Matt Damon plays Odysseus in Christopher Nolan’s forthcoming epic, and he says the experience of making it was as punishing — and as leveling — as the hero’s own ten-year journey.
The 55-year-old actor, speaking to People magazine ahead of the film’s July 17 release, described a shoot in which star status offered no refuge from the elements. “There was no special treatment,” he said. “If you’re out on a boat in the middle of the ocean and you get caught in a storm, you get wet with everybody else. Nobody’s getting a hot beverage that you’re not getting.”
Nolan himself was no exception. “Everybody’s on equal footing, including Chris, who was just as cold and wet as everybody else throughout the whole thing,” Damon said, adding that the shared hardship forged a genuine bond between cast and crew. He described the shoot as feeling more like “an expedition” than a traditional film production, with every member of the team pushing beyond what they thought themselves capable of, day after day.
Damon has also spoken about what the role means to him personally, saying he viewed the film as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. “There aren’t a lot of people in their mid-50s as protagonists in these epics,” he said. “I looked at this like the last movie I’d ever do.”
The film carries a net budget of $250 million, making it the most expensive of Nolan’s career, and the logistical ambition matches that price tag. Shot entirely on IMAX 70mm cameras — a first for any feature film — the production spanned Greece, Sicily, Morocco, Scotland, Iceland, and Ireland before finishing on the Universal lot. Variety has predicted it could become the highest-grossing film of the year, while TheWrap suggested it might surpass The Dark Knight to become Nolan’s biggest film ever.
The ensemble cast places Damon’s Odysseus alongside Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Tom Holland as Telemachus, Zendaya as Athena, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, and Charlize Theron as Circe, among many others. Nolan described the project as filling a gap in cinematic culture, saying he had never seen Greek mythology treated with the scale and weight that a major IMAX production could bring.
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Damon made one promise to audiences: “You’ll be getting your money’s worth.”
