{"id":460638,"date":"2026-05-21T20:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T20:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/460638\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T20:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T20:47:09","slug":"lupita-nyongo-pushes-back-on-the-odyssey-casting-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/460638\/","title":{"rendered":"Lupita Nyong’o Pushes Back on ‘The Odyssey’ Casting Critics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLupita Nyong\u2019o<\/a> is giving her perspective on the toxic online criticism of the Oscar winner playing Helen of Troy in Christopher Nolan<\/a>\u2018s The Odyssey<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn a new profile in Elle<\/a>, the actress was asked about the blowback among predominantly right-wing pundits who have contended the Black actress shouldn\u2019t play \u201cthe most beautiful woman in the world\u201d in Universal\u2019s big-budget take on Homer\u2019s classic fable. <\/p>\n

\n\tFirst, Nyong\u2019o reminds readers \u201cthis is a mythological story\u201d \u2014 not, as its often been characterized, some sort of historical drama. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m very supportive of Chris\u2019s intention with it and with the version of this story that he is telling,\u201d she said. \u201cOur cast is representative of the world. I\u2019m not spending my time thinking of a defense. The criticism will exist whether I engage with it or not. \u2026 It\u2019s quite something to be a part of\u00a0The Odyssey, because it is so grand. It spans worlds. So that\u2019s why the cast is what it is. We\u2019re occupying the epic narrative of our time. \u2026 I was so deeply honored to be entrusted with the role.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNyong\u2019o also dismissed the idea of focusing on the character as \u201cthe face that launched 1,000 ships.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou can\u2019t perform beauty,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to know who a character is. What is beyond beauty? What is beyond looks? That\u2019s 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\u2019s on the page. The investigation starts with the pages you\u2019re given. That\u2019s what I based it on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe backlash hit the mainstream media after conservative political commentator and\u00a0Daily Wire\u00a0host Matt Walsh\u00a0took exception to the casting on X<\/a> last week. His\u00a0post<\/a>, which featured a screenshot of\u00a0The Hollywood Reporter\u2018s\u00a0Tuesday reporting<\/a>\u00a0on Nyong\u2019o\u2019s roles in\u00a0The Odyssey, caught the attention of Elon Musk. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNot one person on the planet actually thinks that Lupita Nyong\u2019o is \u2018the most beautiful woman in the world.\u2019 But Christopher Nolan knows that he would be called racist if he gave \u2018the most beautiful woman\u2019 role to a white woman,\u201d Walsh wrote. \u201cNolan is technically talented but a coward. Too afraid to do anything that even slightly challenges the spirit of the age.\u201d Musk replied quickly, writing, \u201cTrue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the new interview, Nyong\u2019o added, \u201cI can\u2019t spend my time thinking about all the people who still don\u2019t love me. You\u2019ll find the representatives who believe in you, and you\u2019ll get on with it. I want to believe I\u2019m built to last.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lupita Nyong\u2019o is giving her perspective on the toxic online criticism of the Oscar winner playing Helen of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,50678,93,61,60,193281,83194],"class_list":["post-460638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-christopher-nolan","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lupita-nyongu2019o","tag-the-odyssey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}