The information that Helen of Troy in Christopher Nolan’s “Odyssey” will be played by Lupita Nyong’o caused a flood of reactions from celebrities, such as Elon Musk, who rushed to question Nolan’s integrity, as well as from anonymous commentators. This is not unprecedented.[Evan Agostini/Invision/AP]
It’s hard to remember another movie that caused so much speculation and talk months before its release, as Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” has done, even though its not coming out until July 17.
In this part of the world especially – since a significant part of the big-budget epic production was filmed in Greece – even the smallest tidbit of news about the film immediately piques the public’s interest. The most recent such tidbit was a leak – not an official announcement – that Lupita Nyong’o will be playing Helen, beside Matt Damon’s Odysseus. More precisely, the rumor stems from a social media post, accompanied by an edited photo of Nyong’o, in which she appears dressed in an outfit that seemingly alludes to an ancient Greek chiton.
Although the image is not genuine, there is some truth to the post, since the Oscar-winning actress (“12 Years a Slave”) is part of the cast and may portray that specific character. But are we ready for a Black Helen of Troy? One person who clearly isn’t is Elon Musk, who quickly commented on the news, saying that Nolan has “lost his integrity.” Needless to say, reactions across the Greek online sphere were far more numerous and markedly more critical, echoing what we saw some time ago when Netflix released a miniseries starring a Black Queen Cleopatra.
Homer described Helen of Troy – and Sparta – as having beautiful hair (kallikomos), a beautiful face (kallipareios), an elegant style of dress (tanypeplos) and white arms (leukolenos). She is also a fictional rather than historical figure, set to appear in Nolan’s equally fictional film. The latter also features the goddess Athena, portrayed by the African American actress Zendaya – another mythological “distortion,” according to those who object to departures from traditional imagery.
The fact is that Helen, as a symbol, represents such extraordinary beauty that an entire bloody war was waged for her sake. The undeniably stunning Nyong’o amply meets that criteria. What’s more, she wouldn’t even be the first Black woman to do so. Back in 1950, the great Orson Welles cast the African American actress Eartha Kitt as Helen of Troy in the play “Time Runs,” which he presented in Paris.
That said, this doesn’t mean that anyone who objects to this particular version of Helen is necessarily biased or racist. It may simply come down to aesthetics or to the mental image someone formed, perhaps from a very young age, when first meeting the characters of Homer’s epics. At the same time, we must respect the creative choices of an accomplished artist like Nolan. After all, when we’re talking about cinema and fiction, there’s really no reason to stick to convention – unless one believes that the familiar film portrayal of Jesus as a blond, blue-eyed Northern European is historically accurate as well.