Tom Holland Admits He Was Nervous About Key Relationship in ‘The Odyssey’ Until Casting News

Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s epic requires its cast to bear significant emotional weight, particularly in the tense dynamic between Telemachus and Antinous, the ruthless suitor aiming to seize control of Ithaca during Odysseus’s absence. For Tom Holland, who portrays Telemachus, capturing this relationship was a serious responsibility as production began.

In a group discussion for Entertainment Weekly’s Around the Table series with director Christopher Nolan and fellow cast members Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, and John Leguizamo, Holland shared the pressure he initially felt regarding this pivotal conflict.

He explained that the tension between his character and Antinous was crucial to his entire story arc, and he was genuinely anxious about making their rivalry feel authentic and menacing enough to justify Telemachus’s desperate quest to find his father.

That anxiety dissipated once Holland discovered who would be playing his onscreen adversary. Looking at his castmate, he revealed that learning Robert Pattinson was cast as Antinous allowed him to relax, humorously noting that Pattinson excels at portraying what he candidly described as a dickhead.

“He’s my safety blanket … we’ve made 3 movies together … we establish the stakes of this movie right at the beginning, I felt the weight of that pressure … and the friction between these characters … I knew I could relax [when he was cast] because he’s so good at playing a dickhead

Pattinson, taken aback by the compliment, asked when Holland had come to this realization, eliciting laughter from the group.

Their comfort level stems from a friendship that began nearly a decade before ‘The Odyssey’. Holland and Pattinson first collaborated on 2016’s ‘The Lost City of Z’, reuniting later for the psychological thriller ‘The Devil All the Time’. This shared history fostered a trust that made it easy for Holland to rely on Pattinson during such a significant production.

Holland has consistently praised Pattinson’s performance in various interviews, describing him as a true safety blanket on set and commending his willingness to take bold creative risks that often result in the perfect choices for his character.

Pattinson, for his part, has embraced Antinous’s villainy, telling Empire that he approached the character as the worst possible stepfather, motivated by a desire to force his way into a family that rejects him.

Holland has also taken the opportunity during the press tour to commend Nolan’s directing style, sharing with GQ Sports that collaborating with the director and producer Emma Thomas was an incredible experience, and witnessing their on-set partnership was one of the highlights of his career.

With ‘The Odyssey’ now in theaters, featuring a cast that includes Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, and Jon Bernthal, the genuine camaraderie between Holland and Pattinson enhances the believability of their characters’ antagonism on screen.

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