Elon Musk is not a racist, and he has publicly confirmed it with evidence. So, when he protested the casting of a non-white actress to play Helen of Troy and offers Mel Gibson 100MM to remake The Odyssey to reflect whiteness in the story because it was a story about the Greeks, it has nothing to do with racism. He is just being righteous and indignant and wants to take a firm stand against Hollywood’s pervert tendency of stretching the facts when it comes to adapting historical stories.
Set aside for now that Helen was a mythological character, probably fictionalized by Homer and other writers, with no genetic trait linked to any race. Homer did not give any description in his novels of her physical features leaving other authors after him the liberty of describing her whatever way they wanted. An English writer even rhapsodized her with Was this the face that launched a thousand ships. Some authors pictured her hair as blonde; others described it as black. History noted that the Greeks had mingled extensively with the North Africans especially the Egyptians, so casting a black actress to play Helen is as reasonable as casting Elizabeth Taylor to play Cleopatra (regardless of her lineage, she was born in Egypt and had lived there all her life, her skin under the scorching sun could not have been as white as Ms. Taylor’s. Given that two powerful guys of the time, Caesar and Antony, madly fell for her, it is reasonable to deduce that Cleopatra was exotic and non-white). Therefore, if Helen were a real Greek, her skin could probably have been exotically honey or dark.
My real concern for Mr. Musk is that his crusade may cost him a whole lot more than a few hundred million dollars.
To correct Hollywood’s past sins, he must pay Mr. Gibson another 100MM to remake his own movie Passion of Christ to cast a middle Eastern actor to play Christ. Jim Caviezel, an American, was offensively miscast. Then, many more 100MM to replace Robert Powell in Jesus of Nazareth Remake, Willem Dafoe in The Last Temptation of Christ Remake, Diogo Morgado in Son of God Remake, Ted Neeley in Jesus Christ Superstar Remake, Oscar Isaac in The Nativity Story, and Tobias Menzies in The Nativity.
Don’t forget Moses, the famous biblical Jew, played by the whitest of white actors Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments. Another role of his must also be recast with a darker skinned actor to play Ben Hur.
There are many other miscast movies that must be corrected. Exodus: Gods and Kings and Moses the Lawgiver must also be remade to replace Christian Bale and Burt Lancaster. These are epic movies; a remake would require twice or three time the amount Mr. Musk offers Mr. Gibson. Then Russell Crowe must be replaced in Noah Remake, and Jon Voight in Noah’s Ark. Then, Richard Gere in King David, Finlay Currie in David and Bathsheba, Langley Kirkwood in The Bible, Victor Mature in Samson and Delilah, Taylor James in Samson, Yul Brynner in Solomon and Sheba, and Ben Cross in Solomon.
Of course, Mr. Musk must not forget the movies about one of the most revere biblical characters on earth, Mary, Mother of Jesus. So, Maia Morgenstern in The Passion of the Christ and Keisha Castle-Hughes in The Nativity Story must be replaced.
Hollywood has also made movies about the East with slanted eyed historical figures but cast real blue-eyed cousins of Helen to play them. More money is needed to finance the remaking to replace them with actors more representative of the characters and throw out John Wayne from the “The Conqueror”, and Omar Sharif, James Mason, and Telly Savalas from “Genghis Khan”. Then, Mr. Musk must look into Attila the Hun movies to clean up the casting to take Gerard Butler, Anthony Quinn, Jack Palance out.
There are hundreds or more such movies or shows committing the worse sin of casting blond-haired and blue-eyed actors to play real, not fictitious, historical characters with darker skin, true black hair, and slanted eyes.
His crusade is truly noble. Conservatively estimated, however, he is looking at an expense of at least ten billion dollars upfront.
JOHN P. LE PHONG
(This article appears on X, thelephongjournal.com, and Facebook)
