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Matt Damon opened up about how his daughter’s honest response after watching his performance in The Odyssey made the experience “all worth it.”
The 55-year-old actor and father of four stars as Odysseus in Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s epic poem, which opens in theaters on July 17. Composed in the 8th century, the Odyssey is a story about the Greek hero Odysseus as he struggles to return home from Troy to Ithaca.
Damon’s character's return home is delayed by a number of adventures, including his encounter with a giant one-eyed Cyclops, Polyphemus, among other monstrous creatures. Damon has been candid about how challenging his work in The Odyssey was, but his daughter’s review of the movie made all the lifestyle changes and long days even more rewarding. It comes after Damon revealed the strict family rule he had to 'violate' while filming The Odyssey.
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In an interview with People, published on July 14, 2026, Damon admitted that “This movie was by far the hardest movie to the most challenging movie I’ve ever been a part of,” adding that everyone involved was “completely maxing out and straining against what they thought was possible.”
“It really felt more like an expedition than a movie,” he said of the filming of The Odyssey, detailing that the cast and crew were “out in the weather, whether we were cold, uncomfortable, getting rained on.”
Matt, who has four daughters, Alexia, 27, Isabella, 20, Gia, 17, and Stella, 15, with his wife Luciana, told People that he cherished a review of the new movie that came from one of his daughters.
“I have one daughter who’s really not reverential at all about [my movies] and loves to give me s---,” Damon told People. “She saw The Odyssey, and at the end of it, she actually turned to me, and she said, ‘Dad, I’m proud of you.’”
“She’s never said anything like that because we joke around a lot, and so at that point, I was like, ‘I’m good,’” Damon told the outlet, adding that “It was all worth it.”
Filming The Odyssey was no easy feat for the proud dad, as it required him to go on his own grueling and transformative journey, similar to that of the title character he plays.
He told People that he lost weight for the role, dropping to his high school weight of 167 pounds. He gave up gluten and made other lifestyle changes to get physically in shape for the role.
Damon joined a star-studded cast for the epic movie, including Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Tom Holland as Telemachus, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, Zendaya as Athena, Benny Safdie as Agamemnon, and Charlize Theron as Calypso, among others.
Damon previously worked with Nolan on Interstellar and Oppenheimer; however, for the filmmaker’s latest movie, he will play the lead role in the highly anticipated adaptation of Homer's Odyssey.
Meanwhile, Damon says he is in a 'new phase of life' with his four daughters.
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