Once again Hollywood decided to cast a Black woman in a movie and once again conservatives are having a temper tantrum about it—especially Elon Musk.
The far-right weirdo had a full crashout on X about Lupita Nyong'o's casting as Helen of Troy in Christopher Nolan's forthcoming The Odyssey adaptation, leading many to rake him over the coals.
Add actor Alec Baldwin to the list of people who've had it. Baldwin, who's never been known to shy away from being outspoken, had a perfect response to Musk's and others' bellyaching.
Musk, along with Christofascists like Matt Walsh and their devotees, complained that not only was Helen of Troy white but Nyong'o simply isn't hot enough to play the most beautiful woman in the world.
Suffice to say Baldwin doesn't agree, along with pretty much every other normal person with eyes whose definition of beautiful doesn't reflexively include "white."
On Instagram, Baldwin posted a photo of the empirically gorgeous Nyong'o with the caption:
"Dear Elon… but she IS the most beautiful woman in the world…Alec."
Helen of Troy, of course is the woman from Greek mythology whose face "sailed a thousand ships," and Nolan's casting of Nyong'o as both Helen and her sister Clytemnestra has conservatives furious.
Helen of Troy is, of course, entirely made up, and while Homer gives some description of her in his writing, there's not much to go on.
But Musk, Walsh, and others have insisted that Nyong'o's casting is yet another example of "woke" Hollywood rewriting history to score "DEI" points by casting a Black woman in a depiction of a white society. And they simply. Won't. Shut up about it.
Which is nonsense: Ancient Greece had so many Black people they are frequently found depicted not only in stories but on ancient Greek pottery and other art forms.
Anyway, Musk is still tweeting about this uproar days later, and he's now focusing his energy on arguing with Alec Baldwin himself.
In response to a New York Post article about Baldwin's tweet, Musk replied:
"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!"
The problem being, aside from literally everything, that Shaka Zulu was an actual historical figure and Helen of Troy is MADE. UP.
People on social media were definitely here for Baldwin's response and absolutely not having Musk's nonsense.
@bella_forever68/Instagram
@neurodexter/Instagram
@gaebbi1906/Instagram
@bennettecortez/Instagram
@ricosanchez1/Instagram
@suemullen4/Instagram
Anyway, there's no such thing as bad publicity, and slack-jawed MAGA weirdos are not the target audience for Greek mythology prestige films so Nyong'o and Nolan are probably gonna be just fine. Keep tweeting anyway though, Elon!
@BoLoudon/X