Christopher Nolan Reveals Lupita Nyong’o’s Powerful Dual Role in “The Odyssey”
We’ve recently gotten a look at Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey thanks to the official trailer and a cache of gorgeous photos, but one A-list star we haven’t seen yet has been Lupita Nyong’o. Now, Christopher Nolan has revealed who the talented actress is playing—in fact, he cast her in two roles.
Nyong’o will play the woman whose face launched a thousand ships, Helen of Troy, the wife of Menelaus (Jon Bernthal), who is ultimately spirited away by the Trojan prince, Paris, the son of the King of Priam, and taken to Troy. Thus, Helen was blamed for starting the Trojan War. Nyong’o is also playing Helen’s sister, Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon (Benny Safdie), Menelaus’s brother.
Nolan confirmed the casting news to Time in a profile in which the writer/director also revealed his decision not to cast any actors to play the gods of Mount Olympus. Although he considered it, Nolan ultimately chose to go a more naturalistic route, embodying the gods through nature and the characters’ beliefs.
“I became more interested in the idea that, to people in that period, evidence of gods was everywhere,” Nolan said. “The wonderful thing about cinema, and IMAX in particular, is that you can take an audience to a place of immersion, feeling close to events like storms, turbulent seas, high winds. You want the audience to be on the boat with them, fearing the ocean, fearing the wrath of Poseidon, the way the characters do. That to me is so much more powerful than any individual image you can have [of a god].”
Matt Damon stars as the long-suffering Odysseus, who leaves his wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), and infant son, Telemachus (played as a young man by Tom Holland) to fight in the Trojan War. Odysseus is then waylaid for a full decade after the war, by vengeful gods, by nymphs, by monsters and the sea itself, from returning home to Ithaca. In his absence, Penelope has to outwit an increasingly barbaric cadre of would-be suitors, including Robert Pattinson’s Antinous.
The A-list cast includes Zendaya as the goddess Athena, Charlize Theron as the nymph Calypso, Himesh Patel as Eurylochus, Mia Goth as Melantho, and John Leguizamo as one of Odysseus’s most loyal allies, the swineherd Eumaeus.
Nolan and his cast and crew shot The Odyssey partially on the open seas and in locations across the world, all while using brand new IMAX film technology.
“This has been an absolute nightmare to film — but in all the right ways,” Nolan said at the recent CinemaCon in Las Vegas. The Odyssey was filmed across Greece, Morocco, Italy—including on “goat island,” a part of Sicily—Iceland, and Scotland. “We had an amazing time.” Nolan called Damon his “partner on this journey” and called his work “incredible.”
Nolan and his longtime collaborator, cinematographer Hoyt van Hoytema, used new, lighter-weight cameras this time around. The Odyssey is the first film shot entirely with IMAX cameras.
The Odyssey sails into theaters, and of course IMAX, on July 17.
Featured image: SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 27: Lupita Nyong’o poses in the IMDboat Exclusive Portrait Studio at San Diego Comic-Con 2024 at The IMDb Yacht on July 27, 2024 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for IMDb)
