- 2 days ago
In this video, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, John Leguizamo, and director Christopher Nolan come together for a conversation about bringing one of history's greatest stories to the big screen. ‘The Odyssey’ cast reveals what it took to transform Homer's ancient epic into a grounded, visceral adventure, from massive practical battle scenes and the iconic Trojan Horse to the surprising ways Nolan kept performances fresh by letting key moments unfold naturally on set.
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00:00The horse was next up on the schedule and so I said to Chris, you know, we were walking from
00:04one place and I said, hey, you know, Tuesday we're doing the horse.
00:07I said, how are you going to shoot that? No idea.
00:18Okay, for the table.
00:22Everything about watching The Odyssey feels epic.
00:24Was there a moment or series of moments in making this film when it felt larger than life?
00:31I think visiting the set and watching The Seizure of Troy, like I have never seen anything like that before.
00:38And I couldn't believe how quickly they could put it on fire and then just turn it off again.
00:44Yeah.
00:44And they had these special effects trees.
00:46It's the turning it off again.
00:47Yeah, like I remember this tree like was completely engulfed in flames and then you called cut and I was
00:54like, well, that tree's finished.
00:55I had the same thought.
00:56And it just went out.
00:57It's literally like a tap.
00:59It was amazing.
01:00And it was so cool seeing those guys come in with their fireman hats on and they're on the radio
01:04talking about like F1-9 go down and put 10-HT.
01:08Like it was amazing.
01:09Yeah.
01:09It was very cool.
01:10Yeah, the fire brigade.
01:10They were, the amount of coordination to make this happen and to do it all in camera.
01:17Even the first day walking in Esauera, walking on that beach and seeing thousands of people, it just beggared the
01:25imagination, bigger than anything I've ever seen.
01:27And I have to say the first, the moment that we opened the gates of Troy, we didn't know that
01:36Agamemnon and an army of 750 people were on the other side.
01:41We just thought we were taking it to the opening of the door and we opened the door and it
01:46is one of, I will never forget seeing Benny in that costume standing in the middle.
01:51So, and, and it looked like it was Benny and 20 guys because it was dark behind them.
01:57And then this roar and this 500 people came running.
02:15Can I actually ask you about the music in that sequence?
02:20Because that is so stress inducing, that kind of like repetitive, I don't even know how to describe it.
02:27Yeah, well, it's a, it's a continuous association, acceleration.
02:31It's a risset rhythm.
02:33Right.
02:33And it's a thing that we, Hans Zimmer and I actually came up with on Dunkirk.
02:38It was the first time we sort of embraced that.
02:41And it's, it's, it's the rhythmic equivalent of the Shepard tone.
02:45The Shepard tone being a sort of continuing ascension of a note.
02:48The risset rhythm just goes faster and faster and faster.
02:52And so it, it, it gives you this sort of feeling of anxiety, this kind of tension.
02:58Yeah.
02:58Uh, it's, it's a wonderful musical structure.
03:00And Ludwig Gorenson did the music for this film.
03:03Yeah.
03:04Fully embraced it, figured out a couple of different places in the film, including, you
03:09know, stuff I won't get into because it's spoilery towards the end.
03:12But Siege of Troy being, you know, one of these sequences where, yeah, you just want the audience
03:17on the edge of the seats.
03:18And you just want to continually put them in, in, uh, the heads of the, the guys who were,
03:25you know, running through that city at night.
03:27Uh, and of course the way Hoyt has lit it, you know, it's lit by flames as it would be,
03:32you know, it's, it's dark and spooky and there's a, there's a real race against time to get
03:36those, get those gates open.
03:38So I really wanted Ludwig to just try and continually, you know, amp the tension.
03:42Yeah.
03:43It's super effective.
03:44Yeah.
03:44It makes you feel like you're being chased.
03:46Yeah.
03:47Yeah.
03:47I was like writhing around.
03:49Oh my God.
