23d • Theater | Media
Helen of Troy
Race-bending is the practice of changing a fictional character's race or ethnicity from how that character was originally depicted when adapting or reimagining a work. It has become increasingly common in film, television, theater, and comics. Sometimes it broadens representation, but most times in this country it sparks debate. In my opinion, representation, by itself, is not enough. It also matters how that representation is treated.
I went to see Christopher Nolan's adaptation of The Odyssey, where Lupita Nyong'o was cast as Helen of Troy, the woman whose legendary beauty inspired the phrase, "the face that launched a thousand ships." Whether one believes Lupita embodies that description is ultimately a matter of opinion. What troubled me was something else entirely.
The film chose to brutally disfigure Helen's face.
To my knowledge, there is no version of Homer's Odyssey in which Helen is scarred or physically disfigured. Quite the opposite. Years after the Trojan War, Homer still presents her as regal, graceful, and extraordinarily beautiful. When Telemachus visits Sparta in Book 4, Helen remains the woman whose beauty altered the course of history. Time has passed, kingdoms have fallen, lives have been lost, yet her appearance is still inseparable from her legend.
So why change that?
Why cast one of the world's most celebrated Black actresses to portray perhaps the most famous beauty in Greek literature, only to erase the very attribute for which the character is universally known?
I really need for this decision to have an explanation. Like, immediately.
What bothered me even more was that the film also had Lupita portray Clytemnestra, Helen's sister, the woman who murders her husband, Agamemnon. In Greek mythology, Clytemnestra does indeed kill Agamemnon, so that element is faithful to the source. Below is how she looked in the film as both sisters. one is transformed into a scarred version of beauty while the other becomes the embodiment of vengeance and violence. Whether intentional or not, the combined imagery creates an uncomfortable pattern.
Too often, when Black actors are cast in race-bent roles, they are asked to inhabit characters who are physically altered, made monstrous, burdened with deformity, or stripped of the qualities that originally defined those characters. Cynthia Erivo did magnificent work as Elphaba in Wicked, but again the image presented to audiences was that of a green-skinned outsider. Now Lupita Nyong'o, cast as history's most celebrated beauty, appears with a disfigured face. Each example may have its own artistic justification. But viewed together, they invite an uncomfortable question: Why do Black performers so often inherit these iconic roles only after those roles have been fundamentally transformed?
Representation should not mean accepting diminished portrayals simply because they offer visibility. What makes this especially frustrating is that Lupita Nyong'o herself endured racist and colorist attacks online simply for being cast as Helen. I suffered through these posts everywhere about this Queen, and was defending her, each time I would see any of them. Rather than allowing the film to answer the critics by presenting her as the breathtaking Helen Homer described, the production instead concealed that beauty behind severe scarring. It unintentionally (or intentionally) surrendered the very point the casting could have made.
This is not an argument against race-bending. If artists believe a Black actress can convincingly portray Helen of Troy, cast her. Let her be Helen of Troy in all of her legendary beauty. Don't cast her only to fundamentally alter the character in ways that no classical source ever imagined. And to all the racist, a white blond and blue-eyed woman was just as much race bending as with Lupita being casted. The ancient Greeks looked much like modern day Turkish people, not Nordic or Saxon Queens.
Christopher Nolan has crafted an ambitious, visually stunning film with remarkable performances and an admirable commitment to practical filmmaking. I genuinely enjoyed much of it. Yet this creative decision stayed with me long after the credits rolled. When Black actors are entrusted with iconic roles, they deserve to inherit those roles, not diluted versions of them, not diminished versions of them, and certainly not versions that unintentionally echo old stereotypes. Representation should expand possibility, not redefine excellence downward.
If we are going to reimagine history, mythology, and literature, then let us also reimagine who gets to embody beauty, nobility, and heroism without qualification. Black women deserve that much.
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Helen of Troy
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