Whoopi Goldberg used Tuesday’s episode of The View to push back on the wave of criticism aimed at Elliot Page’s casting in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, telling detractors bluntly that nobody is forcing them to watch the film.
The segment followed a clip of conservative commentator Ben Shapiro branding Page’s role an “absolute puzzler,” in which he took aim at the actor’s appearance and voice.
Goldberg wasn’t having it.
“A lot of conservatives who see this are going to feel the same way. That’s okay,” she said.
“But I don’t understand. Why go see the movie? If you don’t want to see it, don’t go see it. Why do you care who’s cast in it?”
She continued: “I don’t understand this idea that if we hate it, everybody must hate it because we hate it for this reason. You don’t like Elliot Page? Don’t go see the damn movie. Don’t do it. We will be okay if you don’t go see it.”
Page, who is trans, has a supporting role in the film as Sinon, a cousin of Matt Damon’s Odysseus.
The backlash intensified after Elon Musk and other commentators criticised the casting, with Musk having earlier claimed, based on inaccurate rumours, that Page would be playing the warrior Achilles.
Lupita Nyong’o, who plays both Helen of Troy and her sister Clytemnestra in the film, has faced similar racially charged criticism over her dual casting.
Fellow View panelist Alyssa Farah Griffin also pushed back on the criticism during the segment, arguing that the film’s themes of family, faith and the consequences of war should resonate broadly, including with viewers who had criticised it before seeing it.
The controversy has done little to dent the film’s commercial performance.
The Odyssey opened in theatres on 17 July and had already crossed $300 million worldwide within days, making it one of the biggest releases of Nolan’s career and of the year so far.
