Elon Musk has spent the better part of a week attacking Lupita Nyong'o on X after her casting as Helen of Troy in Christopher Nolan's film adaptation of The Odyssey became official. The Oscar-winning actor's selection for the role triggered a predictable wave of outrage from certain corners of the internet, but Musk's response has been unusually persistent and personal.
The Tesla CEO's complaints began in January when Nyong'o's involvement was rumored. A May 12 Time magazine interview with Nolan confirming the casting choice seemed to unleash something in Musk. Since then, he has amplified angry voices and posted repeatedly against the decision, cycling through a familiar set of objections: the casting is historically inaccurate, Nyong'o is not sufficiently beautiful, and the entire affair represents a left-wing conspiracy to undermine western civilization.
On X, Musk replied "true" to conservative commentator Matt Walsh, who called Nolan a "coward" for not selecting "the most beautiful woman" for the role. Walsh further claimed that "not one person on the planet actually thinks that Lupita Nyong'o is 'the most beautiful woman in the world.""
He also endorsed a post from an anonymous account with 323,000 followers declaring that "the destruction of the Odyssey by Nolan and the Left" was fundamentally about dismantling western civilization itself, suggesting that the film choice represented an attack on the foundation of Greek democracy, art, philosophy, and culture.
The irony of this manufactured crisis seems lost on Musk. As late-night host Jimmy Kimmel pointed out, the premise itself is absurd. Helen of Troy, according to Greek mythology, was half bird and the daughter of Zeus, who shapeshifted into a swan to seduce a human woman. The resulting egg hatched Helen. The character exists in ancient literature as a fictional figure invented by a long-dead poet. The casting choice of an actor to portray an imaginary person carries no historical implications whatsoever.
Yet Musk's obsession with this particular film decision is symptomatic of a broader fixation. A Guardian analysis found that throughout January, Musk posted content about the white race being under threat, referenced race science, or promoted anti-immigrant conspiracy content on 26 out of 31 days. Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, reviewed his statements and told the publication that if she saw such posts without knowing the author, she would assume they came from a white supremacist.
The wealth and resources at Musk's disposal make the fixation all the more striking. Between managing Tesla, facing lawsuits, undertaking state visits to China, running multiple companies, and fathering numerous children, his schedule should leave little room for this kind of online activism. Yet increasingly, it appears to be consuming his attention.
Over the years, Musk has attempted various reinventions. A new hairline and wardrobe revamp failed to bring contentment. His 2021 appearance on Saturday Night Live, where he made Wario jokes in hopes of winning affection, apparently did not satisfy his deeper emotional needs. In 2022, he purchased Twitter for $44 billion and reportedly assembled 80 engineers specifically to modify the algorithm so more people would see his own tweets.
Even that acquisition did not suffice. In the 2024 election cycle, Musk spent more than $290 million to support Trump and other Republican candidates. The investment has paid extraordinary dividends: his net worth surged from approximately $270 billion in October 2024 to roughly $800 billion within the following months, putting him on a trajectory toward becoming the world's first trillionaire.
Yet here he remains, posting attacks against a Black actress for daring to accept a role in a film about a mythological character, while simultaneously engaging in what the Washington Post recently documented as his primary online relationship. According to a new analysis, Musk interacts with an anonymous account called "XFreeze" more than any other user on the platform. The account, which appears to have ties to India though its operator remains unknown, specializes in lavish praise directed at Musk himself. "Musk loves to be glazed, and this person is the doughnut factory," Boston University assistant professor of journalism Joan Donovan told the Post.
The picture is one of profound emptiness dressed up in extraordinary wealth and influence. Musk has assembled the resources to command global attention, yet he directs that power toward attacking the casting choices of film directors and cultivating relationships with anonymous admirers who exist only to flatter him. No amount of money, it appears, will fill the space where contentment should be.
Author James Rodriguez: "This reads like the biography of someone so rich he forgot what actual problems look like."
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