On The Odyssey set, Matt Damon shares his “definitely the stupidest” Christopher Nolan moment
Matt Damon drops a hilarious Christopher Nolan story — and the kicker isn’t what you’d expect.
Dinner in a Scottish hotel turned into a running joke for Matt Damon when, midway through filming The Odyssey , Christopher Nolan walked past his table and did a double take. Damon says he was eating with his family as Nolan and members of the crew arrived at the hotel after a long day on set. When Damon said hello, the director paused, looked at him and kept moving — then circled back.
“And he turned and he goes, ‘Oh, hey, Matt. I didn’t recognize you with the beard.’ Chris doesn’t say stupid things—it was definitely the stupidest thing he’s ever said, because we’d been next to each other for six months,” he recalled.
Speaking to GQ, Damon laughed that Christopher Nolan had literally just come from watching the day’s dailies — which featured Damon with the exact same beard. He chalked it up to the grind: the cast and crew were wiped, buried in the work, and living on set hours as the production pushed forward.
A billion-dollar odyssey
The fatigue paid off. The film became a full-on phenomenon and sailed past $1 billion at the global box office, grabbing headlines far beyond its opening frame. Damon called the experience one of the high-water marks of his career.
“I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but I have such gratitude for the fact that this came along my path at this point. I have no right to expect anything like that to happen again,” he said.
Damon puts it alongside Good Will Hunting as a defining moment, and says he’s now zeroed in on making movies that matter to him with people he trusts. He even stepped away from a planned reunion with Ben Affleck to make room for Nolan’s epic.
According to Damon, he had dropped out of Ben Affleck’s Animals to join The Odyssey, and he’s keeping his dance card open for the collaborations that feel right next.