Travis Scott has spent years building one of music’s most powerful brands. Now the Houston rapper is stepping into Hollywood in a big way. He appears in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming epic The Odyssey, signed a first-look deal with Paramount Pictures, and is working on a new album. He also opened up about something that has followed him for years: 10 Grammy nominations and zero wins.
In a candid conversation with Variety, Scott talked about the nerves of acting, his plans for film and TV, and why awards still matter to him even if they don’t drive his art.
Inside Travis Scott’s Surprising Role in The Odyssey
Travis Scott plays Phemius, a bard in Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s ancient poem. His character delivers some of the film’s first lines, standing on a wooden table in an ancient castle on a remote Italian island. The scene puts him right in front of Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, and Robert Pattinson.
Scott admitted he felt the pressure.
“I was nervous as fuck,” he told Variety. “All those actors were there, and I’m standing on the table. And it wasn’t like Travis rager shit, or we’re kicking it at a function. No, this was some serious shit. There’s a camera right here in my face. Nolan’s right there. And they’re all actors — so everyone’s in their zone, locked in.”
Christopher Nolan explained why he cast the rapper. The director wanted to connect Homer’s oral storytelling tradition to modern rap.
“I cast him because I wanted to nod towards the idea that this story has been handed down as oral poetry, which is analogous to rap,” Nolan told Time magazine.
The director also revealed that he intentionally placed Scott’s close-up at the very start of the day’s shoot. Nolan said he told Scott, “OK, Travis, jump up on the table and start reciting the Song of Odysseus and hold the attention of the room.”
Scott had read The Odyssey before. His paternal grandmother, Bernice Webster, an English professor, assigned it to him as summer reading when he was a kid. He admitted he tried to get by with CliffsNotes and got in trouble for lying about reading it.
“She’s like, ‘See? That’s why I made you read that book; now you’re in this movie,’” Scott said.
His kids, Stormi, 8, and Aire, 4, with ex Kylie Jenner, are likely too young for the R-rated adventure.
Cactus Jack Goes to Paramount
Scott’s company, Cactus Jack, has signed a first-look deal with Paramount Pictures. The agreement allows him to develop projects across film, television, theater, and live entertainment. It expands an existing partnership that already included consumer-product collaborations like limited-edition SpongeBob SquarePants and Scream apparel drops that sold out quickly.
“I want to bring back amazing films, pictures and just creative good ideas. And [Paramount’s] not scared to make good ideas,” Scott said.
Josh Greenstein, co-chair of Paramount Pictures, praised Scott’s creative instincts.
“Creativity emanates from every pore of his body,” Greenstein said. “From the way he dresses to the cars to the music to his taste in film.”
Scott does not have a specific slate of projects in development yet, but he shared a genre he would like to explore: suspenseful dark thrillers where “nothing scary happens till the end.”
He also mentioned interest in remaking the 1979 film The Warriors, a Paramount title about a street gang trying to get home. Lin-Manuel Miranda is already bringing that story to Broadway next spring, but Scott said he would be up for his own version.
“That would actually be kind of crazy,” Scott said. “But I’ve been thinking, ‘Is that like a show? Or is it a movie again?’”
Scott has acting credits in the 2021 indie drama Gully, Harmony Korine’s Aggro Dr1ft, and a cameo on HBO’s Ballers. He will also appear as himself in the Owen Wilson-led comedy Rolling Loud, filmed during the hip-hop festival in 2024.
“I would love to act more,” Scott said. “I respect the true talents of the people that wake up every day and really grind.”
Ten Nominations, Zero Grammy Wins
Travis Scott has been nominated for a Grammy 10 times, but he has never taken one home. His first lead-artist nominations came with 2018’s Astroworld and the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “SICKO MODE.” He lost Best Rap Album that year to Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy. His most recent nomination came for Best Rap Album at the 2024 Grammys for Utopia, which lost to Killer Mike’s Michael.
Awards still mean something to him.
“It’s not why I do what I do,” Scott said. “I like to set goals, and I just want to achieve them. I noticed the people that get them always have that like, ‘It doesn’t matter’ [attitude]. To me, the award represents something, and to achieve that would be amazing.”
With The Odyssey expected to be an Oscar contender, the end-credits song could put Scott in the Best Original Song race.
“I still need a Grammy, but I would love to take home an Oscar. That’d be cool,” he said.
The Song That Closes The Odyssey
Scott co-wrote and performs on “When I’m Home,” the end-credits song for The Odyssey. The track is a collaboration with James Blake and composer Ludwig Göransson, who won Oscars for Black Panther, Oppenheimer, and Sinners.
Göransson described Scott as a chameleon.
“You can’t really put your finger on what he’s doing,” Göransson said. “He can break out of every genre, any form. It feels like the past and the future at the same time.”
Göransson recalled screening a cut of the film for Scott at the Directors Guild of America theater in West Hollywood in March. During the Cyclops scene, Scott pulled his hoodie over his head because he was scared.
The trio then went to a studio session where Göransson played what he had been working on, with the bard’s lines from the film as placeholders. Scott began freestyling between the lines.
“It’s connecting the writing from the movie to the song,” Scott said. “Now, I’m wearing my artist hat, explaining that feeling of the trials and the tribulations, trying to come back to the crib, trying to see Penelope, being stuck with Calypso eating lotus flowers for eight years.”
The music video was filmed in Switzerland at the Fortress of Bellinzona, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and other locations in Ticino.
The song is also notable because it earned Christopher Nolan his first songwriting credit.
“Welcome to my world, OG,” Scott told Variety when the trivia was mentioned.
A New Album Is on the Way
Scott is working on the follow-up to Utopia, his 2023 album that became his first No. 1 record. He carries the tracks around on an iPod, which fans spotted attached to his waistband at a recent World Cup match in Houston.
He is drawing from a wide range of influences, including Parliament, Oasis, Van Halen, Don Toliver, Raphael Saadiq, and Daft Punk. He said he is making music for the person at the very back of the stadium.
“I’m like, OK, I need to double down on trying to make something that can reach the person that’s all the way back in the bowl, so how do I reach them like the person that’s right next to me,” he said. “So that’s what I’m on — trying to elevate the show to a more theater aspect.”
He teased: “Stay tuned on how that’s going to happen. ‘Utopia’ was supposed to be a play. I want to try to bring back true experiences before they try to take them all down and make everything digital.”
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What Fans Are Saying
Travis Scott’s casting in The Odyssey sparked strong reactions online. Some fans were confused, while others were excited.
“Wait Travis Scott and Christopher Nolan that was not on my bingo card,” one fan wrote.
Another added: “Nolan being a Travis Scott fan makes so much sense.”
Not everyone was on board. One critic wrote: “Travis Scott is talented but totally miscast because he is not Greek. I would not watch Brad Pitt play Othello or Malcolm X and will not watch this.”
Some viewers also pointed out Scott’s visible neck tattoos in the opening scene, calling it “immersion breaking.” Others praised his opening narration.
The Odyssey releases in theaters and IMAX worldwide on July 17, 2026. The film also stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, Tom Holland as Telemachus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, and Charlize Theron.
Also Read: Elliot Page Says Hollywood Is Not Calling After Starring in Billion-Dollar Film The Odyssey
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