Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Christopher Nolan’s epic hasn’t opened yet and it’s already sparked one of the uglier casting controversies in recent memory — with Elon Musk in the middle of it.
Alec Baldwin took to Instagram to defend Lupita Nyong’o after Elon Musk amplified racist criticism of her casting in Christopher Nolan‘s upcoming The Odyssey. “Dear Elon,” Baldwin wrote alongside a photograph of Nyong’o, “but she IS the most beautiful woman in the world.” It was a pointed response to several days of commentary on X that Musk had joined with apparent enthusiasm.
The controversy started after The Hollywood Reporter confirmed Nyong’o’s casting in Nolan’s film, where she plays both Helen of Troy and her sister Clytemnestra. Conservative commentator Matt Walsh reacted on X, writing that “not one person on the planet” believes Nyong’o is the most beautiful woman in the world and accusing Nolan of being “technically talented but a coward” for making the casting choice. Musk responded simply: “True.”
Musk continued engaging as Walsh returned to the subject on Wednesday, floating Sydney Sweeney as an alternative casting choice and arguing the decision amounted to a racial double standard. Musk replied to that post as well, writing, “Absolutely true. Such hypocrisy in Hollywood.” He had also previously called the casting choice evidence that Nolan had “lost his integrity.”
The full cast of The Odyssey was confirmed in a Time magazine cover story this week. It includes Matt Damon as Odysseus, Tom Holland as Telemachus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, and Zendaya as Athena. The film is Nolan’s follow-up to Oppenheimer and is scheduled for wide theatrical release on July 17, 2026.
Nyong’o, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for 12 Years a Slave, was named People magazine’s Most Beautiful Woman in the World in 2017. Baldwin’s Instagram post came after Musk’s comments had circulated widely enough to generate mainstream coverage. Nolan has not commented publicly.
