Matt Damon is talking about ‘The Odyssey‘ now that it’s finally out in theaters, and he says the ending of the shoot was one of the hardest and oddest he’s ever been through.
In an interview with People Magazine, Damon walked through a shoot that took the cast through Greece, Morocco, Iceland, Scotland, and Italy before wrapping up in a water tank at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. “It really felt more like an expedition than a movie,” Damon said about the long, exhausting shoot led by director Christopher Nolan. He said the misery everyone shared actually brought the crew closer together. “And if you were cold and wet, you just turned, and you looked, and Chris was just as cold and just as wet and going through it.“
Inside The Odyssey’s Water Tank Finale With Jet Engine-Powered Waves
Damon said nobody on set thought things would get easier once they hit that last stop. “Every location was really difficult, but in a really different way,” he said. “We knew we were ending at the water tank in Universal. And nobody said, ‘Well, it’ll probably be easier once we get to it.‘”
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They were right to worry. The tank came with jet engine-powered water cannons built to mimic the chaos of the open ocean. “And sure enough, there were these two jet engines, like 737 engines, blowing water on us,” Damon said. “It was definitely about as hard as you can make water work in a controlled environment.“
Things got a little ridiculous near the very end, when the cast had to film close-up raft scenes that were too risky to shoot on real water. “We were laughing at the end because we were shooting some close-up raft stuff that was too dangerous to do on the open water,” Damon said. “So we’d shot some wides, but we did some stuff on the tank that involved Chris pouring water over my face while I was lying there and I was like, ‘This is perfect. We’re ending this with waterboarding,‘” he laughed.
Matt Damon on Playing Odysseus and Facing His Claustrophobia On Set
Damon, who plays Odysseus, also talked about how the role pushed him mentally and physically, including scenes with a Cyclops chase and being trapped inside a giant Trojan Horse. “I worked through a lot of them on this one, definitely,” he said about old fears he’d been carrying. “Claustrophobia was one, but I hope I’m on the other side of that one now.”
In case you missed it: “It Was All Worth It”: Matt Damon Shares the Heartwarming 5 Words From His Daughter That Left Him Speechless After ‘The Odyssey’
Nolan didn’t try to downplay how tough the shoot was for his cast, which included Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya and Charlize Theron. “I like to say it was a hard shoot, but hard in the right way,” Nolan told the outlet, adding that his cast “rose to it magnificently.“
Why Matt Damon Calls ‘The Odyssey’ the Best Experience of His Career
Even with how draining it all was, Damon called it one of the most meaningful experiences of his whole career. He brought up a moment of kindness from a crew member during a freezing shoot in Iceland as a sign of what the whole production was really about. “I had such a feeling of gratitude,” he said. “It was the best experience I’ve ever had because everybody on the set was experienced enough to know that the movie required everybody to be completely maxing out and straining against what they thought was possible and what they’d done before.“
The Odyssey is now playing in theaters.
You might also want to read: “I Felt Like a Jerk”: Matt Damon Shares the Humbling Lesson Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ Taught Him on Day One
