The Odyssey has a completely stacked solid stuffed with each long-time Christopher Nolan collaborators and new additions to the troupe. To play Odysseus and Penelope, Nolan and his go-to casting director, John Papsidera, turned to a pair of acquainted faces: Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway, who completely embodied the filmmaker’s distinctive tackle the well-known epic poem.
However when he got down to solid their son, Telemachus, Nolan opted for a brand new face, though one which audiences will nonetheless acknowledge. Tom Holland of Spider-Man fame performs the essential function in The Odyssey, and in a brand new behind-the-scenes ebook, Filming the Odyssey: Contained in the Making of Christopher Nolan’s Fashionable Epic, the director explains why he selected Peter Parker to play the prince of Ithaca. Polygon has an unique preview from a bit targeted on the casting course of.
“He was capable of faucet into that boyish enthusiasm within the early elements, that idealism about who his father is, what is going on on, after which actually chart that passage into maturity and maturity and slightly little bit of the darkness that comes with that jaded high quality,” Nolan says. “I imply, he is in such a great place in his life and profession to tackle this half at the moment.”
In different phrases, Holland (30) had the precise proper look to play the 20-year-old Telemachus, even when the actor has admitted he thought the character was presupposed to be nearer to 16.
There’s additionally a second cause Nolan solid Holland, and it might come all the way down to his Spider-Man motion pictures. Within the ebook, the director notes that Holland has “an unbelievable capability to soak up choreography, to change battle strikes within the second, to take route.” In different phrases, he may carry out complicated battle scenes, which is ironic since Nolan really modified the plot of Homer’s Odyssey in order that Telemachus largely would not take part within the last massacre in Ithaca after Odysseus returns house.
In the identical part of Filming the Odyssey, Holland presents his personal perspective on the character and what makes it an excellent function.
“For me, as Telemachus, it is a coming-of-age story,” he says. “It is a few younger child from boy to man. It is about this insatiable want to seek out his father and in the end succeeding. It is about defending his mom. It is about rising up and coming to comprehend who he’s on this loopy world.”
Forward of the Aug. 25 publish date, take a look at just a few extra pages from Filming the Odyssey: Contained in the Making of Christopher Nolan’s Fashionable Epic beneath with insights on the casting of Damon, Hathaway, and Robert Pattinson.
