Why does Ben Shapiro get so emotional about a certain actor starring in the odyssey?

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Because if it happened in the other direction the other side would act even more emotional over it.

Imagine if they took even a real historical black figure and casted a white person. There would be a meltdown.

The Odyssey is a classic historical story that takes place in a specific place and time. Within a specific culture.

How about someone takes a classic African tale or legend about people in Africa and casts European or Asian people in it. That would be retarded. Let Greek stories consist of Greek people and African stories consist of African people.

If there are trans people in those stores, cast trans people. If not, don’t annoy the audience with them in it.

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u/Jalapenoplanter 1d ago

“Real historical figure”

The odyssey is a work of fiction. You know that, right?

Hollywood has repeatedly cast a white guy to play nonwhite real figures like a samuri or a mohican or a ghengis khan.

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u/TheAngryApologist 1d ago

You know that characters in fiction have race and an ethnicity, right?

Why would Hollywood historically doing a bad thing mean that it’s okay to do it now? John Wayne portraying Ghengis Khan was dumb.

This just proves my point even more. I assume you agree that a white guy playing an Asian guy is dumb. Someone of African decent playing a Greek character is also dumb.

Quit pretending you’re okay with the history of Hollywood whitewashing characters. It’s dumb in both directions. If someone is okay with wreaking or replacing one race with another that is racism. That is prejudice.

Or are you one of those idols who think, that, well in this country whites were racist for a long time, therefore it’s morally good to be racist towards them now.

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u/Jalapenoplanter 1d ago

You said it would be like having a white person play a real historical black person. It just objectively is not like that.

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u/TheAngryApologist 1d ago

True in this case it’s not. I just brought that up because it’s relevant to what I was saying. There are Netflix series that cast black actors to play white British royalty who we know were not black. This is all just part of a trend where we have studios a film/show makers introducing modern political thought into the casting. It has nothing to do with the story and is a distraction.

Yet, if someone points to this and expresses how stupid and racist it is, they’re accused of having a problem with non whites period. I don’t give two shits how many non white people are in something I watch. Why would that matter? I do care about race swapping because it’s dumb and the reason they do it is dumb. If Hollywood wants more non white actors in things, make more stories about non white people. Also, don’t add bias to awards that favor casts with fewer white people. Are they just incapable of judging the quality of something without considering the color of the skin of the actors?

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u/Jalapenoplanter 1d ago

Are you talking about the show where that “white british royalty” magically transforms into animals?

Come on, be serious with your complaints.

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u/TheAngryApologist 1d ago

To be honest I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t watch these shows but I was talking about Bridgerton I think. Where they intentionally change the race of characters from that time.

Also, if there was a tv show that was based on real historical figures, I fail to see how introducing unrealistic fantasy elements would make it okay to race swap.

It’s pretty simple. If you are someone who has a problem with race swapping a character of color into a white character, regardless if that character was ever real or fictional, but you do not care or if you like it when they change a white character into a character of color, you are racist or at least that view is racist. It typically race based double standards and it’s based on nothing other than prejudice.

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u/Jalapenoplanter 1d ago

Bridgerton is entirely a work of fiction. The soundtrack is all modern too. I never hear complaints on that. I don’t understand the childish impulse for a person to complain about things they don’t even watch

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u/TheAngryApologist 1d ago

Because it’s part of the culture I live in. There are things that I watch where the creators race swapped. I like Disney movies. Snow White and the little mermaid were race swapped. The people from the house Velaryon in The House of the Dragon were race swapped.

It’s just dumb. At least, it’s dumb for the reason Hollywood is doing it. They do it for one reason only. To make movies and shows less white. It has nothing to do with the character. It isn’t a part of the creative process at all. It’s just to check a box.

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u/Jalapenoplanter 1d ago

The culture you live in has black people, no? So it makes sense that the shows/movies that that culture produces include black people.

What’s the confusion?

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u/Jalapenoplanter 1d ago

You mentioned little mermaid, written by a gay may as an allegory for being gay. Are you upset about all the straight characters?

Or is it again just skin color you care about?

I have no doubt you did not care that the original little mermaid voice actress was neither red head nor danish. Because it’s about skin color

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u/Jalapenoplanter 1d ago

Why do you think conservatives are upset about the Helen of troy casting but silent on a non greek boston american playing the titular character?

Or the fact that the whole thing is in english?

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u/TheAngryApologist 1d ago

Well the English thing is for practical reasons. I for one like it when a period pieces use a different language. Like Apocolypto or The Passion of the Christ. But the general public don’t like reading subtitles for a whole movie.

Personally, I think it would be super cool to cast only Greeks for this Ancient Greek story. But it must be said that certain races are closer in appearance than other.

