Matt Damon is giving stunt performer Devyn Dalton credit for some of the most impressive arms seen on Odysseus in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.
During an appearance on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, Damon explained how Dalton doubled for him in a sequence involving the Laestrygonians, the towering warriors who attack Odysseus and his men.
“My double was a woman, a female stunt performer who had the greatest arms I’ve ever seen,” Damon said.
He later joked that the movie still featured “almost 100%” of his own arms outside Dalton’s contribution to the illusion.
Forced Perspective Made the Laestrygonians Look Enormous
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Damon said the production hired stunt performers who were approximately seven feet tall to portray the Laestrygonians. Performers under five feet tall then doubled for Damon and the other regular-sized characters, exaggerating the height difference when they appeared together in carefully composed shots.
Dalton was doubling Odysseus, the audience sees her in the footage where the giants appear to tower over Damon’s character. The illusion depended on matching the performers’ costumes, movements and positions while using the camera angle to make the Laestrygonians look several times larger.
Damon Thanked Dalton When They Met on the Set
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Damon remembered first encountering Dalton in the catering tent and immediately recognizing the work she had put into matching his physical appearance. He approached her, gave her a hug and thanked her. “So it was almost 100% my arms in the movie,” Damon joked after revealing her involvement. “You gotta give it up where it’s due.”
Dalton later confirmed that she had doubled Damon, commenting that it was her “honour” to work as his double. She also posted behind-the-scenes material from the Scottish Highlands and identified the production sequence as the Laestrygonian battle.
Dalton’s previous stunt and performance credits include The Last of Us, The Fall of the House of Usher, Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Once Upon a Time.
Damon Reached His High-School Weight for Odysseus
Damon still went through extensive physical preparation to play Odysseus. The 55-year-old told People that he dropped to 167 pounds, approximately what he weighed in high school, after previously weighing between 185 and 200 pounds.
Nolan wanted him to look “lean but strong,” which required regular training, a strict diet and what Damon described as a complete lifestyle change. He stopped eating gluten and became highly deliberate about everything he consumed during the international production.
The Odyssey was filmed across Iceland, Scotland, Greece, Italy and Morocco. Damon called it the most challenging production of his career and said the location-heavy shoot “felt more like an expedition than a movie.”