Matt Damon talks 'toughest ever shoot' with Elysium

Matt Damon is in full-on badass mood on the cover of the new issue Total Film magazine , as Elysium heads up our Future 100.

Inside the issue, you can get the lowdown on the socially-conscious actioner from Damon and director Neill Blomkamp ( District 9 ), but here’s an excerpt of what Damon had to say about being blasted with shit - literally - for hours on end as part of the shoot:

“Yeah, that was a running joke with the crew,” sighed Damon, whose commitment to the role of Max extended to shaving his head, bulking up and adorning his body with an assortment of gang-style tattoos.

“Like any dump anywhere in the world, the dust is in large part fecal matter. So at the end of the day we would wipe this stuff off and basically throw shitty towels at each other. We also had a location within the dump that we called Poo River. It was like, ‘OK, can we get everyone down to Poo River?’” The result, the Bourne actor conceded, was “probably the toughest two weeks of shooting I’ve ever had”.

Elysium opens in the UK on 20 September 2013.

For much more from Damon and Blomkamp, pick up issue 207 of Total Film magazine, which is out now!

(Posters only available with the magazine edition. Not available with digital tablet editions)