Director Christopher Nolan's latest opus is Homer's The Odyssey, and the movie is set to be released on July 17. Some music fans might have been surprised to see hip-hop icon Travis Scott pop up in the trailer for the movie, though. What was the connection, some thought?
The answer, according to Nolan, while speaking with Time, is an easy one. Scott plays a bard, and the story itself was delivered generation after generation through oral history.
Or, as Nolan put it, "I cast him because I wanted to nod towards the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry, which is analogous to rap."
The Odyssey director Christopher Nolan explains casting hip-hop icon Travis Scott
The point is well made, of course. What is difficult to detect is where the push back to include Scott stems from. Possibly, the incident at Astroworld in 2021, Scott's homegrown festival, where people died due to a lack of crowd control, is the reason. Those who feel that way have a right to it, of course, but that would seemingly have little to do with his role in a film.
Scott's acting credits are few, of course, and maybe A$AP Rocky, a hip-hop artist who is proving to be a fantastic actor, might have been better suited to the role, but that would be a personal choice. The job of having Scott perform his role well and be a good fit in The Odyssey is Nolan's, and he has proven to be an elite director.
What shouldn't truly be argued with was his reason for casting someone from hip-hop. It is simply a nod to the tradition of telling stories, which for thousands of years could only be oral, of course. That is the magic of rap. Stories are conveyed through the art form, and that naturally mirrors moviemaking.
Travis Scott also shouldn't be seen as the focal point of the overall movie being good or bad, of course. He is far from the star of the film.
The story follows Odysseus as he tries to find his way home after the Trojan War. The trip back is fraught with peril. It's a great narrative, of course, and one built from oral storytelling. The film stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, Anne Hathaway as his devoted wife, Penelope, Tom Holland as Telemachus, and Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy, among many others.
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