Tom Holland the actor has finally met historian Tom Holland, with the pair coming together for an awkward but amusing interview after both attended the London premiere of The Odyssey without actually meeting on the night.
The first proper meeting between the two took place on Sunday, July 12, during a special edition of the historian’s The Rest Is History podcast, which he co-hosts with Dominic Sandbrook.
The exchange came just days before Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is due to hit cinemas on July 17, with Holland playing Telemachus in the all-star adaptation of Homer’s epic.
During the conversation, the author joked about the downside of sharing a name with one of the world’s best-known movie stars, especially when it comes to searching for himself online.
“And were I the kind of person who regularly Googled himself, I mean, you would have destroyed my ability to do that,” the author noted.
“I’m sorry, Tom,” the Marvel star responded, as the other Holland added: “Well, I don’t Google myself so it’s absolutely fine.”
The two also spoke about Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which features the younger Holland in a starring role. Both had gone to the film’s London premiere earlier this month, even though they didn’t cross paths there.
The 58-year-old had previously shared his thoughts about the movie on X, writing:
“It is by some way the best cinematic adaptation of a Greek myth I have ever seen.
“It honours Homer while simultaneously making something new of him.”
That post drew a mix of reactions. Some people who had also seen an early screening shared their own views, while others were more distracted by the fact that the post appeared to come from “Tom Holland.”
One person asked: “Bro, you’re in it?”
Another joked: “If Tom Holland meets Tom Holland the universe may implode.”
A third wrote: “Need a pic of you and the other Tom Holland!”
After plenty of encouragement from fans, the podcast host eventually arranged for the actor to appear on the show, creating the meeting many had been waiting for.
Speaking about the scale of Nolan’s adaptation, the 30-year-old explained:
“For anyone that’s familiar with The Odyssey… turning it into a film feels like you’d have to make five films [because] it’s such a vast piece of work.
“But Chris’s ability to tell that story in 130 pages while maintaining the heart and the soul of what makes the story so exciting, so emotional, so relevant today, I think it’s just such a feat.”
He went on to praise Nolan’s bold approach, saying the filmmaker made powerful creative decisions and stretched the limits of what audiences might view as historical realism.
“He’s kind of pushed the boundaries of what might be deemed historically accurate or reality because that is the myth,” he added.
The Odyssey arrives in theaters on July 17.