Matt Damon Breaks Down the Bizarre Camera Hack That Made Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ Possible

Since it was first announced, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s ancient Greek epic, The Odyssey, has been at the top of moviegoers’ must-watch lists for this summer’s blockbusters. Audiences have come to expect unbelievable spectacle from the writer-director’s innovative use of IMAX and unparalleled cinematic experiences in 70mm, but what is that experience like for the star-stacked cast delivering performances?

The Odyssey is a sweeping myth about King Odysseus of Ithaca, played in the film by Oscar-winning Matt Damon, traversing a perilous voyage to return home to his wife, Queen Penelope (Anne Hathaway), and son Telemachus (Tom Holland), after the Trojan War. This journey home spans 10 years, where Odysseus and his crew encounter the likes of Polyphemus the Cyclops (Bill Irwin), the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron), and a goddess witch Circe (Samantha Morton). The movie also stars Zendaya as Athena, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra, and more.

In addition to devising a workaround for the infamous noise IMAX cameras make, Nolan needed to formulate a method of capturing The Odyssey’s most intimate moments between its stars. In this interview with Collider’s Steven Weintraub, Damon discusses the comprehensive world-building required to ground Homer’s larger-than-life tale of heroics and breaks down the clever technique Nolan conceived to achieve the movie’s quieter moments. Plus, Damon reveals what he’d ask Homer about the poet’s revered Odysseus.

Matt Damon Still Doesn’t Know How Christopher Nolan Re-Created Ancient Greece for ‘The Odyssey’

“It was about this comprehensive effort on the part of all the departments to just really world-build.”

COLLIDER: Before I get started, the movie’s incredible. You’re awesome in it. But the most important question is, how exactly did Chris build the time machine that brought you guys back to ancient Greece to film on location?

MATT DAMON: I don’t know how he did it. I don’t know. I mean, the amount of vision that it took to build this world and how intentional it was. He talked about it from the moment we had our first conversation about it, and how it’s myth, it’s this ancient world, but he wanted to ground it. So all of those conversations about the wardrobe and the layering and the layers of dirt and everything, it was about this comprehensive effort on the part of all the departments to just really world-build.

Then, to be able to do it on IMAX, which was the goal, but we didn’t know if we’d do it. He didn’t announce that as we set off. I mean, we knew that was the intention, but we didn’t know if we’d be able to do it, and that is the final piece that just puts you there.

I watched it in the Lincoln Square IMAX on 70 millimeter, and I really wish everybody on the planet could watch it like that because it’s insane.

DAMON: Me too. It’s insane. That experience of seeing it there, it is overwhelming in the best possible way. I wish it just played there in perpetuity so everyone could go.

I agree. If you could ask Homer one question about Odysseus, what would you ask?

DAMON: Wow. Are you ready for the actor question? “Did you like my performance?” [Laughs] That’s the actor in me. “Was it okay?”

I think he would say yes.

DAMON: I hope so.

Matt Damon Explains ‘The Odyssey’s Extremely Unique New IMAX Camera

“If we can fix the eye lines, we can shoot large format, and we can shoot really quiet scenes.”

Image via Universal Pictures

One of the things that people don’t realize is that using this new IMAX camera, there were mirrors that you were using. Halfway through the shoot, it was you and Anne [Hathaway] in an intimate scene, having a dialogue using mirrors. What the hell was that like for you as an actor?

DAMON: It’s really interesting because that was one of the big questions — is the mirror system going to work? We knew technically it could work, but would it interfere with the ability to do an image?

Could you actually explain to the people watching how this mirror thing worked?

DAMON: So, if I were shooting a shot of you in a scene with me, right, and I was doing your closeup, the camera would be right here. I, as your scene partner, would put my face right next to the camera [for] your eyeline, so that the camera is seeing both of your eyes at all times, and so it feels like we’re looking at Steve’s soul, basically. And when we did the corresponding shot, it would be over your left shoulder, looking at me. The IMAX camera is so noisy that they built the giant blimp. The blimp goes around the IMAX, and so the blimp is like that wide, with the camera sitting in the middle. So if I’m going to put my face next to the camera to do my scene with Steve, it’s going to be way over here, which means your eyeline is going to be like that, and I’m not going to be seeing both of your eyes and seeing you.

So, the mirror system works like this. The camera’s here, the big box is here, I’m here, and you’re Anne Hathaway. I look into a mirror which reflects into another mirror, and my full face is in a mirror right next to the camera lens, where it needs to be for us to have that intimate view of your face. So what ended up happening, which was amazing, is that we could still feel how close we were to each other. We could hear each other breathing. We could hear each other’s voices. We were just looking there, in a mirror.

The effect, it worked seamlessly. And in fact, I was talking to Anne about this yesterday because I realized that in my memory of doing that very intimate scene at the end of the movie with her, I don’t remember it being a mirror. I remember I was so dialed into Annie’s eyes that I just remember Annie being right there, and she was, she was right there, but I was doing it to the mirror. But it worked. It worked really well. So, that was the hack that Chris came up with to say, “Okay, this will work if we can deaden the sound, which requires a giant box. If we can fix the eye lines, we can shoot large format, and we can shoot really quiet scenes.”

It’s crazy.

DAMON: Yeah, it’s really cool.

The Odyssey opens in theaters and IMAX on July 17.

Release Date

July 17, 2026

Runtime

172 Minutes