Can a Black Woman Portray Helen of Troy? (opens in new tab)

Last Friday on the livestream, John and I addressed the mini-controversy surrounding Lupita Nyong’o’s casting as Helen of Troy in Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey. Some online critics—Elon Musk being the most prominent—have taken issue with Nolan’s decision to cast a dark-skinned woman as the legendarily beautiful Spartan. In this clip, John and I talk about race-conscious casting and ask when or whether we’ll reach the point where race is simply not considered a relevant factor ...