Matt Damon has revealed why Christopher Nolan‘s The Odyssey was the toughest film of his career. The Oscar winner recently reflected on the experience, revealing what made the ambitious epic unlike any project he had worked on before.

Matt Damon on the demands of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey

In an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Odyssey star Matt Damon talked about the conversation he had with Nolan before the film’s production began. Despite working on half a ton of films, he underestimated what lay ahead of him. However, now, he knows Nolan’s warning was indeed accurate.

“The workload was incredible. It was such an ambitious project that the amount of work that needed to be done left no time for anything else. I’ve never worked on a movie that required every single person to give maximum effort,” Damon said.

Interestingly, Damon also revealed Ben Affleck was the only visitor during the six months of filming of the epic fantasy action film. Speaking on the film’s exotic location and tough weather conditions, he reflected on his prior career and whether he had ever worked in such intense situations before.

Damon added, “I told Ben here afterward that every location on that movie would have been the hardest location on any other movie I’d ever done, and every day of work was harder than any day on any other movie I’d ever worked on. Really.”

Despite having never worked with Nolan, Ben Affleck also admired his work as a director. “Christopher Nolan is a really serious guy I admire. He believes a film set is a place to work, so I was grateful he let me visit. My kids loved it,” Affleck said in the same interview.

The Odyssey marks the third collaboration between Christopher Nolan and Matt Damon, who have previously worked together in Interstellar and Oppenheimer. Apart from Damon, the ensemble cast includes Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, and Charlize Theron.

The Odyssey is set to release in theaters worldwide on July 17, 2026.