{"id":698673,"date":"2026-07-18T16:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T16:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/698673\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T16:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T16:42:13","slug":"no-phone-water-bottles-uggs-life-on-christopher-nolans-sets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/698673\/","title":{"rendered":"No phone, water bottles, Uggs: Life on Christopher Nolan’s sets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Odyssey\u201d director Christopher Nolan runs a tight warship. And it\u2019s expected to earn his film as much as $100 million<\/a> this opening weekend, as fans made their own epic journeys \u2014 even flying across the country<\/a> \u2014 to see it in IMAX.<\/p>\n

Bringing Homer\u2019s 8th-century epic poem to the big screen meant actors \u2014\u00a0including Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong\u2019o, John Leguizamo and Robert Pattinson \u2014 practically lived like it was 750 BCE.<\/p>\n

No phones or water bottles (too noisy) are reportedly allowed on set, per Nolan\u2019s house rules. He\u2019s even admitted to banning UGGs. The 55-year-old British-American director himself refuses to have a chair, only carries a flip phone and doesn\u2019t have email<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bringing Homer\u2019s 8th-century epic poem to the big screen meant actors \u2014\u00a0including Matt Damon (above, center), Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong\u2019o, John Leguizamo and Robert Pattinson \u2014 practically lived like it was 750 BCE. Universal Pictures via AP<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the banning of cell phones, part of it is he wants people to be focused on the craft. He wants to make movies in as much of the old-fashioned way as possible, where people are focused on the film,\u201d Jason Eberl, co-editor of \u201cThe Philosophy of Christopher Nolan,\u201d <\/a> told Page Six.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNot having phones on set lends itself to a very, very focused set. There\u2019s a different vibration on a Chris Nolan set. Everyone is present, everyone is ready, alert and doing their bit to keep the train on the tracks,\u201d Nyong\u2019o, who plays the dual roles Helen of Troy and her twin sister Clytemnestra, said in an interview with The Associated Press.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to minimize distractions,\u201d Nolan told Stephen Colbert. \u201cEven though we\u2019re all engaged in this absurd process where this wall is real, but there\u2019s lights and a guy with a microphone, you\u2019re asking the actor to focus in on the reality \u2026 Anything we can do to keep that reality, that bubble, intact.\u201d<\/p>\n

No phones or water bottles (too noisy) are reportedly allowed on set, per director Christopher Nolan\u2019s house rules. He\u2019s even admitted to banning UGGs. Getty Images for Universal Pictures<\/p>\n

That was especially vital with \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d as production was interrupted every three minutes<\/a> to change the 70mm film needed to make Hollywood\u2019s first-ever completely IMAX movie (most only use the special cameras for action scenes). <\/p>\n

\u201cNot everybody gets great dressing rooms and not everyone gets first class transportation. He cuts corners on the things that will not impact the movie \u2014 and then he puts money into things that will make the movie better. Making the movie better is his only focus,\u201d one Hollywood insider told Page Six, calling Nolan \u201cthe most important filmmaker in the world\u201d right now.<\/p>\n

And all those rules work: \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d came in early, using just 91 of its scheduled 100 days, and, Nolan has said, under budget, despite filming across multiple countries \u2014 Greece, Italy, Iceland, Scotland, Malta, Morocco \u2014 and on elaborate sets including a real Viking longship on the Mediterranean<\/a>. (That sometimes meant a seasick cast, who were filmed vomiting over the side<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Among the movie\u2019s elaborate set pieces was a real Viking longship that sailed the Mediterranean. (And sometimes meant a seasick cast, who were filmed vomiting over the side.) Universal Pictures via AP<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery decision, from the way a scene is shot to the smallest character detail, has a purpose behind it,\u201d actor\u00a0Raimy Lang, 18, who plays teenage Antinous, told Page Six.<\/p>\n

One of Nolan\u2019s most awe-inspiring scenes shows the story\u2019s Trojan Horse half-submerged in the icy sea with actor Jon Bernthal actually submerged inside it for hours.<\/p>\n

