Travis Scott admitted this week that a surprise phone call from Christopher Nolan left him rattled before it turned into a role in “The Odyssey,” the director’s $250 million adaptation of Homer’s epic that has become the biggest global opening of his career.
Appearing on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” Tuesday, the rapper described picking up his phone to see a single word on the screen: “Chris.” He assumed the Oscar-winning filmmaker wanted concert tickets. Instead, Nolan asked if he’d be interested in acting. Scott said he questioned the offer immediately, reminding Nolan that music, not film, was his trade. Nolan responded with what Scott called a full case for the casting, one rooted in the oral tradition behind Homer’s poem.
Nolan later told an interviewer he wanted the film to gesture toward the epic’s roots as spoken verse passed down through generations, a lineage he sees echoed in rap. That reasoning shaped his decision to cast Scott as Demodocus, the bard who opens the film and narrates Odysseus’ journey.
Scott said he expected to share scenes with background performers. He got Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland and Robert Pattinson instead, alongside a cast that also includes Matt Damon, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o and Charlize Theron. He called himself out of his depth walking onto set, crediting the ensemble and Nolan for putting him at ease.
The two had worked together before, on the score for Nolan’s 2020 film “Tenet.” For “The Odyssey,” Scott went further, recording an original closing-credits track, “When I’m Home,” with James Blake and composer Ludwig Göransson, with Nolan credited as a co-writer.
The film opened July 17 to $124.5 million domestically and $264.1 million worldwide, the strongest global launch of Nolan’s career and a sharper start than “Oppenheimer.” Shot entirely on IMAX film cameras, “The Odyssey” carries a break-even target near $625 million once its marketing spend is included. With no major competition until “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” arrives July 31, industry analysts expect the R-rated epic to keep expanding through the fall.
