Christopher Nolan has an unusual rule on his film sets, and it has nothing to do with performance.
The filmmaker, known for his meticulous, immersive productions, does not allow Ugg boots during filming, and he recently explained why while discussing his new epic, The Odyssey, which opened in theaters on July 17, 2026.
In a conversation with CBS Mornings, Nolan was asked about a moment involving Anne Hathaway during production of the Greek epic, which stars Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya and others in one of the summer’s biggest releases.
Nolan said performers sometimes arrive in softer shoes because their costume footwear becomes uncomfortable, and noted that he has had similar exchanges with stars including Emily Blunt and Hathaway.
“Sometimes actors will turn up because the footwear hurts them, so they’ll turn up in these big, fluffy, comfy slippers. I have a couple, yes,” he said, adding that “something like that can actually weirdly take you out of reality.”
For Nolan, the issue is less about the boots themselves and more about preserving the atmosphere of the world being created for the film. On The Odyssey, that meant keeping the set as stripped of modern reminders as possible while the cast worked through the challenges of a large-scale production shot in demanding conditions.
He said even minor off-camera interruptions, such as crew members eating nearby, can pull actors out of the headspace needed to remain immersed in a scene.
Christopher Nolan has a "no UGGs on set" policy for a very simple reason: The “signifier of modernity” could take actors out of the reality the crew is trying to create for the film. pic.twitter.com/VsrMH9cFIS
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) July 21, 2026
“If someone’s eating a bag of chips off camera or something, there’s certain things that just remind you that you’re in the real world as opposed to the world we’re trying to create for the actors,” he said.
“I want to stay in the moment. We want the actors to stay in the moment. And so for me, the Ugg boots are a signifier of modernity. Absurd though that is.”
This is not a new policy for The Odyssey. The same standard was reportedly in place during Oppenheimer, with Emily Blunt previously telling USA Today that Nolan would give her “this withering look down to my feet” when she wore Uggs between takes, likening it to a scene from The Devil Wears Prada.
“I’d just get this withering look down to my feet, it was like being in The Devil Wears Prada again,” Blunt said, joking that she’d remind Nolan she was “just sitting on an apple box in the background.”
Hathaway also described having the same experience while working on The Odyssey, telling USA Today, “I did show up one day with Uggs, and he looked down and went ‘Nope.’ I just went ‘No problem!’ And they never came back.”
Although the rule is clearly taken seriously on set, Nolan also indicated in the CBS interview that it is at least partly playful, admitting that singling out one type of boot in the name of immersion is, in his own words, a bit absurd.