Tom Holland‘s role in Christopher Nolan‘s Imax-shot The Odyssey presented a learning curve for the young actor.
With his role as Telemachus in the epic blockbuster, premiering July 17, the actor admitted he “thought I was totally sh*tting the bed” during his first day on set with the director, who had to cut every three minutes due to the Imax technology.
“Working with the Imax cameras for the first time is an experience,” he told Fandango. “It is unlike anything I have ever seen before, and I didn’t know that it only ran for three minutes. So, I remember you would continue cutting, and I was with Jon [Bernthal] like, ‘Why does he keep cutting? Why does he keep doing that?’”
Holland continued, “And in my head, I was like, ‘Does he not like what we’re doing? What is happening?’ And then, I remember it was actually [stunt coordinator] George Cottle that was like, ‘No, no, no, no, no, there’s only three minutes in the mag.’ I was like, ‘Oh, thank god.’ I thought I was totally sh*tting the bed in this scene.”
Nolan’s The Odyssey has become the first film to be shot entirely with Imax cameras. He previously used Imax in making Oppenheimer (2023), Tenet (2020), Dunkirk (2017), Interstellar (2014), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Inception (2010) and The Dark Knight (2008).
“One of the great satisfactions of my career has been being part of an evolutionary process of a [filmmaking] system,” said Nolan of The Odyssey. “My excitement for having finished the film entirely in Imax is: what other filmmakers might want to do that. I just want to go see somebody else’s film when they do it this way.”
An adaptation of one of the first stories in human history, The Odyssey follows Odysseus (Matt Damon) through the incredible trials and mythical encounters he faces on his decade-long journey home to wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and son Telemachus (Holland) after the Trojan War.
The film also stars Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie, John Leguizamo, Elliot Page, Himesh Patel, Bill Irwin, Samantha Morton, Jesse Garcia, Will Yun Lee, Rafi Gavron, Shiloh Fernandez, Mia Goth and more.
