Christopher Nolan in a recent interview with TIME magazine defended his decision to cast Travis Scott in The Odyssey. During the interview, Nolan confirmed that Scott will be appearing in the adaptation of the ancient greek poem as a bard. A bard is a professional poet who recites verses and stories about heroes.
Scott had earlier collaborated with Nolan on his 2020 film Tenet, for which he wrote the track, The Plan,
I cast him because I wanted to nod towards the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry, which is analogous to rap”
After Nolan’s interview with the magazine went viral on the internet, fans took to X to ridicule Christopher Nolan’s pick. A user insinuated that Travis and poetry don’t go well together,
“Right. Travis and Poetry, righttt”
Another user (@Vino_tintoo) called Nolan a “pretentious film student” for comparing poetry with rap,
“Comparing Homer’s epic oral poetry to rap is the most ‘pretentious film student’ take Nolan has ever had.”
Another user (@Capti0nemVA) suggested that if Nolan was looking to cast a rapper, he could have cast anyone other than Scott,
“I just wish they got a better rapper if that’s the case”
Another user insinuated that Nolan just loves rap than other type of music,
“He should just admit he loves rap music because I can argue that other genres are better at oral poetry than rap.”
More about Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is an adaptation of Homer’s ancient greek epic Odyssey. The film stars Matt Damon, as Odysseus, the king of Ithaca and features his journey home after the Trojan war. Anne Hathway plays the role of Odysseus’ wife Penelope.
While speaking to TIME, Damon opened up about Nolan’s picks for the film,
“The script was very specific in what he was doing. He’s very faithful to Homer because that’s not somebody you rewrite. But thematically, what he looked at was really interesting.”
The cast also features Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Zendaya and Charlize Theron. Scott has been featured in the comercials for the film where his character can be seen describing the events of the Trojan War. In the TIME interview, Nolan also confirmed that Lupita will portray both the role of Helen of Troy and her sister Clymnestra.
Scott has not appeared in the two officially released trailers for the film.
Edited by Soujanya Shapur