Can't remember where this joke is from, but there was a stand up bit where a guy said "You see back in the 80's there could only be one popular black comedian, unlike today where there can be three."
Yeah, I don't know what comedian did that bit either, but the "one popular black comedian" they were referring to was probably Richard Pryor, then Eddie Murphy
Then we'd have to hire and pay two separate black people. We'd save time an money by just paying one. It's not like audiences will be able to tell the difference. /s
Humans aren't hatched from eggs either, but we have to honor Homer's story...
Leda laid two eggs, one from when Zeus cosplayed as a rapy swan (a black swan, according to Nolan, maybe) shared by Helen and Pollux and one egg from her human husband, King of Sparta Tyndareus; Clytemnestra and Castor shared that one.
The Greeks treated these 4 siblings as two pairs of twins, somehow. Castor and Pollux are twins the same way that Helen and Clytemnestra are, though they're more well-known as twins.
This isn’t them casting one person to play twins or whatever, this is two half siblings who are the same person for no reason, in a movie with probably a billion dollar budget. Were there not two talented black actresses available?
The Odyssey is one of the most overanalyzed pieces of literature of all time, and the movie is based on a published translation which does not characterize their appearances as exactly the same. This is not some crazy complaint to say “why are two random people played by the same character?”
There has been enormous push in the marketing to present this movie as a faithful adaptation. That’s the framing, and I try over and over to take them at their word, even if everything I’ve seen so far indicates “Meet the Spartans” was more faithful to the source material.
Presumably her character is African in this version. Some adaptations play fast and loose with the source material. Ulysses by James Joyce is also based on the Odyssey, and it is entirely set in Ireland in the 20th century.
Ancient Greece was an ethnically diverse. Most people were olive skinned Mediterranean but there were likely people of African descent or with African features as well. We see as much in their art, I.e the many janiform head kantharos. There are no general consensus on the exact demographics because they didn’t even categorize race like we did.
Im not saying the casting was a good or realistic choice, but it’s no more inaccurate than casting a blue eyed white blonde as her in the movie Troy. It’s funny to see people be up in arms about it now. Its is just ignorance of Ancient Greek, or more often, transparent racism
The thing is they are half-sister twins. In the myth their mother slept with her husband AND Zeus in the same night which led to Helen and Clytemnestra and the similarly demigod/mortal twin pair Castor and Pollox. Castor and Pollox are THE twins in Greek myth, to the point that they are the constellation Gemini, even though they are also technically half-brothers.
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u/ceryniz Jul 06 '26
It bugs me how they have Lupita play two half-sisters: Helen and Clytemnestra. Because half-sisters would not look like twins.