03:50Yeah.
03:51No, he did, he did an incredible job and the whole school, I asked him to do it without,
03:55without an orchestra.
03:56Cause in the same way I've been saying to you guys, I didn't want to, I didn't want the
04:00performances to, to feel like something from the Hollywood of the fifties and sixties,
04:04you know, kind of fake British accents or whatever that is, you know, that kind of elevated
04:08classical world thing.
04:09I'm trying to do something more accessible, more earthy, grounded.
04:15Those are the terms I've been using.
04:16And so I went to Ludwig and said, well, surely that means we shouldn't have the kind of 19th
04:20century romantic tradition in music, which is so much of what movie music evolves from.
04:26And so he took the orchestra off the table and said, okay, well, let's look at ancient
04:30instruments.
04:30Let's look at gongs and, you know, things made of bronze.
04:33It's the bronze age.
04:34And then the Aulos, this sort of dual pipe, dual flute system that, you know, he found
04:41an expert who built this, reproduced it and knew how to play it.
04:45And the lyre, this string instrument.
04:47But using those instruments for his very modern purposes, you know, he's, he's an incredible
04:53producer as well as a great composer.
04:55Just really looking at, you know, what can you do with these sounds that you haven't
04:59heard before?
05:00It will move an audience, you know, in a fresh way.
05:20What have we got?
05:21Matt and Tom, you're both no strangers to action movies.
05:24How, if at all, did things like the Bourne and Spider-Man franchises prepare you for
05:28the stunts and choreography of a movie like this?
05:31Or are they completely different animals?
05:33I would say it helps to have some experience in doing it.
05:35So you understand the kind of language of, of, of, of, of action and of, and that choreography.
05:41But more than anything, what, what those Bourne movies taught me and what this one confirmed
05:47is that it's, it's, it's all about the dance partner that you have.
05:51And I, George Cottle, who, who coordinated this and who is just so great at what he does,
05:59gave me for that last sequence, the, the, the very top level people.
06:05There were, most of them were stunt coordinators in their own right.
06:08And so a mediocre dancer can made to be look good, you know, with a, with a, with an expert
06:13partner.
06:14And so I had, I just was moving from expert to expert.
06:17And, and so I was very grateful to not only how well George choreographed it, but the people that he
06:24put me with.
06:25I do think you're selling yourself short a little bit because I saw you move and I was blown away.
06:30And I remember running up to you and going, oh my God, Matt, you're, do you have like a background
06:34in martial arts?
06:35You're just like so good at this.
06:37And you just went, no, I've just done a lot of fake karate.
06:40A lot of fake karate.
06:42It helps when the other person's reacting exactly, you know, the right, the right way.
06:46But I mean, to be fair, you know, I have to defer to the best among us at fake karate.
06:55Tom is unbelievable at this stuff.
06:58I, you know, do the Spider-Man stuff.
06:59I think if I jumped and landed in a deep squat in my armor, you probably would have been like,
07:04what are you doing?
07:07No, I had a really good time with the action on this movie.
07:10I really enjoyed it.
07:11Enjoyed it.
07:11I found, you know, the swords and shields like a really exciting new challenge, something I've never done before.
07:18You know, like you said, George's team is the absolute best.
07:21And what they're so good at is they challenge you.
07:23You know, they know what you can do and they push you that little bit further.
07:27I was really lucky that I had plenty of time to rehearse.
07:30So when we came to set, I don't think I've ever felt so prepared to do any of these sorts
07:35of scenes before.
07:36Your style of shooting those scenes is really different to what I'm used to.
07:41Spider-Man world, you know, you might shoot one or two beats before you cut, you watch it back, you
07:47analyze it, you do it again.
07:48But what I loved about the way you work is that you would have us run the entire fight all
07:54the way through, especially for that priest fight.
07:57Because it just brings a rawness and an edginess and a dirtiness to the fight.
