Mother-of-two Anne Hathaway names Tom Holland her dream son

During a quick sit-down with CTV's eTalk about Christopher Nolan's myth-sized take on The Odyssey, Hathaway lit up talking about her on-screen son. It was sweet, a little disarming, and a pretty strong hint about what this movie is really putting front and center.

The setup

Hathaway plays Penelope, queen of Ithaca, holding it all together while her husband Odysseus is off surviving gods, monsters, and terrible travel logistics. Tom Holland is Telemachus, her son, and Matt Damon is Odysseus himself. Yes, Nolan is tackling Homer. The film is being billed as a massive mythological action epic and is slated to hit theaters worldwide on July 17, 2026.

Hathaway on Holland: not just chemistry, actual affection

Hathaway did not hedge. She called Holland her "dream son" and then went further, making it personal in a way you do not always hear in junket chatter:

"I very much hope all of my children grow up to be as wonderful as my onscreen child."

According to eTalk, Holland literally paused mid-sip and just smiled at that. Hathaway kept the praise going, and it did not feel like PR fluff. She also shouted out Matt Damon with real warmth, and said that even with the scale of the production, working with this cast and Nolan felt grounded and respectful, more intimate than you would expect for something this big.

Why it tracks onscreen

Off camera, Hathaway is a mom of two boys, Jonathan and Jack. That protective, steady energy is basically the Penelope brief, and she says it informed how she played those scenes with Holland. If the film lands the way they are hinting, the Penelope–Telemachus relationship could be the emotional center of the whole thing, not just a subplot between battle set pieces.

Where this fits in the great movie mom canon

If you are getting deja vu from other great parent-kid pairings anchoring big movies, you are not wrong. Hathaway and Holland are clearly aiming to stand alongside a few standouts:

• Catherine O'Hara and Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone: frantic, funny, fiercely loving.
• Sally Field and Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump: unwavering support and life lessons that stick.
• Renee Zellweger and Jonathan Lipnicki in Jerry Maguire: the charm and grit of single motherhood.
• Linda Hamilton and Edward Furlong in Terminator 2: the tough-as-nails, ride-or-die version.

A couple extra nuggets

Nolan has talked about how the movie engages with Homer's original text, and there has been chatter that some of the creature work takes cues from Guillermo del Toro's brand of dreamlike menace. Between that and the Penelope–Telemachus focus, it sounds like this one is leaning into both the spectacle and the human core.

Honestly, the boldest swing here might not be the cyclopes or shipwrecks, but betting the movie's heart on a mother–son bond. Based on Hathaway's comments, that is the part they know they can bank on.

Curious where you land on this: does Hathaway calling Holland her dream son make you more interested in their dynamic, or are you here strictly for the gods-and-monsters mayhem?