James Remar on Reuniting With Christopher Nolan on ‘The Odyssey’

In a career filled with so many, James Remar is having another moment.

The veteran actor, who has been working since the 1970s, has seemingly been everywhere in 2025. He sparred with Judith Light and Naomi Watts as a vindictive soon-to-be ex-husband on All’s Fair, slipped into the shoes of General Francis Shaw on It: Welcome to Derry and plays Dexter’s adoptive father, Harry Morgan, on Dexter: Resurrection. The swirl of small screen work comes after he wrapped production on The Odyssey in a re-teaming with Oppenheimer boss Christopher Nolan (who just gave his first interview about the highly anticipated film). In a brief red carpet chat at the world premiere of Hulu’s Ryan Murphy creation, Remar dished on all of the above.

It’s nice to see you standing in one place considering all the work you’ve been churning out.

Yeah. Gosh, I started Welcome to Derry as I finished Dexter: Resurrection. Then I went off to do Nolan’s movie, The Odyssey, and then went up to Vancouver to do Jed Mercurio’s Trinity. Now I’m here, and everything is opening or debuting.

What was it like to work with Christopher Nolan again after Oppenheimer?

It was all that much better. The first time I auditioned for him was during COVID, and I had to test before we all met. Eventually, we got to meet without masks on the Universal lot, which is how he does it. He shoots film through a camera, not digital.

And no cell phones on set.

No cell phones on set, and the man never sits down. He stands next to the camera for every single shot. He did that in Iceland too. We were on the beach shooting in Iceland; I never saw him sit down once for 12 hours out there. Every single day. It was freezing. Everybody was freezing.

I know you won’t spoil any secrets but what can you say about the experience of being on the inside of another one of his epics and working with all those A-list actors?

Well, I worked opposite Matt Damon again. We were opposite each other in Oppenheimer, so it was familiar. It was just like, “Hey, buddy, welcome back from summer vacation” for a couple of the guys that felt like we went to school together. It was very collegial, very familiar, very much like a family. Everybody who was there offered everyone else a great deal of respect. It’s a very respectful, well assembled cast. No silliness to speak of. Everyone was focused on the task at hand, because he comes with a vision and every brush stroke of his vision is important. There are no hijinks. No fooling around. Nobody’s asleep. Nobody’s drunk. Nobody’s fucked up, pardon my language. Everyone was very, very concentrated on being the absolute best they could be.

What was All’s Fair like?

Everybody was lovely. My scenes are with Judith Light and Naomi Watts. I play Judith Light’s estranged husband who’s very, very wealthy. She’s leaving him and trying to take as much as she can. You can see his heart break a little when she leaves. The relationship has all the trappings of money and embarrassment with newspaper coverage and all of that but what you’re left with is this guy who is broken-hearted at the loss of his marriage.

Is this your first Ryan Murphy show?

It is. And he directed this one.

What was he like to work for?

He’s a guy that knows what he wants, but he’s very, very calm in his demeanor. He’s also very collaborative because he stepped right up to me and said “this, this and this.” He offered me directions but also asked questions. “What do you think of this?” I love him for that. He’s very soft spoken but he doesn’t miss a trick.

It fans can’t wait for Welcome to Derry.

What I have seen is some of the best television I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s phenomenal.