08:02It's not clean, it's not, it doesn't feel like it's rehearsed and it feels really dangerous, even though it's not.
08:08That's what George is really expert at, is making it look dangerous.
08:13And I think of all the movies I've seen of yours, I've never felt the danger so much throughout the
08:18film.
08:18Yeah, well, I mean, and the training that you guys have done and that you already had in other movies
08:24where you're generally using your fists.
08:27What I was worried about, and it was really interesting to see how well you picked up that thing of,
08:32was making eye contact with your partner, knowing where the choreography goes.
08:37Because when you put a sword in your hand, that extra weight, that extra leverage, that extra two and a
08:42half feet is incredibly dangerous.
08:45I think the stakes are raised enormously when you get into these kind of weapons and these kind of situations.
08:49But you guys were so well prepared and well rehearsed by the time we came to shoot the scenes.
08:56I was able to talk to you about the character and about what's going on and what are we trying
09:03to do narratively with it.
09:04And you could, with George and his guys, you could adapt effortlessly to make the thing work narratively for how
09:14we were going to film it.
09:15It was a real, real pleasure to shoot those scenes. And fight scenes, they can be really arduous to shoot.
09:21But for me on this film, they were really a joy actually, really just to be able to put the
09:26camera on it and really figure out how we wanted the audience to relate to it and see it.
09:30You know, Chris, there's something about the way you film and direct, which is really incredible because you want such
09:38reality and you don't want any falseness.
09:41You don't want any fakery. You want things to be as real as possible, but everybody's still safe.
09:46But you're always at the border of danger because that's what you see on film.
09:50It's so precarious and it pulls you in as an audience.
09:55I don't know, I think that's incredible in how all the other actors went at it and did it.
09:59Yeah, well, I think being in a real place, in the real situation, you know, with the real props and
10:07the real, you know, I think it just informs what we all do.
10:10It informs how I see it, but it also, I see it in form performance.
10:14I see it, you know, change the way you guys move and the way you want to, you know, get
10:20the camera, you know, or rather get the character across so the camera could pick it up and everything.
10:24It's just, it's a very different thing to being on a set in the studio.
10:32After years of war, no one could stand between my men and home.
10:57Not even me.
10:59This is for Anne and Rob.
11:02Did you both bond over your shared Batman experiences when you met for this movie?
11:07It's all we talked about.
11:10Did we?
11:11I don't think we did.
11:12No, I feel like we bonded over dinner.
11:14Over pizza.
11:16A lot of pizza.
11:17A lot of pizza.
11:17A lot of pizza.
11:18Yeah.
11:19Didn't you order something very strange?
11:21Well, it was very normal.
11:23It was tuna, but then what came out was didn't look like your normal tuna.
11:27But it didn't taste nice either.
11:28I thought it tasted wonderful.
11:30It was like a sweet and sour tuna.
11:32It was disgusting.
11:32You guys didn't even try it.
11:33The sweet and sour was very great.
11:36It was interesting to find that you liked it.
11:39You both sat there and you just very politely just went, no, thank you.
11:42Yeah.
11:43And then at one point you're like, I think it looks a bit like roadkill.
11:47I mean, it was mind-blowing how unappealing it looked.
11:50I don't know if you're eating it every day.
11:54No, I don't, we didn't really do bonding rituals.
11:58I'm just trying to think, you know, I think we all just felt bonded by the fact that we didn't
12:02have really been chosen and trusted and to be a part of this.
12:06I felt like that was kind of what I needed.
12:09And then the bonding was the doing of the thing.
12:11Yeah, I felt every free moment we had was on set.
12:14Yeah.
12:14I think getting to film in Los Angeles, which is becoming rarer and rarer, that felt really amazing and really
12:22special.
12:24And also we filmed on stage 23, right?
12:27Yeah.
12:27And Sony, which is one of like the most mythic stages that we have in our country.
12:33And you think about the history of the movies that have been filmed there.
