Matt Damon revealed it Christopher Nolan endured a difficult time while directing ‘The Odyssey,’ with the filmmaker describing the actor as looking like a “drowning rat” during some of the most difficult scenes. The star spoke candidly about the difficult nature of the production and the toll it took on everyone involved, from the cast members to the director himself.On Sunday’s broadcast of The Today Show, Damon spoke with host Willie Geist about the incident. The actor emphasized that even though all the actors were pushed to the limit, the director carried the heaviest burden. “Directing is the hardest job on set. When you’re out there in the middle of a blizzard and you’re wet and cold and you’re like, ‘Man, I don’t feel good,’ it helps to turn around and see somebody who’s got a tough job... he looks like a drowned rat, cold, wet, not complaining at all,” Damon explained.
Nolan’s warnings about production difficulties
Damon recalled that Nolan had talked about what the production would require of everyone involved. The director’s warnings about the growth of the shoot were correct. “He was like, ‘This movie is going to be tough.’ And I looked at him like, ‘I’ve done, I don’t know, 80 movies.’ And they go, ‘No… This movie is going to be really hard.’ He, to his credit, wasn’t lying,” said Damon, emphasizing how Nolan’s predictions about the trouble shooting turned out to be prophetic.
Old-school design methods and practical requirements
Nolan was always keen to pull off a believable adventure, so he avoided green screens and effects as much as possible. Instead, the director chose to shoot on location in six countries and use the effects. This technique extended to the use of large cameras, which could record approximately two and a half minutes of footage at a time, forcing the actors to pause and wait for the cameras to reset each time that time elapsed.