Odysseus Was Played By A Woman And 7 Wild Facts About Making ‘The Odyssey’

In a world where too many filmmakers are starting to embrace the easy way out with AI and utilizing special effects more often than they should, Christopher Nolan and his team are refusing to let go of practical effects, and his movies are made infinitely better because of this detail. It's why 70mm IMAX tickets are sold out worldwide, even at ungodly hours like six in the morning and long past midnight. There's a great deal to respect about his craftsmanship and dedication to ensuring that movies not only look good, but that they feel real, and the actors who choose to work with him know that they're in for challenges they might not find elsewhere.

It's a tremendously rewarding process, even as a viewer and a critic, to understand just how he got to an otherworldly scene without the use of CGI. Every fact that comes out about The Odyssey (2026) makes the movie that much more remarkable, allowing it to stand out among classic epics that have come before. There could not have been a director more perfect to tackle such a story, and interestingly, the wild facts about the film make the scenes twice as compelling. 

If you're thinking to yourself, "that's definitely CGI," these wild moments in The Odyssey actually prove they can be done through thoughtful camera-work and artistry instead. As John Leguizamo says in an interview with BBC Radio 1, "Doing a movie with Christopher Nolan is like being in an independent film that costs a lot of money. But he keeps it small. Tight. He's hands-on. You just feel like it's an artist's realm.” And in more ways than one, this is largely why the scale of his films and the content within continue to have such an impact on viewers. 

Matt Damon's Stunt Double Is a Woman - The Lestrygonians Shot, Explained

If I had a nickel for every post I saw this weekend asking how Nolan achieved the Lestrygonians fight without any CGI, I could take some time off work. But as Nolan and the actors have explained on a few occasions now, the Lestrygonians were taller performers (all seven feet or above) cast to don the armor, while the stunt doubles playing Odysseus and his men were five feet and under.

Because of this, Canadian stuntwoman ​​Devyn Dalton stood for Matt Damon, her height coming in at 4ft 5.75 inches. And when you look at the shot from behind, you can't tell one bit which is superbly impressive considering Dalton's impressive physical work. It's an homage to stunt people in more ways than one, really. (Plus, her arms! I'll take a workout class from her any day.) In the shots where we do see Damon's face, those are also real, but shot in such a way that Odysseus looks significantly shorter despite Damon's 5 '10 height. 

The Cyclops in ‘The Odyssey’ Isn't CGI

One of the most impressive moments in The Odyssey is the one that floors me the most because it's proof of just how tremendous practical effects can be, and why the work behind them will always have a greater appeal than anything AI or CGI could manipulate. Every bit of thought that's gone on to create the sequence with the Cyclops (Polyphemus) makes the scene that much more haunting.

For starters, in an interview with Jake's Takes, Nolan vocalizes how he learned to understand and bring to life monsters because of Guillermo del Toro, stating that at the end of the day, "a monster is never just a monster. It's really about finding the individual behind." Because of this detail, Nolan's decision to cast legendary actor Bill Irwin adds depth and layers to the Cyclops in a way that brings the creature to life with a gutting sequence that's remarkable both from a thematic standpoint as well as a physical one. 

The cave also comes built with a curtain of bees before the entrance, which sounds like an absolute nightmare if you're terrified of insects, and the flock of sheep was also real. In an interview with BBC Radio 1, the actors have described the uncomfortable reality of walking through their feces, but again, all the more reason every scene in The Odyssey looks so real. So much of it is, thanks to the dedication to practical effects.

The Water Scenes Elicited a Number of Real Moments

While Odysseus and his crew are sailing through what they believe to be angry waves brought on by Poseidon's rage, we get a number of real moments behind the scenes that make it into the film. For starters, these actors are all on an actual boat in the middle of Scotland's Moray Firth. Imagine if you're someone who gets motion sickness? And some actors did, in fact, get sick at some point, particularly during the storm sequence.

The dolphins that make an appearance throughout the movie where Odysseus looks out in the ocean are also not staged. Rather, that brief magical moment is brought on by dolphins actually making an appearance and the camera capturing it. At the same time, the whirlpool scene is brought to life by people swirling around them with jet skis to conjure the effect, while it was later cleaned up a bit. 

The Stunt Doubles Were Really Buried in the Inferno Sequence

One of the scenes in The Odyssey that's the most suffocating to think about on a film of this scale is the Inferno sequence and how characters rise from the sand to get their moment to speak with Odysseus. On any other set, the moment might've been edited in post-production with a lot of heavy CGI work, but again, with Nolan it's all practical. 

In an interview with IGN, Matt Damon breaks down the sequence, noting how the stunt performers were buried under the sand, with snorkels, and they each had a safety person on them as well. He also specifies that there was a timer that went off the second the first person was covered up, meaning there were only a few minutes to get the sequence filmed when they rise to the surface. In other words, don't think about this scene for too long if you're claustrophobic.   

Circe Works With Animatronics Heads in ‘The Odyssey’

Like the Inferno sequence, another moment that's particularly jarring and deeply uncomfortable in The Odyssey is when Samantha Morton's Circe turns Odysseus' men into pigs. If you're someone who flinches at the sight of body horror, this might've been a scene where you watched through your fingers. However, the filming sequence of it makes the beat even more riveting because it's all practical.

In an interview with IMDb, Anne Hathaway explains how there were anamorphic heads built in a manner that could be sculpted and manipulated to give Morton the ability to move her hand and shape the human heads freely. Cleaned up with some visual work later, sure, but the majority of that sequence being done through real hand movements allows it to come across in a more terrifying manner.

Yes, the Actors Were Really Inside the Trojan Horse

When it comes to filming a sequence, Nolan and the actors who've worked with him on numerous occasions have mentioned that some scenes need to be improvised on the day of. The Trojan Horse scene is one of them, as Damon noted in an interview with GameRadar+. Yes, that means the large prop wasn’t just mounted on the island in Morocco, but also big enough to allow filming inside its body. 

As he explains in the interview, "We literally got in there, me and the guys jammed in, with Chris [Nolan] and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema. [...]That feeling of claustrophobia, that was all just developing organically. They just built that in real time. It was so cool to see. If we had planned it out, I don't think it would have had that same energy." So, yeah, again, if you're claustrophobic, this one might not be for you, but that stifling moment is naturally so evocative off-screen that I found myself holding my breath until they were out of it.

Mirrors Were Used to Allow Actors to See Each Other in Specific Scenes

Shooting entirely on IMAX isn't something that's been done before The Odyssey, and naturally, with it came a number of challenges for the actors because of the capabilities and limitations. For one, it's louder than a normal camera, but also larger, making intimate scenes more challenging to shoot.

However, Nolan and his team found a way around it through mirrors. In an interview with Letterboxd, the director states that they rigged a system of mirrors so they could see each other and have those more close-up, intimate moments. Often, even with a regular filming system, some of these scenes could be challenging, yet the mirrors make it easier to look at each other through a more intimate lens than if it were to happen through another camera lens off to the side.