Tom Holland Thought Christopher Nolan Hated His ‘Odyssey’ Performance — The First Day IMAX Story Behind the Blockbuster

Tom Holland has opened up about his first day working with Christopher Nolan on The Odyssey — and it turns out the anxiety was real, even for a Marvel star with a decade of blockbuster experience. In a recent interview with Fandango, the actor admitted he walked off set convinced that Nolan hated his performance. The reason? Nolan kept calling “cut” every few minutes, something Holland had never experienced before.

“I thought I was totally sh*tting the bed,” Holland told Fandango, laughing about the experience now. “Working with the IMAX cameras for the first time is an experience unlike anything I have ever seen before, and I didn’t know that it only ran for three minutes.”

What Holland didn’t realize in the moment was that Nolan’s frequent cuts had nothing to do with his performance. The IMAX 70mm film cameras that Nolan used to shoot The Odyssey only hold about three minutes of film per magazine. Every time the camera ran out, Nolan had to call cut to reload — not because he wanted a different take.

“I remember you would continue cutting, and I was with Jon Bernthal like, ‘Why does he keep cutting? Why does he keep doing that?'” Holland recalled. The confusion between actor and director created an unintentionally tense first day — one that Holland now finds hilarious in hindsight.

A Different Kind of Filmmaking

This story tells you everything you need to know about how Christopher Nolan works. The director famously shot The Odyssey entirely on IMAX 70mm film — the first Hollywood film ever to do so from start to finish. It’s a deliberate choice that gives the movie unparalleled image quality but comes with significant practical limitations on set.

Most modern digital cameras can shoot for hours on a single memory card. Nolan’s IMAX film cameras? Around 180 seconds before the magazine runs dry. For an actor used to long, uninterrupted takes on a soundstage, the constant stopping and reloading can feel like a signal that something is wrong.

If you’ve experienced this kind of self-doubt on a first day at a new job — questioning every move, reading into every pause — Holland’s story hits close to home. It’s a reminder that even someone who’s headlined billion-dollar franchises still feels the pressure when stepping into unfamiliar territory.

The Odyssey: What We Know So Far

Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s ancient Greek epic is shaping up to be the event film of the summer. Matt Damon stars as Odysseus, the legendary King of Ithaca, who embarks on a perilous journey home after the Trojan War — facing gods, monsters, and trials that push his humanity to the limit.

Holland plays Telemachus, Odysseus’s son, and reportedly grew a full beard for a year after Nolan declined to use artificial facial hair because he wanted to capture “the physicality of real hair.”

The cast is staggering: Tom Holland and Matt Damon are joined by Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, Lupita Nyong’o as Helen and Clytemnestra, Charlize Theron as Calypso, Zendaya as Athena, Benny Safdie as Agamemnon, and Jon Bernthal as Menelaus. It’s the kind of ensemble you usually only see in award-season prestige dramas, all assembled under Nolan’s meticulous direction.

With a reported budget of $250 million, The Odyssey is one of the most expensive films Nolan has ever made. Early pre-sales suggest the gamble is paying off — first-day PLF pre-sales at AMC were the best for any studio title since 2022, and the BFI IMAX in London sold 28,000 tickets in 24 hours alone.

Nolan’s Vision: Why IMAX Matters

Nolan has been a vocal advocate for IMAX film throughout his career. His films from The Dark Knight to Oppenheimer have pushed the format forward, but The Odyssey represents the culmination of that journey — every single frame shot on IMAX 70mm film.

For viewers, this means The Odyssey will be an experience best seen on the biggest screen available. The detail, color depth, and sheer visual presence of 70mm IMAX film is something digital projection still hasn’t fully replicated. It’s the kind of theatrical event that reminds you why movies on the big screen matter.

For the actors, though, it meant adapting to a completely different workflow. As Holland discovered, Nolan’s setup demands precision and patience — with every three-minute window counted and every take serving a purpose. It’s not the kind of film set where you can wander into a scene and find your footing over 20 minutes of continuous shooting.

What This Means for the Movie

The fact that Holland felt so vulnerable on his first day — and that Nolan was so focused on the technical craft that he didn’t notice — actually bodes well for The Odyssey. It suggests a director who is obsessively focused on getting every detail right, working with an actor who cares deeply about delivering a performance worthy of the material.

Holland has spoken in recent interviews about wanting to break out of the Spider-Man mold and prove himself as a dramatic actor. Working with Nolan on an epic of this scale is a clear step in that direction. Telemachus isn’t a wisecracking teenager in a web-slinger suit — he’s a young prince wrestling with loss, duty, and the search for a father he barely remembers.

If Holland’s first-day jitters produced something Nolan was happy with, the final result could be something special. The actor who feared he was bombing his first day ended up delivering a performance that helped make The Odyssey one of the most anticipated films of the decade.

The Bottom Line

Tom Holland’s first-day anxiety story is more than just an amusing celebrity anecdote — it’s a window into how Christopher Nolan works and why The Odyssey is such a monumental undertaking. Every cut, every reload, every three-minute window was a deliberate choice in service of a vision that demands the highest possible image quality.

Holland survived his first day, and by all accounts, his performance as Telemachus is earning praise from those who’ve seen early footage. The lesson for the rest of us? Sometimes the person calling cut isn’t rejecting you — they’re just reloading the camera.

The Odyssey hits theaters worldwide on July 17, 2026.