The Odyssey Cast Reveals The Secret To Christopher Nolan's Directing Prowess [Exclusive]

Everyone always says this sort of thing about their latest movie, but, in this case, it's true: "The Odyssey" really is Christopher Nolan's biggest and most ambitious movie yet. In one sense, that's to be expected. You don't adapt the most foundational story in all of Western civilization to cut corners and avoid capturing the grandeur of this very literal epic. In another sense, well, that's still saying a lot for the filmmaker behind the game-changing "The Dark Knight" trilogy, the mind-bending duo of "Inception" and "Tenet," the galaxy-spanning "Interstellar," and, oh yeah, an entire movie unfolding out of order in "Memento."

For the cast of "The Odyssey," however, that scope and scale could've presented a major challenge to portraying their larger-than-life characters. Fortunately, I had the chance to attend the New York junket and talk to both John Leguizamo (who portrays the blind Odysseus loyalist Eumaeus) and Himesh Patel (Odysseus' fellow soldier and shipmate Eurylochus). Having previously worked with him on "Tenet," Patel has a unique insight into how Nolan has changed as a filmmaker  — or not — since his COVID-year release came and went.

According to him, the real secret sauce that Nolan possesses comes from his ability to take a mammoth production and, in the midst of countless moving pieces to keep track of at any given moment, dig down and find a way to capture moments of intimacy amid the chaos:

"We had a big scale on 'Tenet,' still nothing compared to ['The Odyssey']. But when it comes down to the work — what's happening around the camera, in front of the camera — it's actually very intimate, and that didn't change on this production. So, the work is the work for [Nolan], and everything else is happening around, but this is a protected space."

"The Odyssey" marks the first time John Leguizamo has been cast in a Christopher Nolan production, and, as a result, his process to make himself comfortable on such a sprawling set was one of discovery. Add to that his own unique approach to playing a character (as he admitted to me during our conversation), and it's easy to imagine a scenario where an inexperienced director lost sight of how to bring out the best performance from a veteran like this. Fortunately, Nolan addressed this very issue simply by doing what he's always done: creating space for his actors to find their rhythm and treat even the smallest conversational scenes with the same weight as any given action sequence.

More than anything else, this is what allows an unassuming character like Eumaeus to become the beating heart of the storyline back home in Ithaca. For a newbie like Leguizamo, any concerns he may have had were quickly put to rest on set. As he told me, Nolan's directing prowess basically speaks for itself:

"That's what I discovered, is [I asked myself], 'How is he going to keep this massive, epic — seven countries, this cast — how do you get to these intimate moments where they're small and the acting is between two people?' But he was able to do it. I mean, he really protects that space. You get to rehearse it first, and then you discover it, and he goes with what the actors are doing."

In many ways, it's truly kismet that Nolan was unable to direct "Troy" years ago and instead took the long way around to this final destination. Does that sound familiar? "The Odyssey" sails into theaters July 17, 2026.