{"id":536756,"date":"2026-07-07T02:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T02:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/536756\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T02:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T02:50:11","slug":"christopher-nolan-asked-tom-holland-for-a-referral-to-get-zendaya-in-the-odyssey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/536756\/","title":{"rendered":"Christopher Nolan Asked Tom Holland for a Referral to Get Zendaya in The Odyssey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Holland got to tell Zendaya that Christopher Nolan wanted her for a role in \u201cThe Odyssey.\u201d<\/p>\n

During an interview with \u201cAccess Hollywood,\u201d Holland explained that his own meeting with \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d director led to him being asked if Zendaya would be open to a part as well. Nolan than asked if Holland could go home and ask her about playing Athena in the film.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt my meeting with Chris, he asked me a question, he said, \u2018Do you mind if I ask you a question? And please don\u2019t be offended by my asking,\u2019\u201d Holland said. \u201cAnd I thought he was going to ask me, like, \u2018Can we put lifts in your shoes or something to make you taller?\u2019 I didn\u2019t know what he was going to say. And he went, \u2018Would you be offended if I asked Zendaya to play Athena?\u2019 I was like, \u2018Why would I be offended?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI just said, \u2018Oh, mate, I would be honored. That\u2019s amazing. I\u2019m sure she would love to.\u2019 And then I asked him, I said, \u2018Do you want me to tell her?\u2019 And he said, yeah. I went home, and she asked me about the meeting, and I just said to her, \u2018You should read the script again.\u2019 And she was like, \u2018Well, I read it.\u2019 I said, \u2018No, no, no. Just trust me. Like, you should read it again.\u2019 And she was like, \u2018What are you talking about?\u2019 I said, \u2018Just read it again, but read Athena, like, really closely.\u2019 And the little corners of her mouth went up. It was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"THE\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Holland has made his excitement for \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d \u2013 where he plays Telemachus \u2013 very clear. And he\u2019s set for a massive July with \u201cSpider-Man: Brand New Day\u201d releasing in theaters just two weeks after Nolan\u2019s film. In fact, he managed to get the schedule for the MCU flick altered so he could be a part of \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d \u2013 which he thinks led to the upcoming Spidey story being the strongest yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think one of the reasons why Sony were happy to move is because Chris has that reputation of, \u2018This movie isn\u2019t going to go five months over, and we aren\u2019t actually going to lose Tom for two years,\u2019\u201d Holland said. \u201cAny other director, it might have been a slightly different conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that switching shooting time for \u201cBrand New Day\u201d allowed director Destin Daniel Cretton to get the script even more honed: \u201cHe wouldn\u2019t have been ready to make the movie when we were ready to go,\u201d Holland said. \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t have had the six-month period to develop the script with Destin to get it to a place where it is now. And I truly believe that we\u2019ve made the best version of any \u2018Spider-Man\u2019 movie going. So while it was a tough pill to swallow for Sony, I think in hindsight, they\u2019re very grateful that it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Odyssey\u201d releases in theaters on July 17.<\/p>\n

Watch Holland\u2019s \u201cAccess Hollywood\u201d interview below:<\/p>\n

\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Play\"\/<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Matt\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Holland got to tell Zendaya that Christopher Nolan wanted her for a role in \u201cThe Odyssey.\u201d During…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,50678,93,61,60,83194,8144,15117],"class_list":["post-536756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-christopher-nolan","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-the-odyssey","tag-tom-holland","tag-zendaya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}