Nolan's Odyssey uses contemporary American accents, sparking debate over period-film conventions

The first trailer for Christopher Nolan’s film version of The Odyssey has drawn attention for its use of modern American speech, with actors such as Tom Holland and Matt Damon delivering lines in tight-mouthed vowels and Boston-style "o" sounds. Viewers noted the contrast with the traditional British-English diction often heard in historical epics.

Dialect coach Erik Singer explained that there is no inherent reason ancient Greek characters should sound like “the Queen’s Latin,” noting that contemporary American English is as temporally distant from Homer as the elevated English used in earlier adaptations. > "Accents do not in fact inherently mean anything, but we really think that they do," Singer said.

Singer and fellow dialect coach Mike Walsh traced the preference for British accents to Hollywood conventions established in the 1930s and 1950s, when studios linked the British Empire’s historical power with the portrayal of ancient or imperial societies. This practice led to villains and elite figures being cast with Received Pronunciation while protagonists often spoke with American accents.

Recent films have occasionally broken the pattern for artistic reasons, such as Miloš Forman’s 1984 "Amadeus" and Sofia Coppola’s 2005 "Marie Antoinette," which used actors’ natural accents to create a sense of modern relatability. Nolan, however, is not aiming for comedic effect; he cited poet Emily Wilson’s plain-spoken 2017 translation of The Odyssey as inspiration. Nolan told the Los Angeles Times he wanted “an earthy narrative” that conveys “language that has emotional not intellectual meaning to people.”

Walsh suggested that Nolan’s choice reflects a shift in audience perception, with younger viewers less likely to associate British Received Pronunciation with authority. As the British Empire recedes from living memory, the sound of power in cinema may be evolving toward contemporary American accents.