African actress Lupita Nyong’o, who was controversially cast as Greek character Helen of Troy in director Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, says that she would call out famed Greek epic poet Homer for marginalizing women if he were around today.
Nyong’o, who admitted that before being cast in Nolan’s film, she never even heard of Greek poet Homer’s epic tale, was asked what she might like to say to the foundational poet if he were here today.
Interviewer Jake Hamilton posed a question to the entire film’s cast: “I want you to imagine really quick that you’re sitting in a movie theater and you’re sitting next to Homer… let’s say he speaks English. Let’s say he understands what movies are. and you watch The Odyssey. When it’s over, you can lean over and go, ‘Okay, cool. What’d you think about how I did this?’ What is an aspect of your performance that you’d love to get his thoughts on?”
While stars Anne Hathaway, Matt Damon, Tom Holland gave substantive answers about Homer’s writing and personality or the structure and technical achievements of the film, the Mexican-born African actress took the opportunity to snark about Homer not giving enough prominence to his female characters.
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“So, I would be like, ‘So, Homer, how do you feel about this screen time given to these women considering how little you spent with them?’” she replied.
Laughing, she insisted she would lean forward and give Homer a self-righteous facial expression and say, “Hmm? Remember us?”
Nyong’o, who is reportedly a Yale educated actress, claimed she never even heard of the most famous Greek epic of them all — until she was cast in Nolan’s new version of the story.
“I really had no idea what The Odyssey was,” she told Elle Magazine in May. “I was like, ‘Oh, snap, I don’t know the first thing about this.’ So it was a crash course. I picked up the books and read them immediately. I have this film to thank for my Greek mythological education.’
Nolan’s film is taking a lot of heat for all the woke decision he has made in the production of the nearly epic 3,000-year-old tale. And as his final trailer for what the studio hopes is a summer blockbuster dropped on YoTube, it was heavily downvoted as mocked its casting of Nyong’o as Helen of Troy and the female transvestite actor Elliot Page as a male Greek warrior.
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