The OdysseyThe awards campaign is in full swing, with Matt Damon, Tom Holland, John Leguizamo, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Himesh Patel and Elliot Page attending a screening in Los Angeles on Saturday night.
The group gathered for a 40-minute Q&A session to discuss their experience on Christopher Nolan’s hit film, while complimenting each other on their performances. And even though he wasn’t in attendance, Robert Pattinson stole the show, as Damon revealed that “Ben Affleck probably talked to me for 20 minutes about Rob after seeing the movie.”
“When they’re talking about a courageous performance, Ben says, ‘You had the benefit of all the weight and weight and power of Christopher Nolan’s storytelling at your back,’ and I said, ‘Yeah,’ and he goes, ‘Rob had all the weight and weight and power of Christopher Nolan’s storytelling falling on him. And the way he did it, it was like watching a guy run into an avalanche,'” Damon told the crowd at the Museum of the Academy. “Any time he could be more cowardly, more hateful, you could see his wheels turning. ‘How could I make this even worse for myself?’ And it was so fun to watch because he’s such a dynamic actor and so interesting.
There was also a lot of praise for Damon himself, as the actors highlighted how much the star had to go through physically and emotionally to play the role of Ulysses.
Patel remembers that one day, while they were filming some brutal scenes on the seas, “A group of guys on the boat were starting to like the flag, and Matt turned to us and he said, ‘I know it’s hard, but how many actors are there in SAG? Every one of them would die to be where you are right now.’ And we said, “Well, we can’t argue with that. » I mean, it’s absolutely true. Shut up, keep going,” adding that even during trying times, Damon would be “smiling, happy, he loves it.”
Holland shouted out the scene between Damon and Anne Hathaway when Ulysses returned to Ithaca but is still in hiding, saying he wasn’t supposed to be on set that day but wanted to come see the actors in action.
“Seeing you go the distance in that scene really set the tone for us as to what level we should all aspire to for a film like this,” Holland said. “I couldn’t do it yet. I need a few more years.”
Tom Holland, Zendaya, John Leguizamo, Matt Damon, Charlize Theron, Elliot Page and Himesh Patel at the screening in Los Angeles.
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Universal Pictures
Damon also spoke about Nolan’s specific take on Ulysses, saying, “His adaptation showed very clearly what he wanted: this weariness, this regret, this shame. It’s this foundational story in Western literature, and it’s about coming home and that idea, that kind of twist, that he wasn’t actually ready to go home, was pretty shocking from an academic point of view… when I got to that line the first time I read the scenario, where Annie says: “You were the sea people, I literally put the scenario down for a second, I was very shocked.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Holland added to his previous comments that this role was his last chance to play a boy (“I can grow facial hair now!”), noting “it was really kind of a cathartic experience for me because it really felt like a farewell to the first chapter of my career.” Theron teased that in her role as Calypso, “like Tom, I felt like it was the last time I got to play a young girl.”
Many stars also spoke about their fear of being the one to derail Nolan’s epic, with Zendaya admitting in her role as Athena that she was “incredibly nervous” because “I didn’t want to be the one who was going to mess up that take, especially when you’re shooting on an IMAX film and you can hear the sound. You’re like, ‘I want to make sure that whatever my contribution to this is, I’m giving as much as everyone here is clearly giving.’ So that gave me a lot of anxiety. But, she continued, “It helped that Tom came on set that day (from filming his Battle of Troy scene) and he was like in the corner, like, ‘You got this, you’re doing good!'”
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