When Christopher Nolan gathered his team of artisans for his adaptation of Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey” he first told production designer Ruth De Jong of his plans. But the process was shrouded in secrecy because working with Nolan is an in-person process. De Jong explained, “There are no scripts emailed, sent or discussed on any form of device.
Everything is in person, which I love about him.” De Jong was speaking with Variety’s senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay at the Middleburg Film Festival, where she was honored alongside costume designer Ellen Mirojnick and editor Jennifer Lame with Variety’s Creative Collaborators Award. De Jong, who had worked with Nolan on “Oppenheimer,” read the script in three hours. When she was done, she asked about the parameters.
It’s equivalent to playing basketball with Kobe Bryant. He’s truly the ultimate collaborator and coach.” She adds, “I knew we weren’t going to fail, but I had no idea how we were going to do this practically.” From the fall of Troy to Circe’s isolated home to Odysseus’ boat, De Jong brought Nolan’s vision to life across six countries: Morocco, Greece, Italy, Iceland, Scotland and the United States, building practical sets along the way. Mirojnick and Lame were brought onto the project the same way; Nolan invited them to his house to read the script.
She said Nolan didn’t want a “sword-and-sandal movie. Not a Hollywood movie, not something we had seen before.” Mirojnick and her team created over 5,300 total costumes for the film, but it was a giant undertaking. Mirojnick said, “The one thing we understood from Ruth’s research was that there were two fabrics at that time, one of which was linen.
Linen gives you a great ground to age, distress and make into anything that you want. It was quite interesting seeing sand, salt, wind, rain and black sand mixing that all together and how that affects the fabric.” Lame is no stranger to editing Nolan’s famous non-linear timelines, such as “Tenet” and “Oppenheimer.” she cut 2.1 million feet of 70mm Imax film for “The Odyssey.” The Polyphemus scene, in particular, proved to be a puzzle. Lame recalled, “There was so much interesting material to use and mine.” In the scene, Odysseus and his men enter a cave filled with cheese and sheep, only to discover it is the home of Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon.
Odysseus tricks the Cyclops by telling him his name is “Nobody.” When Polyphemus passes out, Odysseus and his men drive a wooden stake into his single eye. As they make their escape, Odysseus foolishly taunts the Cyclops and reveals his real name. Polyphemus prays to his father Poseidon to curse Odysseus, dooming him on a long and perilous journey.
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