“I Don’t Know How the Hell We’re Going to Do This” – Christopher Nolan and the Cast on The Odyssey
The director and stars Matt Damon, Tom Holland, and Anne Hathaway talk about the challenges of IMAX and working on a film of epic scale.
“I don’t know how the hell we’re going to do this. I don’t know how the hell we’re going to do that.”
That was Matt Damon’s initial response upon reading the script for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, an adaptation of the ancient Greek epic poem by Homer in which Damon stars as the central figure, Odysseus. The story charts the Greek king’s return home from the Trojan War, facing monsters and mythical creatures in an effort to reunite with his wife and son. Damon and his co-stars Anne Hathaway and Tom Holland, as well as director Christopher Nolan, joined Jacqueline Coley to talk about Nolan’s new film.
Explaining the daunting challenge of taking on the role, Damon continued, “But a lot of those were [Christopher Nolan’s] problems, and I was like, ‘I’m just going to show up, and I’ll be ready.’ I really saw it as, we’re in charge of this one area, right? So in a movie that’s this big, there are all these elements that are at work, of which I am one. But if I can remove everything from his plate and put it on mine, that relates to that one element, so that he doesn’t have to worry about that, that frees up his bandwidth to engage with all these other things.”
Working on a film of this scale is a rare opportunity for any actor, and all three present spoke about the challenges, from understanding the motivations of their characters to working so closely to IMAX cameras for the first time. Regarding the latter, Nolan explained how he had to work with the IMAX team to develop new technology that would make the notoriously loud cameras quiet enough to film intimate scenes and character work, something that had never been possible before. In fact, that was what Nolan was most excited about.
“We’ve made films like The Dark Knight, like Interstellar, over the years that have used the format for grand scale for sort of epic storytelling, and we’ve done that in The Odyssey. What’s new for me and will be new for audiences is some of the scenes that these guys are playing, in the most intimate, the most personal ways, where we’re really getting close to their characters and feeling like we’re in the room with them… I think those are some of the most surprising and engaging sequences in the film.”
Check out the full Big Ticket interview above to see Christopher Nolan, Matt Damon, Tom Holland, and Anne Hathaway talk about how Nolan’s fascination with IMAX was born, how much trust he invested in the stars to allow them shine, and how the script informed their character choices.
The Odyssey opens in theatres on July 17. Get your tickets here.
