Matt Damon says the muscular arms audiences have marveled at in “The Odyssey” are not entirely his own. Speaking on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, the actor explained that a female stunt performer stood in for him during a key sequence involving the Laestrygonians, the giant cannibal warriors who confront Odysseus and his crew in Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s epic.
Damon said the scene relied on forced-perspective camerawork rather than digital effects to make the giants tower over his character. The production cast stunt performers who stood roughly seven feet tall to play the Laestrygonians, then paired them with much smaller performers standing in for Odysseus and his men to sell the scale difference on camera.
“They got stuntmen who were under five feet, and so my double was a woman, a female stunt performer, who had the greatest arms I’ve ever seen,” Damon said, crediting her physique for shots where his character appears dwarfed by the attacking giants.
Damon recalled meeting his double in the catering tent during production and thanking her directly for her work. “It was almost 100 percent my arms in the movie, but you gotta give it up where it’s due,” he said.
The Laestrygonian sequence was filmed in Scotland’s Culbin Forest using seven IMAX cameras, part of Nolan’s broader commitment to practical effects over computer-generated imagery throughout the production. The director has described the encounter as a turning point for Odysseus, testing his authority over a crew that begins to doubt his leadership after the ordeal.
“The Odyssey,” starring Damon alongside Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, opened in theaters July 17 and pulled in more than $264 million worldwide during its debut weekend, marking the strongest opening of Nolan’s career.
The film also features Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong’o and Jon Bernthal in supporting roles, with the giants sequence emerging as one of several practical-effects showcases, alongside a mechanical Cyclops built for an earlier confrontation, that have driven early conversation about the movie’s production.
