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Christopher Nolan and THE ODYSSEY Cast Reveal How They Made the Year’s Biggest Epic · Brighter Path: Data, Marketing, Entertainment, and Storytelling

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  I mean, this sounds so cheesy, but Tom and I just kind of, I
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  don't know, we had bounced right from the beginning.
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  Immediately just. We just liked each other.
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  We have a lot of shared interests.
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  We love film, we love sports, we love our families.
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  So we just kind of, I don't know, we never ran out of things
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  to to chat about, still haven't. And so that was kind of that
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  part. And then the script, it was
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  there. I mean, we had Chris Nolan
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  adapting from Homer. So we were kind of like all good
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  on the genius department. They did all the thinking for us
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  to show up and and have a good time.
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  Doing what? We want and the sea, the the
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  wine dark Sea is as he refers to it.
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  It's such an important part of the epic of the Odyssey and
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  shooting on film, shooting on IMAX film in particular.
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  The textures of the sea, the colours and the textures of the
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  waves and, and those sort of patterns that they vary all the
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  time. Iron Man scene, we're at so many
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  beaches and so many landfalls and then looking out over the
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  sea from castle battlements and that kind of thing.
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  I mean, it's really wonderful to see that come to life on that
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  format. It really brings a sense of
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  nature to it and the natural world to me.
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  And the changes in the natural world, whether it's Thunder and
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  lightning or wind and waves, they're evidence of the gods to
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  the characters in our film. And so one of those things to
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  feel it's. An amazing role.
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  It's the best role I've ever been.
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  Had a chance to play in the sense that it's just, you know,
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  it's foundational, the Western literature and it's a, you know,
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  surviving 3000 years later this because it's because he's so
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  complex and, and, and unmistakably human.
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  And, and, you know, he, he, he, he gets some things wrong.
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  He's you know, he can be, he can be angry, he can be proud, he
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  can be silly. He can be all of these things.
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  I think it's interesting because you brought it up earlier, but
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  this idea of, of redemption. And I think there is so much
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  that Odysseus throughout his journey has to confront in order
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  to get home and has to face up to his wrongdoings and the harm
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  that he's caused. And, you know, it's, it's like
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  he can't go around it. He has to go through it.
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  And she is, you know, a manifestation of that pain that
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  he's caused and having to, you know, really deal with it and
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  come to terms with it in a, in a real way.
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  And so when she appears, there's also, there's like a, there's a
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  piece that comes, but also there's a little bit of
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  introspection that needs to come too.
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  You know, you know, when she's there, there's a lesson to be
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  learned or something deeper to try to.
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  Understand they all, they're every, every location was really
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  challenging in a different way. And not just for me, I mean for
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  for the entire crew. That's kind of what made the
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  experience so special. Just, it was a really ambitious
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  movie to take on on for Chris and, and the way he wanted to do
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  it was really ambitious and, you know, wanting to shoot it in
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  IMAX and that's never been done before.
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  And that's technically really challenging.
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  And so I, yeah, I don't think I could limit it to 11 scene.
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  I mean, even climbing out of that horse.
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  But that was the thing I was with all the guys, like they, I
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  had the greatest group of, of, you know, the, the, the whole
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  cast that played Odysseus's men. Like they were just tough guys.
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  They were up for it, you know, and, and, and we, we did a lot
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  of really adventurous stuff, you know, throughout the course of
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  it. And it did make it easier to
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  relate to the characters. I think for me, like what I love
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  about my job is getting to work with people like Anne and just
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  watch and learn. You know, Anne has such an
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  incredible career. And you know, there are lists
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  and lists of movies that we can all watch and learn something
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  from. So to get to see that, you know,
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  close up is, is a real luxury. And, you know, we became great
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  friends, which was really lovely.
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  And, you know, I know you had worked with Chris before, but it
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  had been a while. And for me, it was my first
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  time. So they did feel like a sense
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  that we were both sort of walking onto the field together,
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  pretty fun. And I felt like, you know, Anne
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  was kind of my support system throughout this process because
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  it was very new to me. It was very intimidating.
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  It was really nerve wracking. You know, I'm not a stranger to
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  big movies, but this was something completely different.
