Film Critic Richard Roeper Richard Roeper Tries To Mock Backlash Over Lupita Nyong'o As Helen Of Troy
Film critic Richard Roeper attempted to mock those criticizing Christopher Nolan’s alleged decision to cast Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy in his upcoming The Odyssey film.
There has not been any official confirmation that Nyong’o plays Helen of Troy, but there is significant speculation that that is the case. The most prominent piece of evidence is a theatre exclusive trailer that shows Nyong’o next to Jon Bernthal.
Nolan Archive reacted to the trailer, which was released back in July, “The teaser for THE ODYSSEY strongly suggests that Jon Bernthal and Lupita Nyong’o will play Menelaus and Helen, respectively.”
“Menelaus, king of Sparta, was Helen’s husband. She was abducted by Paris, a Trojan prince, which triggered the Trojan War,” he added.
It was later confirmed in November that Bernthal was indeed playing Menelaus by Empire Magazine in its print coverage of the film.
The backlash to this alleged casting has been overwhelmingly negative. Elon Musk even noted, “Chris Nolan has lost his integrity.”
Comedian Chrissie Mayr wrote, “Christopher Nolan already ruined The Odyssey…
Casting Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy is absolutely disgusting and goes directly against what was written thousands of years ago. See attached on how Helen of Troy was written about. It’s pretty specific.”
Others simply mocked the casting by calling for other ridiculous casting options. One wrote, “Why not Peter Dinklage as Helen of Troy?”
Lauren Chen wrote, “Helen of Troy is supposed to be the epitome of Ancient Greek beauty. When I go see a movie, I shouldn't have to be the one doing the acting.”
In response to these and others like it Richard Roeper wrote, “Unbelievable! American actor Matt Damon, born in 1970 of Nordic and British ancestry, has been cast in The Odyssey as the make-believe Odysseus, who is 100% Greek and was born circa 1250 BCE. It’s almost as if they’re making a fictional movie.”
As numerous people informed Roeper, his attempt at mockery is feeble at best and more than likely intentionally dishonest. The reason being is that he completely ignores the underlying cultural and societal factors that would drive such a casting. It’s well documented that major studios such as Universal Studios, which is producing and distributing The Odyssey have DEI quotas for their films. They require a certain percentage of not only characters on screen, but people working behind the camera be non-white regardless of talent or skill level or even whether or not the actor looks the part of the role.
On top of this, numerous casting directors have admitted they race swap characters in order to “affect change” and manipulate viewers’ “unconscious bias.” The Witcher casting director Sophie Holland admitted as much in an interview with Jenelle Riley’s Acting Up newsletter that was republished by Variety.
Regarding the casting of Yennefer, Holland shared, “In the book, she’s described as the most beautiful woman in the world. This was a few years ago and I’d like to think things have changed. But when you think about people’s unconscious bias – especially in the fantasy world, it felt like these worlds were predominantly white. And I remember saying, ‘I feel like we need to challenge what people think of as the standard of beauty. And having a woman of color in this role does incredibly powerful things to the people watching.”
These social and cultural factors are the fruits of wokism. Bishop Barron explained to Angelus News back in 2021 that advocates of woke ideology “focus, not so much on the individual, as on racial and ethnic categories and hence they endorse the idea of collective guilt and recommend a sort of reverse discrimination to address the injustices of the past.”
The backlash is more about the rejection of this wicked ideology and less about the ancestry. In conclusion, Roeper did what most leftists do and what has since become a meme of its own. He pretended to not understand things thus making discourse impossible.
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