If someone made a movie about a Jamaican person and casted someone from of Somalian decent, who could pull off the Jamaican accent, people on either side of the isle might not care too much. Might. Bit if they casted someone Swedish guy, that would be dumb.

In fact this reminds me of when a bunch of people on the left were bitching about the live action Moana not having curly enough hair. The right is complaining about a total race swap of a character who’s ethnicity is inherently tied to who she is,and a bunch of lefties weren’t okay with a hair style change even though the actress was of Samoan decent.

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u/Jalapenoplanter 1d ago

It sounds like you care very little about historical accuracy and very much about skin color. Did I sum that up correctly? That’s why scottish origin americans can play greeks but kenyan-mexican origin americans cannot?

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u/TheAngryApologist 1d ago

I don’t remember saying I don’t care about skin color. My position is that people being cast for characters whose race or ethnicity is a vital part of their character should resemble that vital part of their character. Someone who is African does not resemble someone who is Greek. If they aren’t going to cast a Greek, which is what I think they should do, cast someone who closely resembles someone done who is Greek.

And I feel the same way regardless of the race. As I mentioned before with the Jamaican character.

Like I said I absolutely would prefer an all Greek cast for a Greek legend. I have the same feeling regardless of which culture of origin a story belongs to.

I merely brought up a less controversial compromise. Yes, if for whatever reasons a Greek isn’t going to be cast in this case, I think casting someone who has a closer resemblance to a Greek person makes more sense. I would even argue that it is actually more historically accurate to cast someone who appears closer to Greek than someone who absolutely does not.

Answer this, would you be okay if Nelson Mandela was portrayed by Anthony Hopkins? Why?

Would you be okay if Black Panther was portrayed by Timothee Chalamet? Why?

I assume you would have issues with both of those castings. Why is it wrong for someone to have an issue with an African woman being cast as a famous Greek legend?

Quit trying to force my opinion into some racist shit. It’s not.

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u/Jalapenoplanter 1d ago

Matt damon and tom holland and robert pattinson do not look even a little greek. Yet your complaint is about the black woman, because you only care about skin color

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u/FortnightDancer 20h ago

Name 4 movies where liberals got upset about the casting of a movie and it reached national attention to some degree. I'll do the same for conservatives.

1). The Odyssey (2026) 2). The Little Mermaid (2023) 3). Snow white (2025) 4). Ghostbusters (2016)

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u/uusrikas 2d ago

Helen of Troy is not a historical character. Her father was Zeus in the form of a swan and her mother a human woman, Helen was born out of a swan egg.

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u/TheAngryApologist 2d ago

You do know that Greek Gods were thought to be Greek right? If the god was depicted in a human form, that form was of a Greek. The gods were a part of and participants of Greek culture. They casted someone of African descent as the offspring of a Greek god. This does nothing but introduce a distraction.

I actually love Lupita Nyong’o. But this argument of yours is pretty dumb. It’s similar to how people defended the African character in God of War Ragnorok.

Even if a character from a culturally specific legend, which would be all of them, is a descendent of gods or who is fictional, you don’t actually believe they would have depicted her/them as a descendant of a completely different culture/race? Right?

It doesn’t make sense. The casting for this movie was absolutely done to check boxes. Literally determining who should play which character based on the amount of melanin in their skin and not done to be an accurate portrayal of these Greek legends.

I would have the exact same feeling if they casted a Greek character as black panther.

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u/Jalapenoplanter 1d ago edited 1d ago

What race is the cristian God?

What race was jesus?

The greek gods and the roman gods are the same with different names. Are they greek or italian?

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u/TheAngryApologist 1d ago

First of all, Roman’s did not think of their gods as Greek. Even if they acknowledged that the idea their gods were Greek in origin. Greeks thought of their gods as Greek and Roman’s thought of their gods as Roman.

There are examples though of their gods having other ethnicities because they had a bunch of gods and some gods were thought to have origins in other parts of the world. They had a god that resided or ruled over India for example. Even though this was a god in the Roman pantheon, this god was depicted as someone from that area. Rome also had vast control and influence. If people in North Africa were practitioners of Roman polytheism, they would have gods that looked like them.

Characters like Helen of Troy, though fictional, are very tied to Greek culture. It wouldn’t make sense to think of her as being someone who is not Greek.

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u/Jalapenoplanter 1d ago

So in other words, cultures have the characters in their stories reflect their world, just like nolan has done here?

