When Christopher Nolan put together his huge cast for ‘The Odyssey,‘ fans probably expected Anne Hathaway and Robert Pattinson to bond over their shared Batman history. After all, she played Catwoman, and he played the Caped Crusader himself, just in different movies.
But according to Entertainment Weekly’s new “Around the Table” interview, what actually brought them together was something a lot less exciting. It was a truly bad piece of tuna that turned into a running joke on set.
‘The Odyssey’ Cast Talks Filming Locations and On-Set Food
Pattinson said the fish left an impression right away. “It was mind-blowing how unappealing it looked,” he said. Tom Holland, who plays Telemachus in the film, agreed, calling the tuna “very gray.” Pattinson also talked about how often he had to eat it, saying, “I didn’t know I’d be eating it every day.“
This story came up during EW’s “Around the Table” series, which gathered Nolan along with several stars of the film, including Hathaway, Matt Damon, and John Leguizamo, to look back on the shoot. ‘The Odyssey‘ was filmed in multiple locations across Europe, and it sounds like the food on set wasn’t always great.
Hathaway made it clear that the cast didn’t need any forced bonding activities. “We didn’t really do bonding rituals,” she said. She explained further, “I think we all just felt bonded by the fact that we’d been chosen and trusted to be a part of this. I felt like that was what I needed, and then the bonding was the doing of the thing.” She also gave credit to something much more popular than the tuna, saying pizza helped keep everyone’s energy up during the tough shoot.
Matt Damon Leads ‘The Odyssey’ as Homer’s Legendary Greek King
In ‘The Odyssey,‘ Damon plays Odysseus, the Greek king whose ten-year journey home after the Trojan War gets interrupted by Cyclops, sirens, and the sorceress Circe, among other dangers. Back home in Ithaca, Hathaway’s Penelope is dealing with a group of suitors who all want to marry her and take the throne.
In case you missed it: Christopher Nolan Reveals the Unexpected Martin Scorsese Movie That Changed His Vision for ‘The Odyssey’
Meanwhile, Holland’s Telemachus is trying to find out what happened to his father. Pattinson plays Antinous, the harshest of Penelope’s suitors, who eventually decides to go after Telemachus too.
Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson’s Friendship Shines
The tuna story is just one of several fun moments that have emerged from the outlet’s “Around the Table” series ahead of the movie’s release this weekend. In another clip from the same interview, Holland said Pattinson had basically become his “safety blanket” on set, which makes sense since the two have worked together before on ‘The Riot Club,‘ ‘The Lost City of Z,‘ and ‘The Devil All the Time.’ Holland also turned to Pattinson and said his character’s rivalry with Antinous felt real because Pattinson is simply “so good at being a d**khead” on screen. That line reportedly got a big laugh from everyone at the table, including Pattinson himself.
It’s a funny bit of behind-the-scenes trivia for a movie that’s all about endurance, hunger, and finally getting home. While Odysseus was fighting monsters and Penelope was holding off suitors for ten years, the actors playing them were just trying to survive their own daily struggle, one bad piece of tuna at a time.
You might also want to read: “I Felt Like a Jerk”: Matt Damon Shares the Humbling Lesson Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ Taught Him on Day One
