Matt Damon Says 'The Odyssey' Was His "Last Chance Make Something on This Scale"

In The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception, Oppenheimer) promises to deliver the most ambitious project of his career by adapting the most influential Greek poem in Western culture. His main collaborator on this journey may well be Matt Damon.

Some of Hollywood’s biggest actors have joined the journey as well. Zendaya, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Anne Hathaway, and the list goes on. And leading this star-studded cast is Damon, who at 55 has already appeared in more than 100 productions — and he says that The Odyssey was the biggest of them all.

“The whole project felt new to me,” the actor said in an interview with Omelete. “Because of the nature of the technical challenges, shooting in IMAX, and because I’m at a different stage in my life. This character is grappling with the price of his own naivety, and he carries a lot of weight, guilt, and shame, and there was so much to do as an actor, so much to think about… he’s a complex character, a very rich, dense, and iconic role in Western literature.” the actor concluded.

When asked how the experience changed him as a person and as a professional, Damon replied:

“I came away from this experience with the view that what has to happen to you will happen — but how you feel about it is what determines the experience of your life. Twenty years ago, I would have complained about how cold I was, how wet I was, how uncomfortable everything was, but because it happened at a different time in my life, and because it felt like my last chance to be part of a project like this, I just savored every minute of it.”

The Odyssey is now playing in theaters.