“The criticism will exist whether I engage with it or not,” actress Lupita Nyong’o has said in response to the vitriolic and often racist backlash she’s received from Elon Musk and some corners of social media over her casting as Helen of Troy in director Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. (It was recently revealed that Nyong’o also plays Helen’s sister Clytemnestra in the epic.)
Homer’s epics The Iliad and The Odyssey depict Helen as the most beautiful woman in the world whose face launched a thousand ships and sparked the Trojan War. But as Nyong’o told Elle Magazine (via THR), “You can’t perform beauty.”
“I want to know who a character is. What is beyond beauty? What is 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.”
"I was so deeply honored to be entrusted with the role. I mean, she is iconic. What more can I say?”
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Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o of Black Panther, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, 12 Years a Slave, and Us fame is confirmed to be playing Helen of Troy in The Odyssey. As noted, Helen's leaving Menelaus for Troy — whether it was by choice or by force varies depending on the version of the tale being told — is the event that sparks the Trojan War. She appears briefly in The Odyssey when Telemachus visits her and Menelaus while trying to find out any new information about what might have happened to his father in the years since the war. In a profile of Nolan for The Odyssey, Time Magazine revealed that Nyong'o is actually playing dual roles in the film: "And in a twist, Nyong’o also plays Helen’s sister, Clytemnestra, whose marriage to Menelaus’ brother Agamemnon (Benny Safdie) is, to put it mildly, acrimonious."
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The Oscar winner, who wants people to remember that The Odyssey “is a mythological story,” said Nolan’s film is made for global audiences so its diverse ensemble cast reflects that.
“I’m very supportive of Chris’s intention with it and with the version of this story that he is telling. Our cast is representative of the world. I’m not spending my time thinking of a defense. The criticism will exist whether I engage with it or not,” said Nyong’o.
“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.”
Nolan, who has previously defended his film from complaints of historical inaccuracies, told Elle that he cast Nyong’o as Helen of Troy because she possessed the same “(the) strength and the poise” as the character.
“Lupita makes it look effortless. I’m 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,” said Nolan. “She’s just an incredible person to work with, and I was absolutely desperate for her to do the part.”
Ultimately, Nyong’o won’t allow criticism in general to affect her: “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.”
The Odyssey opens in theaters July 17.
