Whoopi Goldberg Shuts Down Criticisms About Elliot Page’s Role in ‘The Odyssey’
“If you don’t want to see it, then don’t see it,” she said.
Whoopi Goldberg is speaking out in defense of Elliot Page following backlash against his casting in The Odyssey.
Conservative provocateurs have been throwing temper tantrums about The Odyssey for what feels like years now. Their anger appears to stem from the casting choices made by director Christopher Nolan—namely, the fact that the cast includes a Black woman (Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o) and a trans man (Page, an Academy Award nominee). Their tiresome complaints are that these are “DEI hires” and “historically inaccurate.” (Nevermind that The Odyssey is a mythological tale involving things like gods and Cyclopes, of course.)
In a clip shown on Tuesday’s episode of The View, rightwing podcaster Ben Shapiro actually defended both the film and Nyongo’s casting, but called Page’s involvement “stupid.”
“Listen, a lot of conservatives who see this are going to feel the same way and that’s okay,” Goldberg said in response. “But I don’t understand. If you feel like that, why go see the movie? If you don’t want to see it, then don’t see it. Why do you care who’s cast in it?”
She continued: “I don’t understand this idea that ‘if we hate it, then everybody must hate it, because we hate it for this reason.’ You don’t like Elliot Page, then don’t go see the damn movie. Don’t do it. We will be okay if you don’t go see it.”
The predictable cries of “DEI” and “woke” have been spewed at The Odyssey from the usual rabble-rousers since even before the film came out. As Goldberg’s co-host and former Trump administration staffer Alyssa Farah Griffin pointed out, the message and themes of The Odyssey are actually about things conservatives claim to care about, such as family and faith. Which leaves only the casting demographics to take the brunt of those accusations.
“I don’t understand it. I don’t get why you have to poop on everything you don’t get,” Goldberg added. “We don’t care what you think about the movies. They’re not real.”
Ultimately, no amount of rightwing screeching is able to stop The Odyssey‘s success. Nolan’s film raked in a staggering $263.7 million on its opening weekend, with no signs of slowing down. In other words, as is so often the case, the perpetually furious online trolls may be loud, but they’re also completely detached from the real world.
