Ahead of Odysseus' journey hitting the big screen, Christopher Nolan has found the time to joke about offering the lead role in The Odyssey to other actors, who all passed on the opportunity before taking it to Matt Damon. With the release date looming on the horizon, the cast and the filmmaker of the movie are in full gear to promote the adaptation of Homer’s epic. The ambitious move to show Odysseus’ journey home on a scale unimaginable is something everyone is waiting to see how it turns out.

Regardless, the entire team of the film is doing their best to promote the film, and in the process, which even means receiving a hilarious process tidbit from the helmsman of the movie himself.

While in an interview with Fandango, Christopher Nolan, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, and Tom Holland talked about The Odyssey and their experience working on the project with the legendary Christopher Nolan. They all shared their experiences and their characters, and how they brought them to life. And while talking about his role and how he got it, Matt Damon in particular triggered a funny response from the director.

The interviewer asked Damon about how he had said that the role of Odysseus came to him at the right time in his career and urged him to elaborate on that. Damon replied by saying that the scale and the vision of the movie required someone way more mature than he ever was in his early career. As the veteran actor belted out names like Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Christian Bale, and more, Nolan wasted no time in jumping in. 

"They all passed," the filmmaker said, eliciting a wave of laughter from the cast present at the interview. 

Damon counted himself to be lucky to have landed the part, while talking on the Fandango interview, noting that Nolan generally hires from a pool of actors with whom he has worked and who are in his stable, like Leonardo DiCaprio, Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey, Cillian Murphy, and Tom Hardy. Nolan, on the other hand, slyly revealed that all of it is true; it also means his current leading man is probably somewhere at the forefront as well. 

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While this remains one of the highlights of the interview, there was another when a cast member, who was not present there, got some precious appreciation from Nolan himself.

Upon being asked about Zendaya’s role in The Odyssey and how she is the conscience of the film, Christopher Nolan said that everything featuring Zendaya in the movie was "always perfect." Zendaya, for one, plays Athena, the goddess of wisdom, in Nolan's sea epic. For the unversed, Athena's role in Odysseus’ journey back home is probably the most crucial, as she is the one who aids him every step of the way, even mentoring his son, Telemachus, in his absence. 

The compliment to Zendaya obviously made her beau, Tom Holland, blush, and he even owned up to it. He said that a compliment to her kind of makes him feel happy and proud. This was the heart-melting moment of the interview. The Odyssey comes to theaters on July 17, and the best possible way to watch the movie is in IMAX, as emphasized in the interview as well.

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What do you think of Christopher Nolan’s joke about the role of Odysseus? Do you think it could have been someone else? Share your thoughts.