Elon Musk directed a series of personal insults at Anne Hathaway after an eight-year-old speech about LGBTQ equality, race and privilege resurfaced on X.
The billionaire called Hathaway a “marionette,” accused her of reading words written by somebody else and said the Oscar winner had a “little bird brain.” He also claimed she simply repeated whatever Hollywood instructed her to say.
The video came from the Human Rights Campaign’s National Dinner in Washington, D.C., on September 15, 2018. One of the posts recirculating the footage incorrectly described Hathaway’s remarks as a new speech.
Musk has attacked The Odyssey’s casting and announced plans for his artificial-intelligence platform to create a competing adaptation of Homer’s epic before the end of 2026.
Musk Called Hathaway a ‘Marionette’ With a ‘Little Bird Brain’
It is truly breathtaking to see such smug self-importance rooted in nothingness. What an arrogant schmuck. https://t.co/6l36x8N87v
— Gad Saad (@GadSaad) July 26, 2026
The renewed controversy began after the X account Her Tribe Vibe shared an excerpt from Hathaway’s speech and presented it as a recent statement. Musk responded across several posts. “She has a little bird brain,” he wrote in one reply.
He separately claimed that Hathaway was delivering material created by somebody else. “She’s just reading the script someone else wrote,” Musk wrote, adding that no critical thinking was taking place.
In other responses, Musk called Hathaway “a marionette” and insulted the unidentified person he assumed had written the speech. He also claimed that she repeated “the words Hollywood tells her to say” and had no thoughts of her own.
The Speech Was Delivered at a 2018 Human Rights Campaign Dinner
Hathaway delivered the speech at the Human Rights Campaign’s 22nd annual National Dinner after receiving an award recognizing her support for LGBTQ equality. Her Ocean’s 8 co-star Awkwafina introduced her before the presentation.
During the speech, Hathaway described what she considered a damaging social myth that treats gayness as revolving around straightness, transgender identities around cisgender identities and race around whiteness. She argued that the system prioritizes particular forms of love, bodies and skin colors while keeping money and institutional power concentrated among a limited group.
Hathaway said authentic equality would not erase anyone’s identity or move a different group into society’s central position. Instead, she argued that it would “centralize love” and allow more people to live openly and participate equally. The actress also discussed a letter she had received from Ella, a 10-year-old transgender girl who chose her name after Hathaway’s character in Ella Enchanted.
After Ella thanked her for showing courage as an ally, Hathaway responded, “It takes zero courage to love you.” She ended the speech by encouraging the audience to challenge the structures she had described and “build a better” world.
Musk Has Repeatedly Attacked Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’
Musk’s posts about Hathaway followed months of criticism directed at Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey, which opened in theaters on July 17. His objections have focused largely on the film’s casting, including Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra and Elliot Page as the Greek soldier Sinon.
Musk previously amplified an attack on Nyong’o’s casting and accused Nolan of having “lost his integrity.” He later claimed that the director had “desecrated” Homer’s work to improve the film’s awards prospects and called Nolan a “worm.” Nolan dismissed the pre-release criticism as irrelevant because the people participating in it had not yet seen the finished film.
The Odyssey stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, Tom Holland as his son Telemachus and Hathaway as Penelope, the queen of Ithaca who waits for her husband’s return from the Trojan War while resisting the men attempting to replace him. The Universal Pictures production also features Zendaya as Athena, Robert Pattinson, Nyong’o and Charlize Theron. Nolan filmed the mythic action epic around the world using newly developed IMAX film technology.
Musk Promised an AI-Generated Adaptation Before the End of 2026
On July 22, Musk reposted a three-minute AI-generated scene depicting Odysseus speaking with Calypso. The video had been created using Grok Imagine, xAI’s image-and-video-generation platform. “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 announced on X.