Jimmy Kimmel has taken aim at Elon Musk over his attack on Christopher Nolan’s casting of Lupita Nyong’o in The Odysseythat tells the tech billionaire to “stay the course” during a pointed segment on his late-night show.
The series centers on Nolan’s decision to cast Nyong’o, 43, as Helen of Troy, the figure from Greek mythology whose legendary beauty sparked Trojan War.
The Oscar-winning actress who took home the Academy Award for 12 years as a slave in 2013, will play both Helen and her sister Clytemnestra.
The backlash began when conservative commentator Matt Walsh wrote a post on X claiming that no one “on the planet” considers Nyong’o the world’s most beautiful woman, and accused Nolan of making the casting choice out of fear of being labeled a racist.
Musk responded with a single word: “True.”
He then went on to separately suggest that Nolan’s motivation for the casting was award eligibility, writing in response to another user: “He wants the awards.”
Musk was referring to the Oscars’ diversity guidelines, introduced in 2023, which require Best Picture nominees to meet certain representation criteria across cast and crew.
Kimmel addressed the controversy on his show by showing Musk’s tweets, including one in which Musk tagged Nolan Odyssey a “blasphemy” and demanded to know who was responsible for the academy’s diversity requirements before flashing an image of the Tesla Cybertruck on the screen.
“Who exactly thought this was a cool design for a truck?” Kimmel fired back.
Musk’s comment didn’t stop at Nyong’o.
When false rumors circulated that trans actor Elliot Page would play Achilles, Musk called it “one of the stupidest and most twisted things I’ve ever heard.”
It is later revealed that Page is actually playing Elpenor, a minor character who dies by falling off a roof while drunk and is later encountered in the underworld.
After the correction, Musk reposted a tweet denying the existence of Page’s masculinity.
Actor Alec Baldwin weighed in on the debate on Instagram, posting a photo of Nyong’o with the message: “Dear Elon… but she IS the most beautiful woman in the world.”
Nolan’s The Odysseyhis first film since the Best Picture winner Oppenheimerboasts one of the most star-studded casts in recent times.
Matt Damon plays Odysseus, Anne Hathaway his wife Penelope, Tom Holland their son Telemachus and Zendaya the goddess Athena.
Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Mia Goth and rapper Travis Scott are also among the cast. The film opens in US theaters on July 17.