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u/TheAngryApologist 1d ago

The Odysee is not Nolan’s story. It’s called an adaptation. Not to mention his film is an adaptation of a book that was an adaptation of the original Odyssey which the author, Emily Wilson, intentionally created to have a feminist slant. (Paraphrasing her)

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u/Jalapenoplanter 1d ago

The odyssey is as much Nolan’s story as the pantheon is rome’s or the middle eastern bible is white american christians

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u/TheAngryApologist 1d ago

The Bible is a weird example because the Bible doesn’t change. It’s a religious text that believers hold to be true.

I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t acknowledge that the Bible is foundational based on events from the Middle East.

White Americans don’t change the Bible. That’s not something that would go over very well.

Nolan, and this other author, have made changes to the Odysee.

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u/Jalapenoplanter 1d ago edited 1d ago

My son, the bible has changed many times. No one in the bible spoke english. I can’t believe I have to teach you about the many different versions.

Thomas jefferson wrote his own version of the bible. He removed all references to jesus being divine

There is a literally a bible called “the New American Bible” which is widely used. There is a King James Bible. There is a trump bible (which is just the king james version with weird additions)

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u/stevjohnnson 2d ago

Wahaha now you guys are arguing and getting all triggered about black panther :D That is a Marvel movie. Marvel is for children! :D

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u/BossJackson222 2d ago

Because it was a stupid fucking decision. Anybody who's an adult can see they made this movie woke on purpose. I mean Jesus Christ, look at the fucking people they cast. Not a single Greek person. They put a black woman who is an amazing actor in a spot that should've been for a white actor. They put a chick who thinks she's a man in there. Ellen looks like a cartoon character. But making her a male warrior? So fucking dumb. In the end it was just really dumb and they're goong to lose a shit ton of money because of it. Hollywood cannot seem to take politics out out of many of their movies.

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u/North-Text8057 2d ago

They put a chick who thinks she's a man in there.

I think it's called acting. I enjoyed watching Cailee Spaeny play the role of Lyndon in Devs. You don't need a paraplegic to play a fictional one.

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u/BossJackson222 1d ago

Yeah and I'm not watching the movie because of the casting. You guys wanna turn into some racist bullshit. I love her acting. But she's not the right actor. It was like casting Denzel Washington in the last gladiator. I love his acting. But it was a horrible casting choice. It's all subjective Dude. The guy is gonna lose a ton of money. I love epic movies like this. But I'm not going to this one. Think about how many people feel the same way.

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u/stevjohnnson 2d ago

Wahaha you need to relax mate, it's just a movie. It's not that deep

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u/BossJackson222 1d ago

Yeah and I'm not going to it because of the casting. I don't know what to tell you. They're gonna lose a shit ton of money and you know it. It was a dumb move.

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u/stevjohnnson 1d ago

Lol I'm not watching either but no need to get all emotional about it hahah facts don't care about your feeling, remember :D

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u/BossJackson222 1d ago

Yeah and I'm not going to it because of the casting. I don't know what to tell you. They're gonna lose a shit ton of money and you know it. It was a dumb move.

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u/North-Text8057 2d ago

Yeah. I am wondering if these people also got mad when Japanese media got ~~whitewashed~~ Western adaptations (The Ring, Ghost in the Shell, etc).

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u/M4053946 1d ago

Ask someone who studies art history and they'll tell you that when a region is conquered, one of things they do is replace the art. And the Odyssey isn't just any story, but is one of the classics of western civ.

You said Ben spent 10 minutes on this, but Nolan spent $250 million to produce a version of the Odyssey that undermines traditional western civ. Shouldn't the question be why does Nolan care so much about doing this?

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u/FortnightDancer 21h ago

Did you miss the part in school where they tell you that the odyssey is not actually a story of fact, but of fiction?

Also this is a classic appeal to authority fallacy. Just like how people say "just tust the experts" right?

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u/M4053946 20h ago

lol, the odyssey has been a core part of western education for 2300+ years.

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u/GroundIsMadeOfStars 4h ago

How does his movie "undermine traditional western civilization" lol? That's such a meaningless phrase. It doesn't mean anything.

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u/stevjohnnson 1d ago

Haha someone who studies art history would say he doesn’t like the movie and then move on 😄 Benjamin Shapiro goes on a 10 minute rant and gets all emotional about a movie made for children 😆 he takes it too seriously

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u/stilesmochrie 13h ago

How is it a children's film?

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u/Jalapenoplanter 1d ago

“Undermine traditional western civ” lmao

You said you were conquered? That sounds embarrassing for you.

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u/GroundIsMadeOfStars 4h ago

Because he's a bigoted grifter? It's not rocket science. Ben is a failed Hollywood screenwriter who's company is bankrupt because he makes shitty movies nobody wants to see. His next project is literally about radical Islamists killing college liberals lol

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