Matt Damon says not sleeping for days on The Odyssey worked in his favour: “[Odysseus] probably didn’t sleep last night”

Matt Damon says he was awake for about 24 hours before filming a demanding scene in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, and remained without sleep for around 36 hours by the end of the day. He believes the exhaustion helped him portray Odysseus, a character worn down by danger and the search for safety.

Damon told GQ that he went through similar sleepless stretches two or three times during filming. The scene with Samantha Morton appears to be the tense encounter between Odysseus and Circe, after the crew’s men are turned into pigs. Shot in locations around the world, the film was a physically demanding undertaking; Damon said he was grateful to make it at this point in his career.