Why Matt Damon Had a Female Stunt Double on The Odyssey
Spoiler alert: Some of Damon's bicep work is thanks to his female stunt performer!
Photo: Universal Pictures EntertainmentMovies Matt Damon
Spoiler alert: Not all the shots of Odysseus’s biceps you admire during your viewing of The Odyssey belong to lead Matt Damon. In fact, some of the bicep shots are thanks to Damon’s female stunt double, whom he describes as having “the greatest arms I’ve ever seen.”
For the film, Damon, who previously thought his “bare bicep days were over,” cut down to his high school weight of 167 pounds—a journey Vogue has dubbed “The Bodyssey.” But while appearing on Monday’s episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Damon gave thanks to his female stunt double for helping him out with some of that bicep acting work. Specifically, when Odysseus encounters the man-eating giant Laestrygonians. According to Damon, director Christopher Nolan employed a 5-foot-tall stuntwoman, Devyn Dalton, and a touch of movie magic to accomplish the scene practically.
“When we did the forced perspective stuff of the Laestrygonians—I don’t know if there’s been a thing about how we did it—there were these stuntmen who were all seven feet. And then they got stuntmen who were under five feet,” he explains. “My double was a woman, a female stunt performer, who had the greatest arms I’ve ever seen. And when she came into the catering tent the first time I met her, I went up and hugged her, and I thanked her for all the work she’d put in.” Something tells me this is going to have Elon Musk screaming about DEI in movies all over again, but I’ll be laughing at him from my local IMAX movie theater.
“So there are those shots in the movie where you see these giants looming over me,” Damon added. “It was almost 100 percent my arms in the movie, but you gotta give it up where it’s due.” Correct!
A smaller man probably wouldn’t have given his stuntwoman the credit, so kudos. And now I need to know more about this shredded 5-foot-tall stuntwoman who resembles Matt Damon!
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