It turns out that it wasn't all makeup and that Matt Damon really was just that exhausted in The Odyssey, as the star reveals he was awake for almost two days straight while filming the movie's most intense scene.
"I had it happen two or three times on this movie where I just didn’t sleep," explains Damon in an interview with GQ. "I was tired and I went to bed, and I’m sure everyone’s had that feeling where you’ve got to get up the next day and you have something that you have to do and you can’t fall asleep and you’re kicking the blanket around and you’re staring at the ceiling. By the time I got to work to do the scene with Samantha [Morton], I hadn’t slept in 24 hours, and by the end of the day it was 36 or whatever."
We assume that Damon is talking about that unforgettable scene in Circe's cabin. After losing many soldiers to the giants of Telepylos, Odysseus' men begin to lose trust in him, so when they reach Circe's island, they split up. But when they stumble upon Circe's hut, she lures them with a magical broth and eventually turns them into squealing pigs. Odysseus goes looking for them and confronts the witch, and in a long and tense conversation, we learn about Circe's dark past and twisted motivations.
Damon says his sleep deprivation actually helped him in this scene, which makes sense, as Odysseus himself wouldn't be that well-rested either after watching his men be torn apart by Laestrygonians and then desperately searching for a new island to dock at before he and his men starve to death. "I remember thinking the great thing about this character is he probably didn’t sleep last night," added Damon. "So the weariness was very real for a lot of the movie."
The whole project was a huge undertaking, though. The Odyssey was shot on location around the world, from remote caves in Greece to open scenes, where Christoper Nolan got through 400 miles of film while shooting on the open sea. But Damon says he is glad he got to do it at this point in his career, adding, "I don’t think I would’ve appreciated it as much 20 years ago," as even though "there was a lot of physical discomfort that was temporary," he "felt so grateful to be there. I was just so joyful the whole time that I didn’t really notice any of that."
For more, check out our ranking of the best Christopher Nolan movies and keep up with all of the new movies heading your way.
