18 July 2026
Sir Christopher Nolan’s wife Emma Thomas warns actors that the director will call them from an unknown number as he does not own a smartphone.
The Odyssey’s director Sir Christopher Nolan
And this was the case for Matt Damon, who stars in the 55-year-old filmmaker’s take on Homer’s ancient Greek epic, The Odyssey, as Odysseus.
The 55-year-old actor told the new issue of PEOPLE magazine that 54-year-old producer Emma “had texted me, ‘Are you around for a call today?’ Because Chris famously doesn’t have a phone”.
Matt added that she “always gives you a heads-up if he’s going to call”, adding: “And then you get a phone call from a nondescript number, because he’s just picking up a line at Universal Studios.”
Christopher – who, in 2023, revealed to The Hollywood Reporter he does not use a phone due to “distraction”, nor use text or email to communicate – added that even he “doesn’t know what number it’s going to be”.
He and Matt – who previously worked on the 2014 sci-fi/adventure Interstellar and the 2023 thriller Oppenheimer – spoke for “10 or 15 minutes” before Christopher told him of his plans to adapt The Odyssey, “only six months after Oppenheimer had gone through the Oscars and all of that”.
Matt added: “So I just thought we were catching up, which we did. And then he blurted out, ‘Yeah, I’m thinking of going back to work.’ And I went, ‘Wait, already?'”
The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus (Matt), the Greek king of Ithaca, and his long and perilous journey home to reunite with his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) following the Trojan War.
And Christopher did not have Matt or Anne, 43, in mind when writing their characters for the movie.
He explained: “I try to just discover the characters through the process of writing.
“What I’ve found over the years is if you have an actor in mind – and obviously it’s very tempting, particularly when we work with great people before, it’s tempting to cast it as you are thinking about the script – but for me that always limits what the characters can be. Because then you’re writing to what you’ve seen an actor do before.”
It is only when the script is done that Christopher thinks about the actors who would best suit a role.
He said: “You get to sit there and go, ‘OK, I wonder what Matt’s doing this week or should I give Anne a call?’ And that’s the fun of it.”
As well as Matt and Anne, The Odyssey also stars the likes of 30-year-old Tom Holland (Telemachus), 29-year-old Zendaya (Athena), 39-year-old Elliot Page (Sinon), and 43-year-old Lupita Nyong’o (Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra).
