The Odyssey: Every Actor Who Has Worked in Ghibli Movies

It’s no secret: Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is currently the talk of the town, and why wouldn’t it be: a plethora of star cast, an intriguing storyline, and some of the best cinematography in recent years. But did you know that some of the most shining names in the movie have already made their mark in the anime world, with none other than the famous Studio Ghibli?

Let’s look at the four major star names from The Odyssey who also featured in Studio Ghibli movies throughout the years of their careers. If you are still thinking who they might be, here they are.

1 Matt Damon Went From Ponyo‘s Sailor Dad To Homer’s Restless King

Matt Damon from The Odyssey | Credits: Universal Pictures

Matt Damon spent years playing a soft-spoken sailor dad before he ever picked up Odysseus’ bow. Back in 2009, he voiced Koichi, the father of young Sosuke, in the English dub of Ponyo, Miyazaki’s watercolor riff on The Little Mermaid, sharing scenes with Tina Fey as his wife and a cast that included Liam Neeson and Cate Blanchett.

It’s a gentle, worried-parent kind of role, nothing like the battle-scarred king he plays now. In The Odyssey, Damon anchors the whole film as Odysseus, dragging himself home through monsters, gods, and a decade of bad luck to reach Penelope and Telemachus. Funny how his Ghibli character was also just a guy trying to get back to his family safely, only this time the stakes are a bit higher than a fishing boat and a coastal storm.

Where to watch Ponyo (USA): HBO Max.

2 Anne Hathaway Went From A Cat-Chasing Schoolgirl In The Cat Returns To Queen Penelope

Anne Hathaway from The Odyssey | Credits: Universal Pictures

Long before Anne Hathaway became Penelope, weathering a decade of suitors and rumors of her husband’s death, she was voicing a much lighter kind of waiting-around role. In 2002’s The Cat Returns, she played Haru Yoshioka in the English dub, a clumsy schoolgirl swept into a magical cat kingdom after rescuing a prince, with Cary Elwes and Tim Curry rounding out the cast.

Haru spends the film trying to escape a fate she never asked for, which, honestly, rhymes a little with Penelope fending off unwanted marriage proposals for ten straight years. In The Odyssey, Hathaway trades whimsical Ghibli chaos for something far heavier: a queen holding a kingdom together through sheer stubbornness and grief. Two very different kinds of waiting, one animated and cozy, one epic and exhausting.

Where to watch The Cat Returns (USA): HBO Max.

3 Tom Holland: The Lonely Kid in The Secret World of Arrietty to Telemachus

Tom Holland from The Odyssey | Credits: Universal Pictures

Tom Holland‘s very first movie role, before Spider-Man, before anything, was playing a sickly, lonely kid in a Studio Ghibli film. In the UK dub of The Secret World of Arrietty, released by StudioCanal in 2011, a fifteen-year-old Holland voiced Sho, a boy who befriends a tiny Borrower living beneath his floorboards.

American audiences got a different actor, David Henrie, so plenty of Ghibli fans never even clocked that this was Holland at all. In The Odyssey, he plays Telemachus, Odysseus’ son, growing up fatherless while his mother fends off suitors and his home slowly falls apart around him. Something is fitting about it: his first-ever role was a lonely kid waiting for connection, and now, over a decade later, he’s playing a son waiting for a father who may never come home.

Where to watch The Secret World of Arrietty (USA): Hulu and Netflix.

4 Robert Pattinson Went From Ghibli’s The Boy and the Heron To A Scheming Suitor

Robert Pattinson from The Odyssey | Credits: Universal Pictures

Robert Pattinson‘s Ghibli role came late in his career and was every bit as strange as you’d expect from an actor who’s built a whole post-Twilight identity on strange choices. In 2023’s The Boy and the Heron, he voiced the Gray Heron, a shape-shifting, big-nosed trickster who lures the young hero into a fantastical underworld, all croaky voice and unsettling charm.

In The Odyssey, Pattinson swaps animated mischief for very human menace, playing Antinous, the boldest and most arrogant of Penelope’s suitors, convinced Odysseus is dead, and the throne is his for the taking. Both characters share a certain slippery, can’t-quite-trust-him quality, whether he’s a bird-man luring a kid into danger or a suitor circling a grieving queen. Pattinson clearly has a type, and it isn’t exactly trustworthy.

Where to watch The Boy and the Heron (USA): Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home.

Did you know about these actors voicing Studio Ghibli characters before? We’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions on them in the comments below.