Without digital effects, Nolan\u2019s team erected a 60-foot puppet version of the man-eating Cyclops Polyphemus, shooting the scene in the darkness in a cave with real firelight creating a shadowy effect.<\/p>\n

On the other end of the spectrum, a scene showing the descent of Odysseus \u2014\u00a0played by a bearded Matt Damon \u2014 into the underworld was shot during Iceland\u2019s \u201cwhite nights\u201d period of 24\/7 daylight.<\/p>\n

Anne Hathaway plays Penelope and Tom Holland is Telemachus in \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d which is expected to earn $100 million its opening weekend. Universal Pictures via AP<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the hardest movie I\u2019ve ever done, by far. Not even close [to anything else],} Damon, who appears to nearly drown in one scene in the film, told \u201c60 Minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first meeting I had with [Nolan], at the end of the meeting, he said this movie is going to be hard,\u201d Damon, said of his third film with the director, following 2014\u2019s \u201cInterstellar\u201d and \u201cOppenheimer,\u201d which won seven Oscars at the 96th Academy Awards in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe looked at me and said, \u2018No, this movie is going to be really hard.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Post\u2019s movie critic, Johnny Oleksinski, wrote: \u201cOne of Odysseus\u2019 best scenes, though, isn\u2019t massive at all. It\u2019s in the hillside cottage of the witch Circe, whose favorite pastime is turning warriors into pigs. The superb Samantha Morton gives a barnburner speech about why her victims deserve to be swine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Filming with stars like Damon and Zendaya was interrupted every three minutes to change the 70mm film needed to make Hollywood\u2019s first-ever completely IMAX movie (most only use the special cameras for action scenes). Universal Pictures via AP<\/p>\n

And while the story was written, of course, by Homer, Nolan\u2019s scripts give actors much to work with \u2014 earning Oscar wins for Heath Ledger, Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey, Jr. Nolan writes his own screenplays, sometimes alone (\u201cInception,\u201d \u201cTenet\u201d), sometimes with his brother Jonathan (\u201cInterstellar,\u201d \u201cThe Dark Knight\u201d) and sometimes adapting others\u2019 stories (\u201cMemento,\u201d \u201cOppenheimer\u201d). <\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t always easy to get his work sold: His 2000 psychological thriller, \u201cMemento,\u201d took a year to find a distributor.<\/p>\n

From there, his work continued to blow up \u2014 sometimes literally, through his commitment to making scenes in real life as much as possible. He collapsed a building for \u201cThe Dark Knight.\u201d\u00a0With \u201cTenet,\u201d he bought a 747 plane and built a hanger building to crash it into.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first meeting I had with [Nolan], at the end of the meeting, he said this movie is going to be hard,\u201d Damon, said of his third film with the director, following 2014\u2019s \u201cInterstellar\u201d and \u201cOppenheimer,\u201d which won seven Oscars at the 96th Academy Awards in 2024. \u201cHe looked at me and said, \u2018No, this movie is going to be really hard.\u2019\u201d Universal Pictures via AP<\/p>\n

In 2024, \u201cOpenhemimer\u201d won seven Oscars including Nolan\u2019s first two, for best director and best picture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All told, Nolan\u2019s blockbusters have won 18 Academy Awards and raked in more than $6 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel a real responsibility to try and get as much on screen for the audience as possible. To give the audience the fullest flavor. The fullest set. The fullest set of images and events that we can give them for a given story,\u201d he told \u201c60 Minutes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has this ability to create huge cinematic experiences while still keeping the focus on the human side of the story,\u201d Lang, the young actor from \u201cThe Odyssey,\u201d told Page Six. \u201cYou can see the amount of thought that goes into every choice, and it\u2019s inspiring to watch someone who has reached that level still be so passionate and involved in every detail.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Odyssey\u201d director Christopher Nolan runs a tight warship. And it\u2019s expected to earn his film as much…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,2826,96,123882,2828,2839,33357,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-698673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-christopher-nolan","tag-entertainment","tag-lupita-nyongo","tag-matt-damon","tag-movies","tag-oscars","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}