Summary
- Damon added that no two locations were tough in the same way, each one bringing its own fresh set of challenges.
- Two jet engines, roughly the size of those on a 737, blasted water across the tank to recreate rough sea conditions, making it one of the most physically punishing simulated environments Damon has worked in.
- During one particularly intense setup, Nolan himself poured water directly over Damon’s face as he lay down for the scene, a moment the actor now laughs about, joking that it felt like the perfect, if unconventional, way to wrap production.
Matt Damon has opened up about the challenging shoot for Christopher Nolan’s Greek epic The Odyssey, revealing that the six-country production tested the cast far more than a typical film schedule ever would.
Speaking to People, Damon said the shoot often felt less like filmmaking and more like an actual journey into the unknown, given how physically demanding each new location turned out to be. He also praised Nolan for staying in the trenches with his actors, noting that whenever the cast were freezing or drenched, they only had to look over to find their director in exactly the same state.
Damon added that no two locations were tough in the same way, each one bringing its own fresh set of challenges. The team had assumed things would ease up once filming wrapped indoors at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, but that relief never really arrived.
He recalled the final stretch of shooting inside a massive water tank, where nobody on set expected an easy finish. Their instincts were right. Two jet engines, roughly the size of those on a 737, blasted water across the tank to recreate rough sea conditions, making it one of the most physically punishing simulated environments Damon has worked in.
Some of the raft close-ups were considered too risky to film on open water, so the crew shifted that work into the tank instead, after already capturing the wide shots outdoors. During one particularly intense setup, Nolan himself poured water directly over Damon’s face as he lay down for the scene, a moment the actor now laughs about, joking that it felt like the perfect, if unconventional, way to wrap production.
Despite the exhausting conditions, Damon’s account paints the shoot as one bonded by shared hardship and dark humour, the kind that only comes from genuinely going through it together.
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