Despite being one of Hollywood’s most celebrated filmmakers, Christopher Nolan is still sticking to his old-school habits.
In an interview with People Magazine, Matt Damon, who plays the role of Odysseus in Nolan’s epic, shared that the filmmaker still doesn’t own the phone.
This means, actors never receive a text or direct call from Nolan himself.
Damon explained that Nolan’s wife and longtime producing partner Emma Thomas gives actors advance warning whenever the Oscar-winning director wants to speak. He recalled that Emma “had texted me, ‘Are you around for a call today?’ Because Chris famously doesn’t have a phone.”
“And then you get a phone call from a nondescript number, because he’s just picking up a line at Universal Studios,” Damon shared.
Damon shared that even Christopher Nolan doesn’t know which number will appear on the recipient’s screen.
Furthermore, Matt Damon shared about the moment he learned about Nolan’s plan of The Odyssey. Noting that it was only six months after the Oppenheimer, Damon said, “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?’”
It is pertinent to mention that Nolan also told the outlet that while he was planning the film, he did not had Damon and Anne Hathaway in his head for the roles. “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,” Nolan shared.
After finishing the script, he said, “you get to sit there and go, ‘Okay, I wonder what Matt’s doing this week or should I give Anne a call?’ And that’s the fun of it.”
