Matt Damon reveals drastic weight loss for ‘The Odyssey’: “I haven’t been that light since high school”
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(Credits: Universal Pictures)
Matt Damon has revealed the staggering amount of weight he lost to star in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.
The forthcoming blockbuster, set to arrive on July 17th, 2026, boasts an all-star cast with Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Jon Bernthal, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, and Mia Goth joining Damon in the epic.
Damon, whose new film The Rip with Ben Affleck arrives on Netflix on January 16th, lifted the lid on the hugely anticipated Nolan movie during a new appearance on the New Heights Podcast, telling hosts Travis and Jason Kelce, “I was in really good shape. I lost a lot of weight.”
He explained that Nolan “wanted me lean but strong”, before revealing how he made it work, adding, “Just because of this other thing that I did with my doctor, I stopped eating gluten. I used to walk around at between 185 and 200, and I did that whole movie at 167.”
The Good Will Hunting star also revealed it had been many decades since he was at that weight, adding, “And I haven’t been that light since high school. So it was a lot of training and a really strict diet.”
Elsewhere during the podcast episode, Damon lifted the lid on what it was like shooting The Odyssey with IMAX cameras, admitting, “IMAX cameras are really loud. It sounds like a blender, like a Cuisinart in your face when the camera’s close to you.”
Damon detailed that there had “never been” dialogue scenes of the same nature captured on IMAX cameras before. “We couldn’t have this conversation with a normal Imax camera because you wouldn’t be able to hear us,” he shared.
Thankfully, Nolan did manage to make it work with Damon sharing, “They built this giant thing around the Imax for those dialogue scenes and a system of mirrors so your eye line would be close to the camera and you could talk to the other actor.”
Heaping praise on the director, Damon added, “The amount of work that went into figuring out how to do (that), because he wanted to do 100 per cent IMAX and he did it!”
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