Emily Wilson

speaker

468 appearances 2 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 1 Aug

Emily Wilson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.

Appearances

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Fresh Air · Best Of: ‘Odyssey’ translator Emily Wilson / Actor Jon Bernthal · 1 Aug 2026 podcast

It's a star-studded cast and they're doing their absolute best with the script they were given. matched

Yes, I mean, that's the laugh line. matched

But the serious point I was trying to get to with the laugh line about no sex, no food is that I think if we have a quest narrative, whether it's in a poem, a novel or a movie, we need to have a protagonist with dignity. matched

detailed, believable motivation. matched

He needs to want something. matched

So the fact that these desires seem to be stripped from Odysseus, he doesn't seem to want food, doesn't seem to want sex. matched

What does he want? matched

He wants to assuage his guilt. matched

And that seemed to me rather a thin motivation, especially compared to the rich layered characterization of both Odysseus and the other characters in Homer, but also just compared to a good movie. matched

I would like to have deeper characterization in a film. matched

I would like to care more. matched

They're kind of missing. matched

I mean, there's a moment when Zendaya, who's sort of Athena, but maybe not, says to Matt Damon's Odysseus, who's complaining that the gods don't speak in a language that mortals can understand. matched

And Zendaya says, who doesn't understand thunder? matched

fire, a baby's cry. matched

We understand those things. matched

So implicitly, the gods are present. matched

But I felt the film, in some ways, wanted to have it both ways, that there's a noise in the soundtrack, there's thunder, so of course Zeus is there, there's Zeus' law, which is repeatedly invoked, and yet it's also very unclear, are we actually supposed to believe in Zeus and Poseidon, or is Calypso a goddess? matched

Is Circe a goddess? matched

I would have liked a little bit more of the divine. matched

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