The Odyssey star John Leguizamo has no interest in Elon Musk’s proposed AI-generated film based on Homer’s Greek epic.
“Yeah, it’s going to be beautiful. It’ll be phenomenal,” the actor sarcastically reacted to Musk’s planned movie in a Wednesday, July 29, interview with The New York Times. “Good luck with that fake, soulless, empty [version].”
Leguizamo, 66, added, “I just don’t understand people who go out of their way to hate-monger. José Martí, the great Cuban poet and revolutionary, said there are two kinds of men: those that create and those that destroy.”
Earlier this month, Musk vowed to release an AI-generated version of Homer’s Odyssey using his Grok Imagine platform before the end of 2026. He had previously criticized The Odyssey director Christopher Nolan’s casting of Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy and trans actor Elliot Page as the Greek soldier Sinon.
“Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer,” Musk, 55, claimed in a July 21 X post.
Leguizamo plays blind swineherd Eumaeus in The Odyssey, which also stars Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson and Zendaya.
In his interview with The New York Times, the veteran actor applauded Nolan for eschewing CGI as much as possible for The Odyssey, relying instead on practical effects and real locations.
“Hollywood is starting to embrace AI and thinking that’s going to solve things — is it?” Leguizamo said. “The Odyssey shows you that that’s not what people really want.”
“The fact that everything was so practical makes it easier for the actors to act, and then the results are so much more real and organic,” he added. “It’s palpable that what you’re seeing on camera is really happening. I mean, that incredible scene with the ghosts of the dead soldiers, stuntmen were buried underneath the sand with snorkels. Like a hundred people were buried, then they come up. Oh, my God, it’s so riveting to watch!”
Leguizamo also revealed that he prepared to be hated by movie fans after his character is first introduced by throwing a puppy off a cliff.
“Can you believe?” he said. “I thought, ‘I’m going to be the most reviled person in cinema history!’ That’s what they did with runts back then, only the strong survived. But the puppy was safe, there was somebody with a soft blanket catching it right off camera.”
The Odyssey has grossed over $660 million worldwide to date and earned critical acclaim. The film stands at 94% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
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