Whoopi Goldberg used her platform on The View to dismiss mounting criticism of Elliot Page's casting in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, telling objectors to simply stay home, even as the film's trailer drew an overwhelmingly negative public response.
Goldberg addressed the controversy during Tuesday's episode, responding directly to a clip of Ben Shapiro that producers played on-air. Shapiro had complained that casting Page, a trans actor, as the Greek soldier Sinon was, in his characterization, a poor creative decision. Goldberg was unmoved.
The segment came as The Odyssey crossed the $300 million mark at the box office following what Deadline reported was a record opening weekend. That commercial success gave Goldberg and her fellow panelists a talking point: if the movie is making money, the critics must not matter.
Goldberg framed the dispute as a matter of personal choice, not artistic merit. She told viewers:
"I don't understand this idea that if we hate it, everybody must hate it because we hate it for this reason. You don't like Elliot Page? Don't go see the d*** movie. Don't do it. We will be okay if you don't go see it."
She added that she expected some conservatives to enjoy the film regardless of the casting decisions.
"Listen, a lot of conservatives who see this are going to feel the same way. That's okay. But I don't understand. Why go see the movie? If you don't want to see it, then don't go see it. Why do you care who's cast in it?"
That argument, "just don't watch it", has become a familiar reflex from Hollywood whenever audiences push back on creative choices. It sidesteps the actual complaint. Critics aren't objecting because someone forced them into a theater. They're objecting because a film adaptation of one of Western civilization's foundational texts made casting decisions that appear driven more by identity politics than by fidelity.
Alyssa Farrah Griffin, who serves as the panel's center-right voice, went further than Goldberg. She called The Odyssey "a masterpiece" and argued the film actually carries a conservative message.
"It's about devotion to family, it's about faith, it's about upholding institutions. It's about how war is dangerous and has repercussions for all of us. And the fact that conservatives can't take the win and just be like, 'oh no, this is a really excellent film with a good message for families,' I'll never understand."
Joy Behar offered a shorter take: critics are "stuck on 'woke.'" Griffin responded by insisting "there's nothing woke in this film."
That exchange reveals a disconnect. Griffin wants conservatives to ignore the casting and focus on the themes. But for many viewers, the casting is the issue, not because they reject the themes of Homer's epic, but because they see the decisions as a deliberate political statement layered onto a story that didn't need one.
Sarah Haines piled on, comparing casting critics to non-voters who complain about election results.
"There's a unique ignorance to someone who comments on something they've never seen. You're taught from a young age, do your research, learn, and then you can join the conversation. But it's like not voting and then complaining about what you get. You cannot not see the film and complain about how awful it is, when you haven't seen the film. Because this film, and I echo Alyssa, is a masterpiece."
Haines assumes the objection is about film quality. It isn't. Audiences can evaluate a casting decision from a trailer without buying a ticket first.
The panelists leaned heavily on the $300 million gross as proof the backlash is irrelevant. Director Christopher Nolan took a similar line before the film's release, dismissing the controversy as "irrelevant" and saying it "comes with the territory" of adapting a major literary property. Nolan attended the film's premiere on July 11 in Mumbai, India.
But the audience response to the marketing campaign told a sharper story. Fox News reported that the final trailer drew an estimated 542,000 dislikes against just 64,000 likes, a nearly 90 percent negative ratio. Box office receipts measure curiosity and brand loyalty to Nolan. They do not measure approval of every creative choice.
The casting decisions that drew the most heat went beyond Page. Lupita Nyong'o, the Oscar-winning actress, was cast in the dual role of Helen of Troy, the mythological figure described as "the face that launched a thousand ships", and her sister Clytemnestra. Elon Musk and commentator Matt Walsh both publicly criticized that choice.
Nyong'o did not help her own cause during the promotional campaign. When asked what she would say to Homer if given the chance, she responded: "So Homer, how do you feel about the screen time given to these women, considering how little you spent with them, okay?" Fox News noted that Nyong'o had admitted she had never heard of anything despite holding a master's degree from Yale School of Drama.
That detail landed hard with audiences who felt the production team was more interested in making a statement than honoring the text.
The film's ensemble is enormous. Matt Damon plays Odysseus, Anne Hathaway plays his wife Penelope, and Tom Holland plays their son Telemachus. The supporting cast includes Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Mia Goth, and more than a dozen other recognizable names. Rapper Travis Scott also appears, though his specific role has not been publicly detailed.
Nobody on The View engaged with the substance of the casting critique. The objection is not that Page lacks talent. The objection is that casting choices in an adaptation of a 3,000-year-old Greek epic appear to prioritize contemporary identity categories over the material itself. Page plays Sinon, a Greek soldier. Before the film's release, online speculation had Page cast as Achilles, a rumor that only intensified the backlash. The actual role is smaller, but the principle behind the objection remains the same.
Goldberg and her co-panelists treated the criticism as ignorance. Haines called it "a unique ignorance." Griffin called it a failure to "take the win." None of them addressed the 90 percent dislike ratio on the trailer, the lead actress's unfamiliarity with Homer, or the broader pattern of legacy adaptations that swap fidelity for representation points.
Hollywood has learned to treat opening-weekend grosses as a shield against criticism. A film crosses a financial threshold, and studios declare the debate settled. But commercial performance and audience satisfaction are different measurements. Plenty of films open big on brand recognition and drop sharply once word of mouth spreads. Whether The Odyssey holds its audience in the weeks ahead will say more than the first $300 million.
Goldberg's advice, "don't go see the d*** movie", may be the most honest thing said on the segment. Millions of Americans are doing exactly that, not out of ignorance, but out of a reasonable preference for adaptations that respect their source material rather than retrofit it for modern political fashion.
When the people making the movie can't be bothered to read Homer, telling the audience to sit down and be grateful takes a particular kind of nerve.
