Whoopi Goldberg spoke out against the transphobic backlash to Elliot Page’s role in “The Odyssey.”
On Tuesday’s episode of “The View,” Goldberg and her co-hosts defended Page — who came out as a transgender in 2020 — being cast in the Christopher Nolan movie following criticism from conservatives like Ben Shapiro.
“I don’t understand. If you feel like that, why go see the movie?” Goldberg said, after the show played a clip of Shapiro saying it was “stupid to cast Elliot Page as a dude.”
The EGOT winner added, “If you don’t want to see it, then don’t go see it. Why do you care who’s cast in it?”
Goldberg, 70, wondered why people who “hate” Page’s casting as Greek warrior Sinon have to push their agenda so hard onto others.
“You don’t like Elliot Page? Don’t go see the damn movie,” she said. “Don’t do it. We will be OK if you don’t go see it.”
Conservative co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin sided with Goldberg on the “Odyssey” topic.
“Twitter is not real life,” Farah Griffin said, noting that despite some online criticism circulating on the platform, she found the film to be a “masterpiece.”
The new mom also argued that there’s “there’s nothing woke in this film.”
Sara Haines, meanwhile, pointed out that some of the movie’s harshest critics are people who haven’t even seen it.
“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,” Haines said.
She added, “You cannot not see the film and complain about how awful it is when you haven’t seen the film.”
Page, 39, stars in the big-screen adaptation of Homer’s classic epic poem alongside Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron and Lupita Nyong’o.
There was also backlash towards Nyong’o, a black woman, being cast as Helen of Troy and her twin sister, Clytemnestra.
Nolan, 55, previously said the casting criticism, as well as the complaints over American accents and modern dialogue in the film, “comes with the territory.”
“But look, these conversations that happen before people see the film — they’re always irrelevant, because no one having them knows what the film actually is yet,” he told the Hollywood Reporter earlier this month.
Page, meanwhile, has avoided speaking about the transphobic response to his casting throughout “The Odyssey” press tour.
While on “The Daily Show” Wednesday, Page admitted he was “terrified” to take on the role of Sinon.
“The character I play in this is actually not originally in ‘The Odyssey,’” the “Juno” actor explained.
“So for me, the focus was really on being able to capture him in these few scenes and hopefully make Chris happy.”
