The only actor Christopher Nolan embraced as a collaborator: “It was a great pleasure”
We are now definitely at a point where a new Christopher Nolan movie is a large-scale global event inspiring long queues and cosplays.
His forthcoming The Odyssey broke records this year when some tickets for screenings in IMAX went on sale and completely sold out, with some changing hands for many hundreds of dollars, and it isn’t even out for another year.
No other director blends action, astonishing visuals, immersive storylines, mind-bending narratives and grand orchestral scores quite like Nolan, pushing the envelope just a little further with each bombastic venture, for his aim is to make cinema the most memorable experience he possibly can within the four walls of a big-screen experience.
It doesn’t always work, of course, with 2020’s Tenet being too clever for its own good, and despite some memorable set pieces, you felt like you needed a degree in quantum mechanics to properly enjoy the plot. But when Nolan gets it right, and he frequently does, then you’re treated to a spectacle that you won’t get anywhere else; think Interstellar’s finest scenes or the astonishing, city-folding visuals of Inception.
Like many filmmakers, in order to fulfil his grand creative visions the best he can, Nolan has a band of select actors he will turn to again and again. They include Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy and Michael Caine, but there is one actor he employed in the sci-fi blockbuster Inception that forced the director to have a rethink.
While many directors would understandably recoil at the idea of a leading actor giving them direct feedback or their own designs on how the story or character should go, Nolan understood that Leonardo DiCaprio had the experience and nous to bring something genuinely useful to the table when making the film, telling Deadline: “The challenge is striking a balance between allowing the actor going to work on the project to feel in collusion, and like they’ll be genuine creative collaborators”.
He added, “When you go to an actor like Leonardo DiCaprio, you have to be extremely respectful of his creative role in things. You have to embrace him as a fully-authorised collaborator.”
Inception was a massive hit on release with cinemas selling screenings out all day every day for weeks on end as word of mouth spread at how jaw-dropping the movie was. It ended up grossing almost a billion dollars worldwide and was nominated for eight Oscars, winning four. DiCaprio played the lead in the movie as a thief who steals information from his targets by infiltrating their subconscious and implanting false ideas.
Nolan added, “It was a great pleasure working with new people like Leo on this film. We had a lot of creative collaboration on the script once he came on board; it became a hugely valuable part of the process. I don’t ever like to feel myself in the position to demand of an actor that they trust I’m going to do something worthwhile. I feel a responsibility to articulate what it is I’m going to do.”
Due for release next year, Nolan’s Odyssey promises to be another cinematic treat for the senses. Matt Damon will play the Greek king who lends the film its title, and a raft of stellar names join the ensemble cast, including Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron and Anne Hathaway. Shot entirely using IMAX cameras, the film has a budget of a quarter of a million dollars, and filming took place in different countries this year over a six-month period.
