Tom Holland reveals how Robert Downey Jr and Nolan veterans shaped his turn in The Odyssey

Tom Holland did not just wander into Christopher Nolan 's The Odyssey and wing it. Before he ever put on Telemachus's sandals, he built himself a support system: one blunt pre-shoot chat with Robert Downey Jr., and a crash course in how Nolan-world veterans operate by simply watching them work.

The pregame call to Downey (and why it mattered)

Holland says the first big nudge came before cameras rolled. On the Today show, he singled out one long conversation with Robert Downey Jr. as a turning point in how he approached Telemachus, a role he calls unlike anything he had done before.

"I spoke with Robert at length before I started the movie. "

He also pointed to early days on set with Anne Hathaway and steady time with Matt Damon as key calibration points, and he described Christopher Nolan as the kind of director who meets actors where they are. None of it was a formal masterclass. It was more like osmosis: watching Hathaway, Damon, and Nolan pull from years of shared shorthand and hard-won tricks, then adjusting in real time. Damon, for his part, has been saying something similar out on the promo trail — that everything he has done up to now fed directly into this film.

Who had Holland's back (and how)

• Robert Downey Jr.: the candid, pre-shoot guidance that set Holland's compass for Telemachus
• Anne Hathaway: early scene work alongside her to find the tone
• Matt Damon: a steady read on Nolan's process, with the perspective that every prior job led to this one
• Christopher Nolan: 'an actor 's director' in Holland's words, shaping performance through trust and precision

Nolan's unusually public praise

Nolan is not exactly known for gushy pull-quotes, which is why his take on Holland in Universal's official production notes jumped out. He calls Holland's Telemachus nuanced, sensitive, and emotionally grounded — a demanding coming-of-age arc handled with real control. He goes further, framing Holland as one of the standout actors of his generation, a mix of raw ability and a disciplined, truth-first process. From a director who usually keeps that stuff close to the vest, it lands with some weight.

The production: big even by Nolan standards

Nolan labels The Odyssey the most ambitious shoot of his career: six countries, and more than two million feet of IMAX film chewed up in the process. Holland tried to match that scale with a 91-day sprint of physically heavy sequences. He pushed so hard that producer Emma Thomas reportedly had to tap the brakes and remind him that Telemachus is still a novice warrior, not a seasoned killer.