After Matt Damon starred in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar and Oppenheimer, he and the British filmmaker reunited for the latter's latest IMAX project, The Odyssey. In playing the lead role of Odysseus, Damon had to act out the character's attempts to brave the elements and mythological figures as well as his own psychological struggles amid his quest to return home to his family. This is one of Nolan’s most ambitious features and, funny enough, Damon referred to his director as a “drowned rat” when bringing up his directing style. Of course, the actor also shared a reasonable explanation for that description.
Nolan definitely had a lot of work on his hands when helming The Odyssey, which has become one of the runaway hits of the 2026 movie schedule. He took on the challenge of filming the movie solely with IMAX cameras across several countries, and he shot the movie with as many practical effects as possible. With all of that in mind, Matt Damon spoke on The Today Show’s Sunday Sitdown, expressing that Nolan looked like a “drowned rat” while facing the challenges of shooting on cliffs and dangerous waters:
Directing is by far the hardest job on set. When you’re out there kind of in the middle of a storm and you’re soaked and you’re cold and you’re like, ‘Man, I’m in discomfort right now,’ it is helpful to turn and see the person with the harder job ... looking like a drowned rat, just as cold, just as wet, and never complaining.
You’ve got to commend Nolan for having the patience and resilience to shoot such challenging scenes and still keep everything running effectively. As the Good Will Hunting actor made clear, Nolan was literally in the same boat as his actors, who were experiencing some shaky conditions.
For example, Damon explained that the cast had to stop and freeze whenever a scene ran longer than two-and-a-half minutes, because that’s the maximum amount of footage IMAX cameras could capture at a time. This caused the crew to have to keep reloading the cameras. Sentiments like these are a testament to the fact that making a movie is a team effort, and no one person can do it alone.
Matt Damon has spoken highly of his experience making this historical epic. He really got a sense of how “big” The Odyssey was when he saw 1,200 extras and buildings set on fire for simply a flashback scene. The Martian actor also had his own set of hurdles to jump through while filming the epic action fantasy flick and even admitted to feeling wet and cold for a lot of scenes.
Damon also couldn’t shake off the feeling of being in a “very dank and smelly” real cave while shooting the cyclops scene. But, despite every roadblock encountered, the Oscar winner still described The Odyssey as “the best experience of my career.”
It's funny to hear Matt Damon refer to Christopher Nolan as a “drowned rat” on set. However, that term of endearment speaks to the tremendous efforts of the visionary filmmaker. Nolan clearly wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty alongside his actors to make sure his book-to-screen adaptation would be a real cinematic experience for audiences.
Check out The Odyssey in theaters now and see the work that Nolan, Damon and co. put in.
