News anchor slams Elliot Page The Odyssey casting saying Achilles is ‘historical figure’
Elliot Page (Getty Images)
A right-wing news anchor has been getting his tunic in a twist over Elliot Page’s casting in the upcoming film The Odyssey for a bizarre reason.
Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey features a star-studded cast, including Matt Damon as Odysseus, Tom Holland as Odysseus’ son Telemachus and Anne Hathaway as his wife Penelope. Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya and Charlize Theron are all also starring.
Among the extended cast is trans icon Elliot Page. Although the character he is playing has not yet been confirmed, rumours are circulating that he’s taking on the role of famed warrior Achilles.
Many right-wing cinema-goers have made their less than positive feelings known on Page’s casting, including Newsmax anchor Rob Finnerty.
Finnerty shared his thoughts on his news segment that aired this week. “The most famous warrior in all of history, not just Greek history, Achilles, is about to be played by a transgender woman in a brand new movie,” he said.
Obviously, his first mistake is that Page is a trans man. His second is not realising that Achilles is famously a character from Greek mythology – not a historical figure – and did not actually exist.
Achilles is known for the role he played in Homer’s The Iliad, but he also appeared in The Odyssey as a spirit that communicates with Odysseus when he travels to the underworld which, again, isn’t a physical place.
“Achilles, who is described throughout history as being a superhuman warrior, deadly on the battlefield, he even defeated Hector of Troy,” Finnerty continued. Hector of Troy was also not a historical figure.
“You might even remember Brad Pitt played Achilles in a movie 20 years ago, meaning we go from Brad Pitt to a girl who dresses as a guy who’s five-foot-one, 118 pounds,” he continued. “That’s the person who’s going to be playing the greatest warrior in history because to the left that is normal. That’s okay.”
Finnerty then went on to criticise Lupita Nyong’o’s casting as Helen of Troy, another mythological character, saying that she was “definitely white”.
“I’ve got nothing against Lupita. But I do have a problem with the complete re-writing of history. Helen of Troy was not Black. That’s not me being mean, that’s me telling the truth. The real, actual truth, which we tend to do a lot of here.”
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