By 
Filmmaker Christopher Nolan has spoken about one of the most jarring creative choices he’s made with his upcoming film adaptation of Homer’s “The Odyssey” – the dialogue.
Pre-release complaints about the film have taken it to task for its lack of historical accuracy, an odd complaint for an adaptation of a fantasy epic that itself was full of anachronisms. There’s also been a lot of online bluster from conservative circles over the casting of two tiny roles.
The most eyebrow-raising actual creative element has been the film’s use of fairly contemporary dialogue and American accents across the board, even from British actors. That is unusual for the genre as it generally adopts British accents.
Speaking to The Los Angeles Times about the decision, he said that with the film’s dialogue, he wanted to prioritise “language that has emotional, not intellectual, meaning to people,” which explains the contemporary language:
“I was maybe being naïve, it might bite me on the ass, but I wanted an earthy narrative. To me it was a no-brainer.”
That push for emotional resonance goes to a lot of his creative choices on the film, far beyond just the dialogue, that have riled some people up it seems. It also includes casting because he wanted familiar faces in key roles.
He says: “[These] are mythological figures, iconic in some ways. I wanted to cast it big, get the finest bunch of actors” in order to help contemporary audiences feel immediately at home in the ancient world. That was a big reason he chose Damon:
“I’d worked with Matt twice before and he has such a great connection to the audience, he draws them in. For this very complex character, you need an actor who disappears into parts, who is very open to the audience. You want the audience to go with him through his mistakes — and he makes a lot of mistakes. Matt was everyman for ‘The Martian,’ a kind of superhero for the Jason Bourne films, and Odysseus is part everyman, part superhero.”
He added that the other actor who came in and impacted the whole production was Samantha Morton with her take on Circe:
“This was a massive film and she is someone who comes in and changes the dynamic. In some weird way, the film lived or died over that character. She was the fulcrum. I’ve always admired Samantha’s work, she brings so much depth of thinking about her role, there are no limitations on her performance.”
Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o and Jon Bernthal co-star in the film which opens in cinemas on July 17th.
The post Nolan Explains “The Odyssey” Dialogue appeared first on Dark Horizons.
