Christopher Nolan has directed everything from sci-fi thrillers such as Interstellar, Tenet and Inception to historical dramas like Dunkirk and Oppenheimer, mysteries like The Prestige and Memento and superhero films with his Dark Knight trilogy. But there’s one genre the Oscar-winning filmmaker said he’d be “terrified” to tackle: romantic comedies.
During his first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Thursday, Nolan discussed the lengths he went to shoot his adaptation of Homer’s Greek epic The Odyssey on 70mm IMAX cameras, making it the first feature film to do so. Fallon jokingly asked the director if he ever thinks about doing an “easy” next film, specifically asking, “How about a Christopher Nolan rom-com?”
“I think doing a rom-com would be incredibly difficult,” Nolan replied. “I love watching those movies. But, no, I think people who direct comedy, people who do comedy, I think that’s one of the hardest things in the world to make people laugh that way.”
“Particularly the risk they take,” he continued. “When you make a film … you know, if I show a film to people and maybe they don’t respond to bits of it, I’m like, ‘Ah, they don’t get it. Whatever.’ There’s no hiding behind that when you do comedy.”
