Odyssey Star Says Anne Hathaway and Christopher Nolan Set the Bar With Relentless Work Ethic

Christopher Nolan is sailing into 2026 with The Odyssey, and early word from the set makes it sound exactly as intense as you think. The trailer dropped in December and instantly put this squarely on the must-see summer list. The cast is a wall of names: Anne Hathaway, Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong'o, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, John Leguizamo, and Elliot Page. Logan Marshall-Green, who appears in the film, just painted a very Nolan picture of what it was like to make it.

What it feels like to work on a Nolan set

Marshall-Green described a full-tilt environment where the meter is running the second you step on stage. His words, not mine:

"He is Christopher Nolan, and the second you are on set, you are working, and you are never turning your back to the ocean, or it will smack you. I could not have had a better experience shooting The Odyssey. To be surrounded by that caliber of artist, in every department, but it all starts with Chris, and he never stops working. So you never stop working..."

He also singled out Hathaway for going all the way in, even when the camera was pointed somewhere else.

"I took my cues from actors who had worked with him, like Anne. Anne would be fully performing in character, and the camera wouldn’t even see her for three days in the one scene we’d be shooting. That all begins and ends with Chris, and what he demands of himself, so he expects it of others. I loved his process. I would do it in a heartbeat again."

Clearing up the 'no chairs' lore

Nolan has a long-standing reputation for being relentless and precise, which tends to grow myths. One of those: that he bans chairs on set, a claim that resurfaced after a 2020 comment from Hathaway. His team pushed back on that, saying he simply does not cluster director chairs at the video village. The actual hard rules? Smoking is out, and phones are strongly discouraged. The bigger takeaway matches what Marshall-Green described: Nolan leads by example, and that pace attracts actors who keep coming back.

Hathaway and Nolan, round three

This is Hathaway's third run with Nolan after The Dark Knight Rises (she was Selina Kyle/Catwoman) and Interstellar (Dr. Amelia Brand). In The Odyssey, she plays Penelope, steadfastly fending off suitors while her husband Odysseus is away. The film adapts Homer's epic and is set for a July 17 theatrical opening.

Anne Hathaway's 2026 is stacked

• Apr. 17: Mother Mary (A24) — a psychosexual thriller from director David Lowery.
• May 1: The Devil Wears Prada 2 — Hathaway returns as Andrea 'Andy' Sachs to kick off summer.
• July 17: The Odyssey — Nolan's epic adaptation, with Hathaway as Penelope.
• Aug. 17: The End of Oak Street — formerly titled Flowervale Street; Hathaway stars opposite Ewan McGregor.
• Oct. 2: Verity — adaptation of the Colleen Hoover novel.

The big picture

Between that lineup and a Nolan reunion 12 years after their last collaboration, Hathaway is everywhere this year. The Odyssey alone would have been a headline, but the fact that she is tackling five releases in one calendar year — while reportedly acting her heart out whether the camera catches it or not — says plenty about what 2026 is going to look like for her.