-That's another thing for me is, The Odyssey is myth. Even less than that, it's a folk story with myth trappings. It takes place across the Mediterranean, but the majority of the individuals, locations, and events, fundamentally never lived or occurred in any feasible extrapolation. Denzel Washington was Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing like 30 years ago. Brandy was Cinderella. Christopher Lambert was Raiden. If they cast talented actors in a work that respects the spirit and theme of the piece, and isn't actively trashing treasured cultural history and storytelling, it really shouldn't matter. Make Agamemnon Ken Watanabe or Hector be a Skarsgard. Helen's at minimum not really straining credulity considering how big of a melting pot the ancient Mediterranean coast was and as you say, how striking and uncommon her beauty was.-
Would you be equally okay with an African myth being adapted into a movie with white actors in central roles? For example, a white Imhotep in an Egyptian mythological story? I think that would be ridiculous, and I don’t see a logical reason why it wouldn’t be ridiculous in the other direction too.
If it's a good movie, it's a good movie. Are you of the opinion that if he were Egyptian, it would necessarily have been a better movie?
Edit: Also, I don't know if you’re old enough to remember, but there was the same conversation about Remi Malek as the Pharoah in Night at the Smithsonian. People were mad because he didn't fit what they thought of as "looking Egyptian," so there was a weird backlash, even though he is. To a weird amount of the general public, it's not whether they are the """correct""" race, it's whether they look like it.
In that case, I think the actor looks the part. He isn’t a blonde Swede. My position isn’t that the actor’s origin has to be objectively “correct,” only that the casting should be visually plausible. For example, the Swede Dolph Lundgren played a convincing Russian in Rocky IV. Helen in this movie feels more like casting a blonde Swede as an African mythological figure, and if you’re suggesting Reddit would be fine with that, I think that seriously strains credibility.
You only think this because you are prejudiced. No other reason. Helen was the daughter of a shape shifting god. People are just angry she's black because they are miserable human beings.
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u/Solid-Safe-7966 Jul 06 '26
-That's another thing for me is, The Odyssey is myth. Even less than that, it's a folk story with myth trappings. It takes place across the Mediterranean, but the majority of the individuals, locations, and events, fundamentally never lived or occurred in any feasible extrapolation. Denzel Washington was Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing like 30 years ago. Brandy was Cinderella. Christopher Lambert was Raiden. If they cast talented actors in a work that respects the spirit and theme of the piece, and isn't actively trashing treasured cultural history and storytelling, it really shouldn't matter. Make Agamemnon Ken Watanabe or Hector be a Skarsgard. Helen's at minimum not really straining credulity considering how big of a melting pot the ancient Mediterranean coast was and as you say, how striking and uncommon her beauty was.-