Think 'Inception': Elliot Page on how 'The Odyssey' script felt
Eliot Page recalls reading The Odyssey's script and thinking of another movie, just not the one you'd assume.
The first face audiences see in The Odyssey is Elliot Page as Sinon — a doomed decoy whose sacrifice kicks off Odysseus ’ Trojan Horse gambit. The part only runs about six minutes of screen time, but critics zeroed in on its impact, with Variety calling Page the movie ’s “emotional anchor.”
“It was similar to reading the script for Inception, like I really was just left breathless,” he told Fallon. “Something that was so complex, so massive, and with this tremendous engine and heart that just kept moving forward. It just really blew me away.”
Appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Page said Nolan’s new script brought him back to that first read of Inception — dense, layered, and built so every character choice matters. It’s a compact role here, but it opens the film and sets the moral stakes from the jump.
“I was terrified and just wanting to make sure I did an OK job, you know, and pulled it off in the movie. But it was the good kind of nerves,” he said on The Daily Show.
Page added that the pressure came from the character’s emotional weight and from shooting sequences loaded with Nolan’s signature practical effects. Sinon is introduced as a sacrificial pawn, luring the Trojans into bringing the wooden horse inside their walls — a turn that lets Odysseus and his men slip into the city under cover.
Back with Nolan
Nolan packed his Homer adaptation with familiar collaborators. Alongside Page, the director brought back several actors he’s worked with before:
- Anne Hathaway
- Robert Pattinson
- Matt Damon
- Elliot Page
Page previously teamed with Nolan on Inception and said the new film carries that same propulsive heart beneath its complexity. Before cameras rolled, he and Nolan had several conversations about who Sinon is and how to play him.