Elon Musk is still angry about Christopher Nolan casting Lupita Nyong’o in ‘The Odyssey’
Elon Musk has continued to use his free time to rant on social media about Christopher Nolan casting Lupita Nyong’o in The Odyssey.
Earlier this year, the Tesla owner claimed that “Chris Nolan has lost his integrity” for casting Nyong’o as Helen of Troy in his upcoming epic, and in recent days, he’s ramped up his criticism.
He then claimed that Nolan had chosen to use a diverse cast for The Odyssey solely to enhance his chances at the Academy Awards, writing, “Who specifically is the asshole who added DEI lies to Academy Awards eligibility instead of it just being about making the best movie?”
Musk wrote on X on May 15th, “Chris Nolan desecrated the Odyssey so that he would be eligible for an Academy Award.”
The Academy’s Representation and Inclusion standards, which are available to view here, require films to meet an easily achievable total of two out of four remits related to the representation of marginalised groups both on and off screen.
The tech billionaire has also hit out last week at unfounded reports that transgender actor Elliot Page was due to play Achilles in the blockbuster, describing it as “one of the dumbest and twisted things I’ve ever heard”.
It has since been confirmed by Nolan that Page will play Elpenor rather than Achilles.
Following Musk’s relentless criticism of Nolan’s casting, Alec Baldwin rushed to the defence of Nyong’o, taking to Instagram to share an image of the actor along with the caption, “Dear Elon… but she IS the most beautiful woman in the world…Alec”.
His post came after Musk endorsed a post, by replying “True”, from conservative commentator Matt Walsh, who wrote on X, “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 also labelled Nolan a “coward”.
After Baldwin’s Instagram post, Musk, again, took to X to respond, writing, “I agree that she is beautiful, but casting a Black woman to play a White woman in a foundational work of European literature is no more right than casting a White man to play Shaka Zulu!”
Nolan, Nyong’o, and Page have, unsurprisingly, not responded publicly to Musk’s comments.
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