12:37Everything from The Wizard of Oz to, I'm sure there's many more that I'm not thinking of right now.
12:41Interstell.
12:41Interstell.
12:42I was going to say, I want someone else to provide one before I immediately jump there.
12:47No, The Wizard of Oz is the one that, yeah, when you walk onto that stage and you think about
12:51that movie and what it means in history and everything.
12:54And to be part of that tradition feels like a really profound thing.
12:59Yeah.
13:01And where our base camp was, we were in the parking lot just off of that.
13:04And, you know, every day, one of the things I love about working on your sets is they're so regimented.
13:09And at 7 a.m., everybody's through the works and they're on their marks ready to start the day.
13:13So that meant at like 6.55, you had suitors and beggars and queens and handmaidens and everybody just like
13:20hustling down the corridor to try to get to the stage to get to their mark on time.
13:27And every single day, I just felt like I was in the middle.
13:30I felt like I was in a movie before I even got on set.
13:33And then just you would stay.
13:34And I don't know.
13:35Maybe I'm just a little woo woo.
13:36But I just I felt the magic every time I walked through the doors onto that stage.
13:40It was just beautiful.
13:42Yeah.
13:42No, I was just thinking of what you were talking about earlier, like just being on set from 7 a
13:45.m.
13:46and staying on set and kind of being more of a repertory company than you usually have.
13:50It's kind of it's it's really nice just kind of knowing that everyone will be there for your eye line,
13:58for off camera and stuff.
14:00It's like, you know, you work on so many movies where it's like you're getting a stand in or you're
14:04doing it with a tennis ball or you're doing it with something.
14:06And it's like on this, it's just across the board, you're doing it with a real person.
14:10And it's my my favorite scene is when you were dropping the ball from the other side.
14:15I didn't even know you were there.
14:17You're so far away.
14:18And I asked Chris, am I taking my own cue for the drop of the ball?
14:22And I don't know, they're doing the same thing.
14:24The big spectacle for me was when I got to Morocco and I was supposed to meet with you and
14:30they brought me to this sand pit with a ginormous horse.
14:36And I go, where's Chris?
14:38And they tell me he's he's in there.
14:42With Hoyta, who's a big man, the IMAX camera and Matt.
14:47And about 25 other guys.
14:51And I'm like, oh, I don't want to disturb anything because, you know, I don't want to bother anybody because
14:55this looks crazy.
14:57And that was the first day.
14:59And I was like, wow, I wonder what's in store for me.
15:01Yeah, that was wild.
15:02But but that's the first time I ever believed the Trojan story, because you never really believed how did they
15:10fool them?
15:10How did they get the guys in there?
15:12But this you believe that they were really in the horse and that they would have brought that horse in.
15:18Yeah.
15:18Well, I mean, I remember, Matt, you asking me at some point, well, how are we going to do the
15:24inside of the horse?
15:25And one of my favorite moments.
15:28Well, you tell it.
15:30No, I was I was really excited because the first day in S.A.W.A.R., we went there
15:34and we when we saw the horse.
15:36Right. Which was a moment to see this thing and all of the Trojans pulling.
15:40You know, it was just incredible to see.
15:43But as we were shooting Troy, we were the horse was next up on the schedule.
15:48And so I said to Chris, you know, we were walking from one place and I said, hey, you know,
15:52Tuesday, we're doing the horse.
15:53I said, how are you going to shoot that?
15:55No idea.
15:57I go, what?
15:58Because, you know, we're just going to get in there and figure it out.
16:00And it's the thing I love about working with them is it is like shooting an independent film, but at
16:05this scale that is beyond anything I've ever had a chance to do.
16:09But he really let's let's let's it be found and discovered.
16:13And then he and Hoyt to figure out a way to capture that in that format.
16:17And it looks like it was planned for years.
16:20So we got in there with the camera.
16:22And at some point, I don't know.
