That’s Ellen, now Eliot, Page above, the talented actress who decided to be surgically altered into male form, not that there’s anything wrong with that. But the 5’1″ delicate and frail trans performer was cast in director Christopher Nolan’s big budget version of Homer’s “Odyssey” as Achilles, one of the greatest of Greek mythology heroes, a badass so feared that his absence from the battlefield prolonged the Trojan War.
I have no idea why such a deliberately political and silly casting choice would be made (or allowed) but I don’t care. I only watched the movie where Bill Murray was cast as FDR because I wanted to see if he could pull it off (no, not even close), but casting Page as Achilles insults the audience’s intelligence. Now, there was a Greek hero in the Illiad whom Page might have played: Ajax the Lesser, a diminutive warrior with a Napoleon complex. But if Achilles is barely over five feet, then Ajax the Lesser would have to be a midget.
No, I’m not so much bothered by Lupita Nyong’o playing Helen of Troy. It is also stunt casting but she is exotic and gorgeous, and one could imagine the African’s unique beauty launching a thousand ships.
I love the Illiad and the Odessey, and I’m open to new interpretations as long as they don’t defile the stories or make them ridiculous. I draw the line, however, at this.
I sure would have liked to have Curmie’s take here, but he’s off in a No Kings rally somewhere…
Ethics Alarms 
Hector is my favorite. He had a great verb named after him. Achilles just got a tendon and a weakness metaphor.
My favorite scene of the Iliad is the opening scene where the Greek generals are dividing up the spoils of war to date. It’s just like a senior partners’ meeting at a law firm where the partners are fighting over who gets the offices with the best views and exposure, the best secretaries, and the best-looking paralegals and associates.
It’s one of those moments when you have to remember the Serenity Prayer
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.”
— Reinhold Niebuhr
I can’t influence movies, I enjoy watching movies. I have to watch what is made available or go without. I’ve watched a lot worse trash by chasing the nominees of Academy Awards. This is small potatoes comparatively.
I seriously doubt Jack is a Reinhold Niebuhr fan, Tim.
I like the Serenity Prayer. And Grace, an alcoholic, went to Elmhurst, a college founded by the Niebuhrs.
Ellen Page was just as cute as a button.
“Ellen Page was just as cute as a button.”
You see My Days Of Mercy?
PWS
I think there’s reasons this happened, Page has worked with Nolan before in Inception probably being high on the list, and I don’t think they’d have done this if Achilles wasn’t more than a cameo role in the Odyssey. It feels like Hollywood has realized that woke casting is deeply unpopular, but still wants to flex on the margins, and they’re willing to performatively virtue signal, but not actually risk a production on it.