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Matt Damon has been getting a lot of praise for his ripped physique in Christopher Nolan‘s ‘The Odyssey,‘ but the 54-year-old actor wants to set things straight about one scene in particular. He’s giving credit to a stunt performer who doesn’t usually get the spotlight.
On the ‘Happy Sad Confused‘ podcast, host Josh Horowitz complimented Damon’s biceps in the movie, which led Damon to share a behind-the-scenes detail nobody expected. Not all that muscle belonged to him. In fact, one of his stunt doubles for a major sequence was actually a woman.
How Forced Perspective Created the Giant Laestrygonians Scene
Damon said the whole thing came down to a technical problem on set with forced perspective, a filmmaking trick used to make people or objects look bigger or smaller than they really are. The production needed this to pull off scenes with the Laestrygonians, the terrifying giant warriors Odysseus and his crew run into during one of the roughest parts of their journey.
“When we did the forced perspective stuff of the Laestrygonians,” Damon said, they needed two very different body types to make the scale work. The giants were played by performers who stood around seven feet tall, looming over everyone else. To make Damon and the rest of the cast look small next to them, the production also hired stunt performers under five feet tall.
That’s where Damon’s double came into the picture. “My double was a woman, a female stunt performer,” he said, adding that she “had the greatest arms I’ve ever seen.“
Matt Damon Thanks Stunt Performer in Emotional On-Set Moment
Damon then talked about the first time he actually met her face to face, which happened well after her stunt work on the film was already done. “When she came into the catering tent,” he said, that was the first time the two of them had ever actually crossed paths, even though she’d been standing in for him on screen. He didn’t wait around once he figured out who she was. He walked over, gave her a hug, and thanked her in person for everything she’d put into the role.
In case you missed it: “It Really Felt More Like an Expedition”: Matt Damon Reveals the Brutal Reality of Filming Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’
This small moment says a lot about how physically demanding and mostly invisible stunt work really is in big blockbuster movies. It’s work that almost never gets recognized by name, let alone praised directly by the lead actor. Forced perspective stunts especially take a lot of precise coordination between performers of different sizes, camera angles, and lighting, all to create an illusion that looks seamless to the audience while the doubles themselves stay unknown to most people watching.
Damon’s story also puts some of the online chatter about his transformation in a new light. He’d been photographed looking noticeably leaner and more muscular while filming on location in Favignana, Italy, alongside Zendaya, which set off months of guessing about his workout routine before the movie even came out. Damon has said before that most of his on-screen physique came from real hard work, but his comments on the podcast make clear that at least one standout scene got its visual punch from a stunt performer whose name has mostly stayed out of the credits people pay attention to.
‘The Odyssey’ Box Office Numbers
‘The Odyssey,’ Nolan’s big-scale take on Homer’s ancient Greek epic, stars Damon as Odysseus in a cast that also includes Tom Holland, Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o and Charlize Theron. Filmed using new IMAX film technology, it hit theaters on July 17, 2026, and already had a strong opening weekend, bringing in $124 million domestically (USA and Canada), the third-best opening of the year so far.
For now, Damon’s tribute is one of the more genuine moments to come out of the film’s press tour so far, a reminder that even a legendary hero needs some help looking larger than life.
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