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Tom Holland has starred in two of this year’s biggest-grossing films – “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey” – but he says it’s the latter that will impact the next stage of his career.
At a screening of Christopher
Nolan’s Greek epic in London on Thursday, Holland was asked what he’d taken away from the experience, in which he plays Odysseus’ son Telemachus, to which he replied: “I’d probably say it’s confidence and an ambition to see what else is out there for me.”
“I’ve been an admirer of Chris since I can remember, and to have the opportunity to work with him and to have his approval, and to sit in his house and watch his movie and to get a pat on the back, for me, just was like the perfect way for me to start whatever it is that I’m doing next,” Holland explained. “He’s given me a level of confidence as an actor that I don’t know if I had before and I’m very grateful that that is something that I can take away from this.”
Holland said that while he has also learned a lot from his fellow actors (which included his wife Zendaya) and crew members, he would be going into his next project “with this sense of achievement and this newfound confidence in what I think I can do” thanks to Nolan’s film. “That is what Chris and Emma do so well, is they really champion their actors,” he said.
The actor, who has played Spider-Man for over a decade, is understood to be in pre-production for a Fred Astaire biopic which will see him return to his dancing roots, given that Holland’s entry into showbiz was via the West End stage production of “Billy Elliot.”
Robert Pattinson, who plays the scheming Antinous in “The Odyssey,” joined Holland at the screening in London, where he also reflected on working with Nolan and his wife and producing partner Emma Nolan, saying the couple make filmmaking look “effortless.”
Underscoring the point, Pattinson, who is currently in London filming “The Batman: Part II,” revealed he lives next door to the couple in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Los Feliz, where he saw the Nolans holding a bake sale on their drive just days before they flew out to start shooting “The Odyssey,” undoubtedly the most ambitious project of their careers.
“It’s like a week out from shooting, and [Emma] had made about a million cakes, which were delicious, like incredible cakes, and she stayed all day,” Pattinson marvelled. “It was for a charity, and she’s like selling cakes in the driveway, to the neighbors, all day. This is about five days before the shoot. Her and Chris. I was literally like, this is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“I was literally just walking past. I’m like, ‘Oh, you’re still doing the cakes?’” he laughed. “It’s wild. They’re just on another level of calm.”
As well as shooting for three months across six countries on both land and sea, “The Odyssey” is the first feature film to be shot entirely on Imax 70mm film cameras (Nolan shot more than 2 million feet of film.)
“I think what’s so amazing about Chris is that he’s able to create scale, but without sacrificing the heart and soul of what makes the characters tick,” Holland said during the sceening, which was held at the 65-feet high BFI Imax theater in London.
“The beauty of the Imax camera is that it almost like looks into your soul,” he continued. “You know, like you have stage acting, and then it kind of goes to film acting, and there’s a difference. And then I think there’s even a bigger difference to IMAX acting.”
But there was one – large drawback – he said. Glancing at the enormous screen behind him, Holland quipped “I was very upset about my pimple opening the movie. It literally is the opening scene. First time you see me, it’s like right there.”
