Hollywood has a new controversy on its hands, and it was so unnecessary. Christopher Nolan's upcoming adaptation of The Odyssey has ignited a debate that exposes one of the left's biggest blind spots: the selective, self-serving way it applies its own rules on representation.
If you haven’t already heard, the casting choices for the film are causing quite a stir. Lupita Nyong'o, who is of Kenyan-Mexican heritage, has been cast in a dual role as Helen of Troy. Ellen “Elliot” Page has reportedly been cast as Achilles. Having a black woman play Helen of Troy and a woman play Achilles are arguably the most absurd choices. But, for a film rooted in ancient Greek history and myth, the principal cast includes a bunch of white actors who have no Greek heritage. Matt Damon (American, with English, Finnish, and Scottish roots), Tom Holland (English), Charlize Theron (South African), John Leguizamo (Colombian-American), and Zendaya (African-American with German and Scottish ancestry).
No Greeks for a Greek story.
Only in Hollywood, right?
Some are blaming the Academy Awards' diversity requirements for the casting choices. That turns out to be a convenient excuse. According to Variety, diversity requirements for Oscar eligibility are more about studio hiring than on-screen talent.
So the argument that Nolan was forced into any of this by the Academy doesn't hold water. These were his choices.
The Greek publication Greek City Times published an open letter to Christopher Nolan and his team expressing concern that Greeks have been largely excluded from the cast of his adaptation of The Odyssey. The authors emphasized that Greeks are a living people whose culture and identity have endured continuously for more than 3,000 years. They argued that Greek stories should not erase the people from whom those stories originate. After noting the backgrounds of the cast members, the letter posed a pointed question: “Where are the Greeks, or the Greek Americans, in this Greek story?”
It’s a fair question to ask.
I can still remember when the woke left howled when Taron Egerton played Elton John in Rocketman because Egerton is straight. Things have gotten so bad that Tom Hanks has said he regrets taking his role in Philadelphia as a gay man, a statement made entirely in deference to this movement's logic. There are so many more examples I could mention, but you get the point: When the people being erased aren't on the approved list of marginalized groups, the rules evaporate.
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Hollywood has spent years insisting that authentic representation matters and that people should see themselves reflected in stories from their own cultures. Yet that principle seems to disappear when the culture in question is European, or the people being excluded are white. If you’re not part of an established “marginalized” minority, then Hollywood sees no contradiction in erasing you from your own heritage.
The question is, why do they keep doing this? It’s become increasingly clear that audiences are sick of the race-swapping at the expense of white ethnicities. Disney's live-action Snow White bombed. The Little Mermaid was a financial disappointment. Audiences have been signaling loudly that they're tired of being told their cultures and their stories don't count or don’t belong to them. Hollywood keeps not listening. Nolan's Odyssey is shaping up to be the latest test of whether audiences will keep paying for the privilege of being erased from their own history.
And something tells me it will be an expensive lesson.
