Christopher Nolan’s new Greek epic The Odyssey features giants, forced perspective, and a surprisingly shredded Matt Damon. But the actor isn’t taking credit for all the muscle on screen. Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Damon revealed a behind-the-scenes trick that brought his character to life against seven-foot-tall adversaries. His stunt double is a woman.
Damon plays Odysseus in a cast stacked with A-listers like Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Charlize Theron. To nail the look of the legendary Greek hero, the actor subjected himself to a brutal physical transformation. He dropped down to a lean 167 pounds. He called it the most physically challenging project of his entire career. He even practiced speed-loading arrows thousands of times to make the combat look authentic on camera.
Then came the sequence with the Laestrygonians. Nolan cast actual seven-foot-tall stuntmen to play the mythical giants. To make the forced perspective work perfectly, the production needed a highly specific double for Damon’s combat shots. They found a female stunt performer who left a lasting impression on the Oscar winner.
“The greatest arms I’ve ever seen,” Damon told the podcast host, crediting her intense hard work for the final onscreen look of his character’s biceps. The production had other bizarre hurdles to clear, according to recent press tour chatter detailing how Nolan joked about the logistical nightmare of covering up Damon’s real-life arm tattoos for a period piece set in ancient Greece.