{"id":458363,"date":"2026-05-25T00:44:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T00:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/458363\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T00:44:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T00:44:17","slug":"this-is-a-mythological-story-nyongo-responds-to-criticism-of-helen-of-troy-casting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/458363\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;This is a mythological story&#8221;: Nyong&#8217;o responds to criticism of Helen of Troy casting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/salon.com\/topic\/lupita-nyongo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lupita Nyong\u2019o<\/a> is refusing to defend herself from internet blowhards.<\/p>\n<p>Online bigots <a href=\"http:\/\/The%20new%20Helen%20of%20Troy%20is%20Black%20%E2%80%94%20and%20that%E2%80%99s%20upsetting%20racists\" rel=\"nofollow\">have been stewing<\/a> over Nyong\u2019o\u2019s role in <a href=\"http:\/\/salon.com\/topic\/christopher-nolan\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Christopher Nolan<\/a>\u2018s upcoming adaptation of \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/topic\/the-odyssey\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Odyssey<\/a>\u201d for weeks. The Oscar-winning actress playing Helen of Troy told <a href=\"http:\/\/elle.com\/culture\/movies-tv\/a71283989%E2%80%A6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Elle<\/a> she\u2019s \u00a0heard some of the criticism, but doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s worth much thought.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m very supportive of Chris\u2019s intention with it and with the version of this story that he is telling. Our cast is representative of the world,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m not spending my time thinking of a defense. The criticism will exist whether I engage with it or not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nolan hand-picked Nyong\u2019o for the role, telling the outlet that he was \u201cabsolutely desperate\u201d for her to take on the part. He said that the actress\u2019 \u201cstrength and poise\u201d were critical to bringing the myth to life on the big screen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLupita makes it look effortless. I\u2019m sure there\u2019s 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,\u201d he said. \u201cShe\u2019s just an incredible person to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Start your day with essential news from Salon.<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/newsletter?utm_source=onsite&amp;utm_medium=organic&amp;utm_campaign=crash-course-edit-signup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Sign up for our free morning newsletter<\/a>, Crash Course.<\/p>\n<p>While the majority of the interview focused on Nyong\u2019o\u2019s preparation for the role and her philanthropic efforts, she did get one little dig in at critics like <a href=\"http:\/\/salon.com\/topic\/elon-musk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Elon Musk<\/a>, who compared her portrayal to a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/2056108622728610256\" rel=\"nofollow\">white actor playing Shaka Zulu<\/a>. She pointedly reminded angry commentators that Homer\u2019s epic is fiction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a mythological story,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"red_box\">Read more<\/p>\n<p class=\"white_box\">about this topic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lupita Nyong\u2019o is refusing to defend herself from internet blowhards. Online bigots have been stewing over Nyong\u2019o\u2019s role&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-458363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}