaya as Athena.
On Tuesday, conservative political commentator and Daily Wire host Matt Walsh took exception to the casting on X. His post, which featured a screenshot of The Hollywood Reporter‘s Tuesday reporting on Nyong’o’s roles in The Odyssey, quickly caught the attention of the platform’s owner.
“Not one person on the planet actually thinks that Lupita Nyong’o is ‘the most beautiful woman in the world.’ But Christopher Nolan knows that he would be called racist if he gave ‘the most beautiful woman’ role to a white woman,” Walsh wrote. “Nolan is technically talented but a coward. Too afraid to do anything that even slightly challenges the spirit of the age.”
Musk replied quickly, writing, “True.”
Walsh returned to the topic on Wednesday, arguing that the role should have gone to a white actor, even floating Sydney Sweeney, who had became a lightning rod for arguments about race, as an example.
“We’re told that we shouldn’t object to Helen of Troy being portrayed as a black woman. And yet if a major Hollywood studio made a film set in Africa and cast a white woman as ‘the most beautiful woman in Africa,’ those same people would literally riot in the street. If, say, Sydney Sweeney was cast in the role, they’d be driven to murderous violence. We all know this is the case,” Walsh wrote.
Musk also chimed in via the comment section of Walsh’s Wednesday post, writing, “Absolutely true. Such hypocrisy in Hollywood.”
This was not the Tesla and SpaceX founder’s first public reaction to the upcoming film. When rumors surfaced that trans actor Elliot Page might be cast as Achilles, Musk reacted even more forcefully.
“One of the dumbest and most twisted things I’ve ever heard,” Musk wrote in response to a post by UnHerd. It’s worth noting that Musk has a trans daughter from his first marriage: Vivian Jenna Wilson, who changed her name and cut ties with her father at 18 and has since publicly sparred with him online.
Musk’s commentary on the film dates to January, when rumors of Nyong’o’s casting first began circulating. He weighed in on what he characterized as a bold choice by Nolan — one of the rare auteur directors to consistently balance artistic ambition with global box office success, with films like Inception, The Dark Knight and Dunkirk.
“Chris Nolan has lost his integrity,” Musk declared at the time.
Nyong’o, a graduate of the Yale School of Drama, burst onto the scene in Steve McQueen’s 2013 best picture–winning drama 12 Years a Slave, for which she won the Academy Award for best supporting actress. Since then, she has built a distinctive career, including a dual role in Jordan Peele’s Us, appearances as Nakia across the Black Panther and Avengers films, and a lead role in A Quiet Place: Day One as a terminally ill woman surviving an alien invasion.
THR reached out to representatives for Musk and Nyong’o for comment on the posts on Wednesday evening. Nolan’s rep referred the query to a rep for Universal Entertainment, who declined to comment on Musk’s statements about the film; the rep was also unable to confirm Page’s role. Nyong’o’s representatives did not reply to THR‘s queries.
As for Walsh, the pundit who directed the documentaries What Is a Woman? and Am I Racist?, attempted to shut down responses calling his post racist with a post letting his detractors know that he has no concern for thier opinion.
“It’s funny that these people think they still accomplish something with the ‘erm actually this is racist’ routine,” he wrote. “We don’t give the slightest shit if you think something is racist. The word has no meaning coming from you.”
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