Casey Affleck Called Nolan to Settle a Tenet Debate With His Son

Casey Affleck once telephoned Christopher Nolan to settle a debate with his son about Tenet.

He recounted the call during an onstage interview at the Zurich Film Festival on Monday, according to Variety. Affleck knows Nolan well. He acted for him in Interstellar and later in Oppenheimer.

Working with Nolan was an honour, he said. He called the director inclusive, a maker who gives few notes and makes each one count. Short direction. Big effect.

In Oppenheimer, Affleck played Boris Pash, the army officer tied to the atomic bomb project, as noted by Deadline. Tenet, the film at the centre of the family debate, had been introduced as "an action epic evolving from the world of international espionage," according to The Hollywood Reporter. Affleck did not share who won the argument.

The Zurich talk also turned to his own work behind the camera. Affleck has directed three films. His latest is Company, an anthology feature that had its world premiere in Venice.

Company is a family affair. It stars his mother, his partner and his sons, alongside Nick Nolte, Ben Mendelsohn, Adelaide Clemens and Scoot McNairy. An anthology, in film terms, means a collection of shorter stories joined in one feature.

The Zurich programme lists Affleck as director and describes the film as a gripping Gothic mystery about human relationships, revenge and forgiveness, according to the Zurich Film Festival. The festival lists him among its expected guests for Company, with its Gala Premieres section running from September 24 to October 4.

Affleck said the cut is not finished. There are things he still wants to change. He dedicated the film to his parents, who died before they could see it.

He said earlier this month that Company was in part a response to raging conflicts in the world and to things inside himself, according to Deadline. A decade ago, Variety labelled him the outsider in a 2016 cover story.

What makes this stand out is the chain. An actor known for small, quiet roles learns from one of the largest-scale directors working, then takes those lessons into a personal film made with family and still feels free to keep recutting it.