The Odyssey Isn't 100% Matt Damon's Bulging Biceps — for One Scene His Stunt Double Was a Woman Who Had 'The Greatest Arms I've Ever Seen'
· IGN
Matt Damon’s bulging biceps are on full display in The Odyssey, but it turns out that in one scene we're seeing the impressive arms of a female stunt double instead.
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Warning! The Odyssey spoilers follow…
The Odyssey, written and directed by Christopher Nolan, is an adaptation of the ancient Greek poem by Homer. In Homer’s Odyssey, the Laestrygonians are a tribe of giant cannibals who eat Odysseus’ crew. In Nolan’s The Odyssey, the giants look sort of like medieval knights, wearing armor and wielding swords. Odysseus and his crew stumble upon them, realize they’re in serious trouble, then run away to their boats. In the desperate escape, the giants cut down scores of Odysseus’ soldiers.
As with so much of Nolan’s The Odyssey, this scene uses practical effects to help make it look as realistic as possible. So, how did Nolan achieve the battle?
Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Damon said seven foot tall stuntmen were used to play the giants, and shorter stuntmen were used to play the soldiers. In Damon’s case, for the forced perspective shots where we see the Laestrygonians tower over Odysseus, the actor was replaced by a stuntwoman who he said “had the greatest arms I’ve ever seen.”
"When we did the forced perspective stuff of the Laestrygonians — I don’t know if there’s been a thing about how we did it — but there were these stunt men who were all seven feet,” Damon revealed. "And then they got stunt men who were under five feet. So my double was a woman, a female stunt performer who had the greatest arms I've ever seen.
“And when she came into the catering tent, it was the first time I saw her, I went up and I hugged her and I thanked her for all the work that she’d put in.
“And so those shots in the movie where you see these giants looming over me… so it was almost 100% my arms in the movie. Gotta give it up where it’s due.”
The 55-year-old Damon has said his training regime for The Odyssey involved slimming down to his high school weight. "I had a beard like yours for like a year," he told Jason and Travis Kelce on a recent episode of their podcast New Heights. "I was in really good shape. I lost a lot of weight. [Nolan] wanted me lean but strong."
He also noted that a specific change in diet helped him get there. "Just because of this other thing that I did with my doctor, I stopped eating gluten,” Damon explained. “I used to walk around at between 185 and 200, and I did that whole movie at 167. And I haven't been that light since high school. So it was a lot of training and a really strict diet."
We’ve got plenty more on The Odyssey, including its record-breaking box office opening, and the thoughts of Greek translators who have seen the movie. IGN’s The Odyssey review returned an 8/10. We said: “The Odyssey adapts Homer through a new eye that brings a sense of horror and existential angst to the story — and some humor too. It may not be a perfect movie, but it’s a pretty great moviegoing experience all the same.” And if you've seen the movie yourself and have questions, check out our The Odyssey ending explained article.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].