“Telemachus is a boy becoming a man through his own journey: a son protecting his mother and reconnecting with a father he thought he had lost,” Holland says. “But it is also about a young person seeing the craziness of his world and figuring out his proper place in it.”
For Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas, Holland proved to be the perfect choice to embody the role. “I’d never had the chance to work with Tom before, but have long admired his extraordinary talent,” Nolan says. “Working with him confirmed for me that he’s one of the great actors of his generation, bringing a commitment and focus to his work that combines raw talent with a disciplined process aimed at inhabiting the truth of the character. The Odyssey is , in large part, the story of Telemachus’s coming of age, and Tom has brought a sensitive understanding of the layers and complexities of this character that are essential to the tale.”
Adds Thomas: “I don’t think I had ever realized what physical actor Tom is. Obviously, I have seen his work, but you don’t really understand it until you see him do it in person. In fact, because Telemachus is a young man still coming into his strengths and quality of character, there were moments where Chris had to be saying, ‘Please don’t do it quite as well! You’re not meant to be an expert yet!’ He was just fabulous.”
Holland had spent years hearing about what it is like to make a Christoper Nolan movie from his longtime Spider-Man stunt coordinator, GEORGE COTTLE, who has worked with Nolan on all of his films since Batman Begins. “For the last decade, George had been telling me about the wonders of a Chris Nolan set, and I was always like: ‘How different can it really be?’” Holland says. “But you can’t understand it until you see it for yourself. I remember my first day, in Morocco, the scope and scale were really overwhelming. And the IMAX cameras almost take you back to square one as actor: You have to kind of throw out techniques you’ve learned with a digital camera or a smaller camera and learn how to dance with the camera. But Chris and his team are so great at giving you the time you need to adjust to their style and their way of working. It was incredibly fulfilling.”
One new talent Holland had to develop on the job was somewhat ironic: while he has spent over a decade doing some of the most complex fight scenes in recent movie history as Spider-Man, The Odyssey required him to meet a similar standard while showing his face. “We were not doing action for the sake of action; we were trying to serve the characters and propel the story forward,” Holland says. “We shot this one fight. I’d learned it; I had it absolutely down. We did it a few times and Chris said, ‘I need you to be more tied into what this other character is doing.’ Which is not always something I have had to think about. I am used to doing fight scenes with a mask on, so I had to learn how to incorporate more performance into the grandeur of the fights.” By all accounts, he nailed it. “Tom had to know his part of that fight inside and out,” Nolan says. “And he had to be able to do it quickly, efficiently, and repeat it as we needed for days. Fortunately, he’s an extraordinary athlete.”
Working with Nolan, his crew and this cast was an apex career experience for Holland. “It reminded of being 18 and on set with all the Avengers for the first time and being blown away by it,” Holland says. “I just feel so lucky to be a part of it. Everyone brought their absolute A-game. Every day I watched amazing people give their best and do their best. It was such a joy.”
She was thrilled for her co-star and partner, Tom Holland, when he got the role of Telemachus. She was even more excited when Holland came home from a meeting with the director with some news.
“I remember when Tom got his call and I was over the moon for him to get the opportunity to be in Christopher Nolan’s next film,” Zendaya says. “It never crossed my mind that there would be an opportunity where we would both be able to be a part of this. I was just excited that he was doing it. So, when he came home and said, ‘Chris wants to talk to you about something,’ I said: “Wait – what?!’ It was like I had won the lottery. It’s so special to be able to watch everyone work and watch someone you love work, then be able to be there with them and work with them, too. Coolest job on the planet.”
Zendaya found her way into Athena by focusing on her human qualities and her connection to Odysseus. “I really connected with the emotional component of it,” Zendaya says. “Athena becomes a reflection of the moral struggle that Odysseus is having within himself. You realize that the manifestation of this goddess is a kind of tough love, guiding him and bringing him through his journey. In a deeper sense, I think he is haunted by the decisions that he has made and the pain that he has caused. Coming to terms with that is part of fighting to get back to his own family.”
Her first days of work were spent shooting the sack of Troy on the film’s gigantic immersive set in Morocco. “I was so nervous,” Zendaya says. “Let’s just say it was intense. And that’s to say nothing of the world Chris created for us. The sets are so massive and there’s so much detail and thought in every costume, set piece. I didn’t have to do much acting because I felt I had stepped into Troy. But it was exhilarating and almost felt like a dream. It was cold and raining, but I think with the adrenaline, I didn’t feel it. Everybody kept asking me, ‘Do you want a jacket?’ I was so fired up I forgot it was cold.”
Befitting the incarnation of wisdom that she plays, Zendaya says that what sticks with her most about the experience are the deeper meanings of Nolan’s adaptation. “I found it very human and very emotional,” Zendaya says. “It is a story about love, whether it’s the love for your people or your children or your partner. But ultimately it’s a story of love for other human beings. In the movie, this is codified in Zeus’s law, or what we know now as The Golden Rule: Treat people the way you want to be treated. Which is something we need to be reminded of. We often forget to see other people as human beings, see life through their eyes, see their pain, see the effect you have on other people. That, to me, was the emotional meaning of the story.”
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