Christopher Nolan has become known for making big-budget movies overflowing with scope and spectacle, from the Dark Knight trilogy to Oppenheimer a few years ago. So it’s saying something that his take on The Odyssey, which arrives to the 2026 movies schedule this summer, might be his biggest feature yet. Like Oppenheimer, The Odyssey boasts a massive ensemble cast, and one of the actors, Corey Hawkins, talked about how he had go up and down a “full mountain” on his first day of filming.
I’m exhausted just thinking about that, so imagine how Hawkins was feeling having to do this as his first order of business on The Odyssey. The actor, known from movies like Straight Outta Compton and The Last Voyage of the Demeter, recalled the experience to Variety, saying:
My first day, we walked up a mountain and then had to walk back down the mountain. And that’s no lie. It wasn’t a hill, it was a full mountain.
Acting is naturally a physically-exerting profession, especially if you’re working on a more action-driven blockbuster. Now, while walking up and down a mountain obviously isn’t the same thing as having to rehearse fight choreography, I have no doubt doing that mountain trek took a lot out of Corey Hawkins. When interviewer Marc Malkin asked him if he got any “mountain training,” Hawkins responded:
No, of course not. This is Christopher Nolan, man. You just jump in head first. And it was incredible, man. Chris is just a legend. I learned so much. It was a long shoot, but every day was so focused and efficient and special. So it’s going to be an amazing film.
More about The Odyssey
From the sound of his comment, it sounds like going up and down the mountain only happened on the one day as opposed to across several. Still, I doubt this was the only way Corey Hawkins pushed his body while working on The Odyssey. But it’s like he said, if the opportunity to be directed by Christopher Nolan comes along, you seize that opportunity and dive straight in. Dealing with a “full mountain” is well worth it.
It hasn’t been revealed yet who Corey Hawkins is playing in this film adaptation of Homer’s Ancient Greek epic, but he’ll be surrounded by a lot of other Hollywood heavy-hitters. That includes Matt Damon as Odysseus, Tom Holland as Telemachus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, Zendaya as Athena, Charlize Theron as Circe and Jon Bernthal as Menelaus (the latest of his roles to continue a fun coincidence). The Odyssey is Christopher Nolan’s second movie for Universal Pictures, and principal photography happened from February to August of last year.
We’ll see how Corey Hawkins fits into The Odyssey picture when it comes out on July 17. Right now, however, you can see him in theaters starring opposite Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry and Mark Ruffalo in Crime 101.