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  And having Anne there and doing most of my work with her was
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  such a nice way for me to just feel comfortable and and and
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  ready to go. You just really blew everybody
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  away because I think that, you know, because you have been a
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  part of big movies, which is really remarkable for someone of
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  your age. And you came in every day with
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  just your work ethic leading by, you know, 10,000 miles.
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  And that is exactly what you want on this movie because
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  there's just it's it's it's a really wonderful, challenging
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  experience to be on a Chris Nolan movie.
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  And if you're somebody who needs babying or coddling in any way,
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  you're probably not going to do. Yeah, you might.
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  You might single. It came in with all of the right
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  stuff. Thank you.
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  And so I think everybody was just thrilled to just watch You
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  Fly. Yeah.
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  I think, you know, it's similar to like when I was reading the
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  script and how he kind of interpreted Athena and kind of
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  reading it first. And I feel like this is probably
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  the same for maybe the the on screen feeling.
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  But seeing her first just as like the goddess Athena and then
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  having a greater understanding of why she's appearing the way
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  she's appearing and her intention and how she's how she
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  comes to him and when she chooses to come to him.
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  I think is a has like a deeper meaning towards the end and,
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  and, and really kind of kind of changes, at least for me, how I
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  wanted to like try to portray this like goddess or whatever
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  from a really like human perspective and really think of
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  it that way, you know? I started with Chris and the
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  script he wrote and before we started, when he offered me the
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  role, we we talked about it and we talked about it a number of
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  times. And the first thing he said to
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  me is like my instinct is this, but I am very open to what your
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  interpretation would be, which was such a wonderful thing to be
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  given the agency to decide which back story would make more sense
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  to, for me to be able to do the job that he gave me.
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  And then as I was working on on the role, I kept him up to speed
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  with what my thoughts were. And in the end, his instincts
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  and, and mine matched up. I am very open and receptive of
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  other people's interpretation of what my interpretation was, as
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  long as my interpretation inspires a thought.
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  Oh my gosh. Well, when when you when you do
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  a good job and he likes the performance.
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  He's still pretty circumspect. He'll just go, yeah, OK, good,
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  let's go, let's move on. Right.
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  So that's if things are going really well.
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  So if you disappoint him, I think it's.
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  I don't, I just don't think he talks at all.
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  I think. I think you get the silent tree.
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  Yeah. The costumes moved differently.
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  Helen had these sculptural kind of like broken pieces of armor
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  sort of as part of her costume that made me feel that just
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  reminded me of the restraint, the restraint that she has to
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  exercise. And Clyson Nestor's costume is
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  is a veil. It's just it's it's yeah.
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  They were very informative to. Me just being in his presence,
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  in the way that he makes things is, is is a real lesson in
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  collaboration and and expectation.
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  But there was a very fun, funny moment on set I remember on this
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  where we'd done a take of a scene.
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  And then because the IMAX cameras don't have much film,
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  like the time in them, they have to ask, like, have they got
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  enough in the mag for another take?
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  Wow. And they were like, if they do
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  it like that, we'll go over. But if, you know, we and
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  everyone started doing this, I can make it quicker.
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  I can make it. And he just went, everyone just
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  be quiet. And he went to the three actors
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  in the scene. He just went faster, faster,
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  faster. Really.
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  Sometimes you just need the note.
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  Yeah, let's not dress it up. Let's just like, what do we need
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  to achieve here? Just.
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  Go Well, great question because it was something that I
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  definitely drew on. You know, I was away for a long
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  time. You know, my kids were able to
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  come and visit, you know, for a lot of it.
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  We're not used to being away from each other that much.
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  And so, so I, I definitely could relate to, to, to what the guy
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  was feeling. Definitely helped the
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  performance. I just feel like Penelope
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  wonders a lot over those 20 years.
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  Has he forgotten me? If he is alive, do I even still
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  matter to him? Am I spending my entire life
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  waiting for someone who might not even want me anymore?
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  And so the pin features heavily and kind of in terms of as a
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  symbol of their enduring love. And when that question gets
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  answered for her, I was looking right at.
