Elon Musk bashed Oppenheimer Director Christopher Nolan over the casting for his upcoming film, The Odyssey, saying the director tapped Lupita Nyong’o to play Helen of Troy because “he wants the awards.”
“Q: Why is Christopher Nolan like many other directors so keen to race swap white characters? A: Quotas and awards,” one X user wrote in a Tuesday post, to which Musk replied by taking to the comment section to assert, “He wants the awards.”
The SpaceX CEO also commented on an X post from Daily Wire host Matt Walsh, who wrote, “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 added. “Nolan is technically talented but a coward. Too afraid to do anything that even slightly challenges the spirit of the age.”
Musk replied to Walsh’s X post by commenting “True.”
The initial X user Musk replied to also shared a purported headline from TheWrap, which read, “Elon Musk Mocks Elliot Page’s Masculinity, Questions Lupita Nyong’o’s Beauty in Reignited Crusade Against ‘The Odyssey.’”
“I’m not mocking her masculinity. I’m denying its existence,” the X user wrote, to which Musk reacted by sharing the post to his own page.
TheWrap appears to have since updated its headline to just, “Elon Musk Questions Lupita Nyong’o’s Beauty in Reignited Crusade Against ‘The Odyssey.’”
As Breitbart News reported, recent rumor of transgender actor Elliot Page — formerly Ellen — playing Achilles in Nolan’s upcoming film have also sparked backlash.
“You could have paid me to tank this movie and I wouldn’t have thought of this,” actor Kevin Sorbo reacted to the rumor of Page playing Achilles, who another X user described as “a demigod with long blond hair and unmatched strength” while lamenting the potential casting.
As for the casting of Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, this is not the first time Musk has commented on the black actress playing the character — who was described by the ancient Greek poet Homer as being fair skinned and golden-haired — in Nolan’s retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey.
Earlier this year, when Nyong’o’s role was still a rumor, Musk commented, “Chris Nolan has lost his integrity” in response to an X user who noted that Helen of Troy was a “fair skinned blonde” who men started a war over “because she was so beautiful.”
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.