Tom Holland’s already done a lot of big movies throughout his career, but working with Christopher Nolan on an epic on the scale of The Odyssey is a whole different beast. It’d be intimidating for any young actor and, while he got an early boost of confidence, he also got rattled when shooting a scene. Holland thought he was disappointing Nolan during the shoot, but it turned out there was something else at play.
Holland spoke about his experience working on the upcoming 2026 movie release during an interview with Fandango. After recalling an early scene with his MCU co-star Jon Bernthal that gave him confidence, Holland remembered feeling uneasy when Nolan frequently cut his scenes mid-performance. He said:
Working with the IMAX cameras for the first time is an experience. It is unlike anything I have ever seen before, and I didn’t know that it only ran for three minutes. So I remember [Nolan] would continue cutting, and I was with Jon [Bernthal] like, ‘Why does he keep cutting? Why does he keep doing that?’ And in my head, I was like, ‘Does he not like what we’re doing? What is happening?’
I can imagine that Christopher Nolan shouting “cut” three minutes into a scene would devastate any actor, especially if they felt they were in the zone. Holland had amassed a lot of reverence for Nolan and the way he runs his sets, so it had to be devastating to think he was letting him down.
Fortunately, that wasn’t the case. While they may create great images (and make for snazzy-looking popcorn buckets), IMAX cameras have one downside, and Tom Holland didn’t know that. As the star recalled:
And then, I remember it was actually [stunt coordinator] George Cottle that was like, ‘No, no, no, there’s only three minutes in the mag.’ I was like, ‘Oh, thank god.’ I thought I was totally shitting the bed in this scene.
It seems like after the Spider-Man star was filled in, he had a wave of relief crash over him — one that was harder than the ones that shipwrecked Odysseus during his journey in The Odyssey. Fortunately, Holland didn’t let Christopher Nolan down, and he plays a sizable role in the R-rated historical epic.
In the movie, Holland plays Telemachus, the son of Odysseus (Matt Damon) and Queen Penelope (Anne Hathaway). Telemachus has grown into a man in his father’s absence and is burdened with protecting his mother from suitors who seek to step in and take over the land.
It’s likely that a portion of readers are vaguely familiar with The Odyssey, which is often required reading in high school in the United States. Admittedly, I only remember the part with the Sirens and the Cyclops, but I’m sure more of it will come back to me once I’m watching it on a big screen with my Trojan Horse popcorn bucket.
With an all-star cast lined up, The Odyssey is poised to be a cinematic spectacle, and it could draw people to cinemas. This production has “prestige film” written all over it, and I’m already wondering if it’ll net some serious awards later this year and in 2026. It’ll be interesting to see if it lives up to the hype.
We don’t have long to wait to see how the movie does at the box office, as The Odyssey hits theaters on July 17th. I’m still hoping to see the movie in IMAX opening week but, whenever I see the film, I’ll definitely have Tom Holland’s story about the IMAX camera in mind while watching his scenes.
