“Jimmy Kimmel Live” guest host Colman Domingo on Monday mocked the right-wingers who are outraged over some of the casting choices in Christopher Nolan’s newest film, “The Odyssey.”
Domingo rolled a clip of podcaster Chris Cella complaining about Lupita Nyong’o, who plays Helen of Troy in the film.
“Casting a Black woman as Helen of Troy is like casting a Black man to play Abraham Lincoln or a white dude to play MLK,” he said during an interview on the far-right One America News channel.
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Domingo was ready with a fact-check.
“Well, not exactly. Because MLK was real, and Helen of Troy is as real as Harry Potter,” the actor said. “But I’ll be honest, I agree with that strange little dude. Helen of Troy shouldn’t have been played by a Black woman. She should have been played by a Black man ― specifically me!”
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The audience cheered the line from the prolific actor, who has appeared in more than a dozen films in the past three years alone, including “Michael,” “Disclosure Day,” and “The Running Man.”
Domingo offered an alternative to conservatives outraged by the film’s cast.
“I have a message for everyone who was upset about diversity and ‘The Odyssey’: If you want to see a film with a cast of all white people who are cursed by the gods, the Melania movie is currently streaming,” he said, referring to the much-maligned documentary about first lady Melania Trump.
See more in his Monday night monologue: