Lupita Nyong’o has found herself in hot water over a comment she made about the ancient Greek author Homer.
The actress plays Helen of Troy and her sister, Clytemnestra, in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.
In 2013, she famously portrayed an enslaved woman named Patsey in 12 Years a Slave, a role that earned her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
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Now, she’s back on the big screen alongside an all-star cast that includes Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, and Charlize Theron.
While promoting The Odyssey, an adaptation of Homer’s ancient Greek epic, Nyong’o was asked what she would say to the poet if she could meet him today.
“So, Homer, how do you feel about the screen time given to these women, considering how little you spent with them?” she said on the Jake’s Takes YouTube channel. “Remember us?”
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Social media users mocked the 43-year-old actress over the remark, noting that she had previously admitted she was unfamiliar with the Odyssey when she first met Nolan about his film adaptation.
“She received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Yale School of Drama and knew nothing of The Odyssey going in,” one X user wrote.
“It was the men who went to war and to sea back then, so why would Homer think about the women’s perspective? Silly,” another comment read.
“She is talking about Homer Simpson right!” one user joked. “Because she clearly stated that she knew nothing about the Greek author Homer.”
Nyong’o faced backlash over her remarks about the female characters in the ancient Greek epic
Some people compared her remarks to Rachel Zegler’s 2025 Snow White press tour, during which Zegler was criticized for calling the original Disney film “extremely dated” and saying that the prince “stalked” Snow White.
One person called her question “woke,” while another wrote, “The audacity to complain about screen time in someone else’s story.”
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The Odyssey, one of the oldest surviving works of literature, follows Odysseus (also known as Ulysses), the king of Ithaca, on his ten-year journey home after the Trojan War.
During his voyage from Troy to Ithaca, Odysseus encounters numerous perils that threaten him and his crew, including turbulent seas and mythical creatures.
The heroic king is presumed lifeless because of his long absence, leaving his loyal wife Penelope and son Telemachus to contend with a group of suitors competing for her hand in marriage.
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Though the poem focuses primarily on Odysseus’s journey home, women and enslaved people play more prominent roles than they do in many other surviving works of ancient literature. The Trojan War itself is also sparked by the abduction of Helen of Troy, a woman.
Speaking with Elle magazine in May, Nyong’o admitted that she “went in quite blind” when meeting Christopher Nolan about The Odyssey.
“I really had no idea what the Odyssey was,” she said. “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.”
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In an interview with DC Film Girl, Nyong’o praised the acclaimed filmmaker for giving female characters more prominent roles than they had in the ancient poem.
“What Chris is interested in in this film is investigating the cost of war. And when you read the Iliad and the Odyssey, very little time is spent in the perspective of the women,” she said.
“It’s told from a very masculine side of things. But this film takes time to really consider things from the female perspective. And so we see in Helen and Clytemnestra how this war has affected them both.”
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Her casting as Helen of Troy has also sparked a culture war, with critics including Elon Musk claiming that it’s wrong to cast a Black actress in the role.
The tech billionaire took to X to accuse the British director of being “an anti-White racist” and of having “grossly insulted the Greek people.”
Nolan won two Oscars in 2024 for his previous film, Oppenheimer, and has also directed acclaimed movies including Dunkirk, Inception, Interstellar, and The Dark Knight.
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Responding to the criticism surrounding her casting, Nyong’o asked people to remember that the Odyssey “is a mythological story.”
“I’m very supportive of Chris’s intention with it and with the version of this story that he is telling. Our cast is representative of the world,” she said.
The Oscar winner added, “I’m not spending my time thinking of a defense. The criticism will exist whether I engage with it or not.”
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The nearly 3,000-year-old tale remains one of the most studied, adapted, and parodied stories ever, with adaptations including the 1911 silent film by Giuseppe de Liguoro, 1954’s Ulysses, and the 2000 Coen brothers comedy O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Nolan’s adaptation of the ancient Greek epic, his 13th feature film, arrives in theaters on July 17.
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