Lupita Nyong’o, who plays Helen in the newly released film "The Odyssey," has praised the director Christopher Nolan for what she calls “his vision.” The casting of the Kenyan-Mexican Nyong’o has come in for criticism in some quarters for her non-Greek appearance. Why this has happened to her and did not to the German Diane Kruger, who is also not Greek in appearance, when she played Helen in the 2004 film "Troy" is obvious and needs no further comment. That being said, I do think there is something wrong with the portrayal of Helen in the new version of the "Odyssey." It is, though, in line with the portrayal all of the other characters including the hero Odysseus himself played by Matt Damon. This is not a problem of the actors or of their casting per se, but of the aforesaid “vision” of Nolan.
Although it is somewhat baffling that a film based on a key text of Greek mythology contains no Greek actors in its main cast, this is not what causes the film to be such a problem. Its problem is its lack of a Greek, or in wider terms Mediterranean, spirit. For this spirit Greek actors may have been an asset but they are not a requirement. For back in 1964 the film "Zorba" the Greek was released based on what may well be the most popular book in modern Greek literature and its two leads, though Greek in the source material, were played by the Mexican Antony Quinn and the English Alan Bates, Quinn being the eponymous Zorba and the mainstay of the film.