16:25I think it was at some point being in there for an hour or so, you know, maybe we should
16:29get out and take a break.
16:30I mean, no, no, no, no, no. If one guy gets out, we barely got in here.
16:37This is a house of cards.
16:40It wasn't comfortable in there.
16:42If I let him get out, they're never getting back in.
16:45So we just need to get out of the shop.
16:47We stayed in there for hours. We got it done.
16:57I need everyone in this party dead.
17:01I can still save them.
17:05You're a man who needs to control his fate.
17:10He cannot control this.
17:13That world is gone.
17:16Christopher and the table.
17:19Each stop on the Odyssey felt like it had a distinct tone.
17:22The Cyclops and Cersei felt more horror movie as opposed to the action nature of the armored giants.
17:29Did you feel each location within the story, including the Ithaca, represented a different kind of tone or cinematic genre
17:36within the movie?
17:38I mean, yeah, from my point of view, one of the attractions of taking on the Odyssey is, you know,
17:42has that scope.
17:44It has all these different stories.
17:46So it's, you know, there are elements of horror and thriller and the war movie, but it's also a love
17:51story.
17:52It's also a coming of age story.
17:54It's got all these different genres kind of mixed together.
17:58For me as a director, that's a fun thing to take on.
18:02There was one of those takes where they were shooting the beggars who were even further away, the background artists,
18:09and we were on the steps doing the scene and Annie was fully sobbing.
18:13I said, Annie, there's no way they can see it.
18:15She says, nope, nope, I have to give this for everybody.
18:18She goes, they can feel it.
18:20I go, I don't know if they know we're here.
18:23My whole thing about it was by that point, they had been there for weeks.
18:27They had been, like, waiting for their close-up for weeks, and I was just like, we gotta, we gotta
18:33go full out for them.
18:34They've been there for us every day.
18:36But I, because I'm nearsighted, I couldn't even see them.
18:40I'm like, I don't think they can see us.
18:42I'm like, one of them has amazing vision, and we're here for that one.
18:44Have we mentioned how large Stage 22 is and how big that hall was that Ruth built?
18:50Yeah, but I, I remember shooting your reactions to the fight at the end, and hearing Matt and the stunt
18:56guys behind camera hitting the ground pretty hard.
18:59Yeah.
18:59And he said, you can at least put some pads in.
19:02We're literally shooting the other way.
19:04Let's please save yourselves.
19:06For the entire fight sequence, I'm like, you don't need to do it, like, fall out.
19:12We actually got into it.
19:14We were having fun at a certain point.
19:15Yeah.
19:18The female characters in the film felt way less villainous and way more understandable as figures.
19:25What creative measures were taken to strike this tone?
19:28How did you further make sure we felt and understood the plights of Penelope, Cersei, and Calypso?
19:35Well, I mean, for me, a lot of that, honestly, is casting.
19:39Because when you look at Homer, you know, you look at the poem and what it offers in terms of
19:45the female characters, in terms of all the characters, it's actually very simple.
19:50It's deceptively simple.
19:51But each era has really been able to kind of reinterpret or interpret those characters according to the interests of
20:00the time and the values of the time.
20:04But I knew, you know, when we first talked about Penelope and everything, it was like, you were going to
20:08have to know everything about the reality of that character, not just the symbolic or iconic aspects of the character,
20:15but who she is underneath and what that underlying reality is.
20:18Because we're trying to flesh out the story and make it real.
20:20And I think that applied to Charlie's Calypso and Lupita's Helen and everything, really.
20:27So, yeah, for me, it's a lot about working with actors who, as I like to put it, have to
20:33become expert on that aspect of the story and their character.
20:36And bringing in collaborators who are going to really think through the reality of the entire character in this situation,
20:43which I thought you did beautifully with Penelope.
