SerpApi.Org
Matt Damon may have undergone the body transformation of the year for The Odyssey, but he readily admits the “greatest arms” he has ever seen are not his own. That superlative goes to his 34-year-old body double.
On Monday, the 55-year-old Oscar winner shared on the Happy Sad and Confused podcast that, despite his newly ripped physique, some of his shots as Odysseus can actually be credited to his female body double, Devyn Dalton.
“I can congratulate you on three fronts: the acting, the beard, and I’m not one to objectify, but this is the greatest bicep work I’ve seen outside of a Hemsworth film,” podcast host Josh Horowitz said of Damon’s work in the Christopher Nolan adaptation.
Damon thanked him, but revealed that, despite dropping to his “high school” weight of 167 pounds and following a strict diet to portray the King of Ithica, he can’t take all of the credit for his onscreen biceps.
“Well, you know, when we did the forced-perspective stuff of the Laestrygonians,” Damon told Horowitz, “I don’t know if there’s been a thing about how we did it, but there were these kind of stunt men who were all seven feet, right?”
The Laestrygonians in the film are heavily armored knights who tower over Odysseus.
“And then they got stunt men who were under five feet. And so my double was a woman, a female stunt performer who had the greatest arms I’ve ever seen,” Damon said, referring to Dalton.
“So, there are those shots in the movie where you see these giants looming over me,” Damon explained. “It was almost 100 percent my arms in the movie, but there’s shots where you gotta give it up where it’s due.”
After the film was released in theaters on July 17, Dalton created a July 20 Instagram post with a series of pictures and clips from behind the scenes of The Odyssey set.
Dalton wrote in the caption of the post, “No spoilers just yet, but I’m incredibly grateful to be a part of the Laestrygonian battle. Stunt doubling the incredible @matt_damon_official. An epic team effort. We worked hard, shared plenty of laughs, and created memories I’ll never forget.”
Dalton is known for her work in The Planet of the Apes franchise and The Last of Us, but the young actress’s latest project was body doubling for Damon, who is 21 years her senior and, according to IMDb, more than a half-foot taller than the 4-foot, 5.75-inch actress.
Fans were quick to congratulate the actress.
One person commented, “Pls temporarily change ur bio to ‘Matt Damon’s Biceps - The Odyssey’ cuz that interviewer’s right, you deserve a separate credit for that.”
Another wrote, “Now when I see the poster of Matt Damon (from the back) fighting the giants, I’ll know who it REALLY is.”