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  It spent my whole adult life, you know, making films and a lot
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  of that, you know, my profession, you spend a lot of
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  time away from home. And I'm very fortunate that my
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  wife produces the films and we would tend to try and bring our
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  family wherever possible. But even with all that going on,
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  I spent a lot of time away from home, a lot of time wanting to
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  come back home. And so it's one of the great
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  themes of home historian. It's one that I could certainly
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  relate to, but I think so many people can relate to so many of
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  us, you know, whether it's in the day or over weeks or months,
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  you know, we, we are forced to spend time away from our
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  families, away from home. And so that idea of nostos, as
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  it's referred to in mythology, that idea of the homecoming and
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  what that means is just so important to all of us.
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  I think it's, it's such a classic element of, of
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  literature really. And what I found in adapting The
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  Odyssey is all of my other films, all the narratives that
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  are in there somewhere, because it's this very elemental tale
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  that encompasses this homecoming narrative, but it's also a
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  coming of age story. It's a story of war and love and
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  loss and family and all of these things that are universally
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  compelling to us. There are a lot of things, but
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  in this, in this movie, the the scene we shot where with the
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  passing the sirens, which is a very emotional scene.
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  It I was really helped by him because the way he decided to do
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  that was he told me at the dock in the morning before we left
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  that we were starting right away play with that real gift when a
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  director, he understands enough about what we do that he knew he
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  was giving me essentially an hour to on the boat ride out
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  there to find a corner, sit down, get my head right.
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  And I knew that, you know, the moment we you know, our boat
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  reached the you know, the picture boat and we jumped on
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  that I was going to be tied to a mask and and shooting.
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  And so I, you know, I think anybody with a SAG card, you
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  know, if they have that kind of preparation and that kind of
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  support can, can, can pull off a scene like that.
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  I'd say my first day was, was a bit of a test.
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  Yeah, we, we, we were shooting this big sequence.
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  It was it was a long scene. The camera can only run for
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  about 3 minutes. And my it's the most emotional
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  scene in the movie for me. You've seen the film.
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  It's when I'm sat next to Menelaus and he's telling us.
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  And because of the nature of the camera and the time that we had
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  left to shoot, Chris had kind of asked me if it would be OK for
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  them to shoot my close up but cut all of Bernthal's lines
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  because we would run out of film for that.
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  We'd have to keep reloading the camera.
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  And it would have been really difficult for me to stay in the
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  emotion and let them reload all this sort of stuff.
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  So I had to do that scene kind of dry.
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  Yeah, essentially dry. It was like action.
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  And then it was. And I remember sitting there and
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  I kept like, pinching myself, being like, just do your fucking
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  job. Just do your fucking job.
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  Like, you can do this. And Bernthal was like, are you
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  OK? He keeps.
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  Talking to himself and he did it and.
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  He was like, oh, I can totally do this.
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  Like I can, I can stand on this set and, you know, make an
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  impact and, and, and be here. And I think Chris really helped
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  me by testing me in that way on the first day because it gave me
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  so much confidence for the rest of the.
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  Movie. I mean, what Chris is interested
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  in this film is investigating the cost of war.
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  And we when you read The Iliad and the Odyssey, very little
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  time is spent in the perspective of the women told from a very
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  masculine side of things. But this film takes a lot of
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  takes time to really consider things from the female
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  perspective. And so we see in Helen and
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  Clytemnestra how this war has affected them both and they
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  respond to it very differently because their experience of it
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  is very different. And so for me, that was very
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  enriching to to to take the time to kind of like humanize them
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  and consider what this time could have looked.
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  Like and his son Telemachus, Tom Holland, teaching him about his
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  father and and fighting all the doubters, you know, getting
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  riled up about them and, and he and and also being visually
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  impaired all helped me sort of create this this elderly man who
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  believed in his surrogate son. You know, he's basically his
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  surrogate son and he's waiting for him to come back and every
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  every molecule of his body is is protecting that that that image
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  of his master. Beautiful thing about this
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  character. I get to play you.
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  May is his second in command at home.
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  The costume was, was, was pretty.
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  It really puts you in a place. And I mean, literally it puts
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  you in a place because you're like, OK, this restricts my
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  movement to some degree, gives me a sense of my physicality on
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  a day-to-day basis. So and there was something
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  ritualistic about putting it on every day and like tying up
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  those sandals and like wrapping the wraps around my, you know,
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  all of that. It was all a big part of
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  getting. Yeah, well.
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  You know, I keep adding a movie where I'm trying to get home and
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  so then the meme restarts.