Matt Damon physically transformed to play Odysseus in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, but he also had some help from stunt performers in some key scenes.
In a new interview, Damon revealed that one of his stunt doubles was a female standing in as the Greek hero as the character faces the giant Laestrygonians.
“When we did the force perspective stuff with the Laestrygonians… there were these stuntmen who were all seven feet, and then they got stunt men who were under five feet,” Damon said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “My double was a woman, a female stunt performer who had the greatest arms I’ve ever seen.”
He continued, “When she came into the catering tent, it was the first time I met her. I went up and hugged her and thanked her for all the work she put in.”
Damon said that “there are those shots where you see these giants looming over me [and that’s her],” adding, “It was almost 100% my arms in the movie, but you got to give it up where it’s due.”
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The Odyssey has had an epic box office run so far with a $264.1M global opening weekend. This number is a record for Nolan, whose Dark Knight Rises premiered in 2012 to $249M worldwide. The film already scored the best Monday this year in the U.S. with a reported $18.67M, and Tuesday is already tracking to deliver $20M more to its total.
Damon’s co-stars in the Greek epic also include Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jon Bernthal, Mia Goth, Elliot Page, and Lupita Nyong’o, among others.
Watch Damon’s full interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast in the video below.
