Christopher Nolan confirms 'The Odyssey' woke cast, including rapper Travis Scott

Christopher Nolan built real ships to cross the Mediterranean. He researched Mycenaean armor. He rejected the use of orchestras because they "didn't exist" in Homeric Greece. He filmed real storms so that the viewer would feel the physical fear of the sea. But all that obsession with authenticity disappears as soon as the actors appear. That is the contradiction impossible to ignore in "The Odyssey."

Ever since the cast of the production, scheduled for release on July 17, was leaked, the networks were abuzz with speculation about what role each actor would play in Nolan's adaptation. Along with Matt Damon, names such as Zendaya, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong'o, Charlize Theron and Elliot Page appeared, although at that time it had not yet been revealed which characters they would play.

However, a new interview published by TIME with the director and much of the cast ended up confirming several of the rumors that had been circulating for months. And with it also came controversy.

It all started with a statement by Matt Damon, in charge of playing Odysseus, who assured that Nolan had been "very faithful to Homer" and that, although the original text cannot be rewritten, the director had found a "really interesting" thematic approach.

Along those lines, TIME report also confirms that Helena of Troy, traditionally portrayed as the most beautiful woman in the world and described by Homer as white-skinned and by other historical authors as golden or fair-haired, will be played by Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong'o.

Something similar is true of Matt Damon, whose appearance and ancestry are much more closely tied to northern Europe than to the physical profile one would normally associate with a character originating in the ancient Mediterranean.