20:45It's a very complex character. And also the scenes between the two of you, that relationship, I think, I just
20:53found it so interesting to watch you guys develop that together in terms of how complicated it is, particularly when
21:01you're talking about this absent figure, this absent father who your character doesn't remember, but has heard all of the
21:09myths about and sort of idolized it, puts on a pedestal.
21:12And you who know Odysseus to be a real person, love of your life, but just a man, not this
21:18mythical figure.
21:20And the friction that created, I thought was really interesting.
21:24If I were to add something.
21:25Yeah, I was going to say that. No, please.
21:28And I hope it's okay to mention this, but someone close to me has seen the film and she had
21:34such an emotional reaction to seeing it.
21:37And when I was talking to her about why, she said, you know, I've always felt the women get blamed
21:42for everything in the Odyssey.
21:44And the thing that I loved about this movie is you were all given so much dimension.
21:48And I felt like each one of you, it was so clear that you had so much more going on,
21:52even the goddesses were humanized.
21:54And so she felt like she had actually been invited into the Odyssey for the first time ever.
22:01And I just, I love this text. I love Greek mythology.
22:06And I'd never really gone deep with Penelope either. I kind of accepted her at face value.
22:10And when I read your interpretation of it, I realized that this was the moment, this was the opportunity to
22:16dive deep and kind of see it and see her in a multidimensional way.
22:20And maybe imagine that she wasn't just, maybe the way that she was described was the role that she had
22:25to play, but that doesn't necessarily mean that that was all who she was.
22:29And then I started to think about why does she have to be so patient? Why does she, why is
22:35modesty the wise choice?
22:37Because she's always known for her wisdom. And then I thought, oh my gosh, she's fighting for her life.
22:42This is someone, people aren't perfect because they feel safe.
22:44People try to be perfect because they're scared that one wrong move is going to get them killed.
22:48And that's when the character really started bubbling up and I realized, oh my gosh, she's angry.
22:53She is so angry about all of these things that are happening.
22:57They're out of her control. She loves that her son's growing up.
23:00She's terrified that her son is growing up.
23:03And all those other things. And it was all, it was just all there.
23:06I think it, I think I kept going up to you being like, I mean, it probably sounded insane, but
23:11maybe that just happens anyway.
23:12But I just kept running up to you with the script. I'm like, Chris, it's here. It's all here.
23:17And, uh, and it was.
23:19Remember, a wife, a son, home.
23:31Ithaca's a kingdom waiting for a king.
23:36My dad is coming home.
23:39They're pining for a daddy you didn't even know.
23:43Like some sniffling bastard.
23:46Ithaca's king is coming back.
23:50Tom.
23:51What?
23:52It says, Tom.
23:53All right.
23:54So it's not for you, Tom.
23:55Okay.
23:56You've called Robert your safety blanket.
23:58That must be you.
23:59Yeah.
24:00Tom, you called Robert your safety blanket.
24:02When did this happen?
24:03You know what?
24:04It was probably in my interview 70 of the day.
24:06And I was like, he's my safety blanket.
24:08How do you mean that during the making of this movie?
24:10What is it about your relationship that means so much to you?
24:13And why do you view him and call him that?
24:16Rob and I have made three movies together now.
24:19Oh, that's one.
24:19All very different.
24:21I've loved every minute of working with Rob.
24:23And I've always felt like I've left the set a better actor because he kind of raises the stakes of
24:29every scene.
24:30And I think what was really exciting for me and also really daunting is that we get to establish the
24:36stakes of the movie for Matt's journey right at the beginning.
24:40And I felt the weight of that pressure.
24:42And I think that the kind of friction between our characters is so important for my entire journey.
24:50And I was really nervous about trying to make sure that that felt authentic and, you know, scary enough for
24:57my character to kind of make this desperate decision to go on this journey.
25:01And I knew when I found out that you were playing Antinous that I could relax because you're so good
25:07at being a dickhead.
25:09Perfect.
25:13Thank you so much.
25:14Thank you so much.
25:14The first ever EW Roundtable to end with dickhead.
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