This week, Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated follow-up to Oppenheimer comes to theaters. For obvious reasons, few are better equipped to discuss the film than Tom Holland. No, not that Tom Holland. We mean the other Tom Holland. What the Hades are we talking about? Actor Tom Holland sat down to discuss his epic new film The Odyssey with historian Tom Holland. And yes, of course, the two Tom Hollands did the Spider-Man pointing meme.
The Rest is History podcast’s Tom Holland had his name-twin on to talk about The Odyssey. Tom Holland the actor plays Telemachus, son of Odysseus, in the film. Is it any good? Historian Tom Holland said it might be the best adaptation of a story from Ancient Greece ever. That’s high praise (which, having seen the film, I can say is also fair). What makes it work so well? That’s what the two Tom Hollands discussed.
They touched on Nolan’s ability to condense the epic poem down into a single film, Anne Hathaway’s incredible performance as Telemachus’ mother Queen Penelope, the challenges of shooting for IMAX, how the two sides of the story reflect both the real and the mythological, and more. Spider-Man Tom Holland and historian Tom Holland also touched on one of the best reveals in the film (we do not want to spoil that for you any more than they did) and why this story, despite being almost 3,000 years old, is incredibly timely and relevant.
But they only did all of that after they got the ;Spider-Mans pointing at one another’ meme out of the way. I mean, how could they not do that? Though we agree with the actor Tom Holland that the historian Tom Holland is selling himself short. Sure, the former might be more famous, but if not for historians keeping ancient stories and civilizations alive, they might not have had an Odyssey adaptation to discuss.
