Matt Damon and Tom Holland Share a Funny Behind-the-Scenes Moment From ‘The Odyssey’

I wish I could claim him as a son. Oh, God, yeah. Yeah, he's way cooler than my dad. Don't let him see that. Oh, please let him see that clip. Yes, like this. Oh, yeah, just go like that. There you go. He gave me permission to hurt him. And today, I found out he ended up in the emergency room. So, Matt, this is the second time in your career you're playing someone who's trying to get home from the Martian to the Odyssey. I was wondering, is this something you're drawn to or does Hollywood keep stranding you places? They can strand me as long as they want. If those are the outcomes, you know, interstellar. I'm also stranded. So so those are those are some good saving private Ryan. You're a little saving private Ryan. So those are, you know, I'll I'll take those jobs if I can get them. I mean, if they make as good films as those, keep them coming. Yeah, that's exactly. That's a good list. That's a good. That's a great list. That's going to be a great clip. And so I was wondering if there was lessons you took from doing Romeo and Juliet on stage, bringing into this. And if so, what were they? I tell you what, the most valuable lesson I learned from doing a play was I found my focus improved greatly because you'll be doing these complicated lines and someone might be coughing or someone's phone might go off and you can't allow one person to disrupt the experience for a thousand people. And, you know, I used to find myself struggling on set if sets of busy places, they're noisy, there's lots of movement happening behind the camera. I used to find it really difficult to stay focused. And after doing that play and exercising that every single night, I definitely have found much more focus. That's a great observation, actually, because you're making me think that there are film actors I've encountered who are more fragile. You know, if a phone goes off or if I think, you know, and when you do a play, you have no choice but to like the lights are on and you make your entrance and you have to keep going. And and and you're right, it does really improve your concentration. Well, there you go. Recommend it to every actor. Get it done. John, obviously you first tackled Shakespeare with Romeo and Juliet. Now to Homer, I was I was wondering with the Odyssey, obviously their worlds apart. Did that experience with one classic influence the other? Oh, you know, that's that's a great parallel you made because it did. I mean, we had a study with Baz Luhrmann. We had a two week Shakespeare workshop with all the actors, Leo and everybody. And this and when I looked at this script and the dialogue that I had, I definitely thought of that. You know, like how do I make this dialogue come to life and make it conversational? Because that's what Chris told me at lunch. Like, can you make this exposition conversational? I go, I'll do my best. Himesh, I was wondering if there's there was a film called The Odyssey about your life, what would the story be? Oh, my gosh, a young brown kid from a small village tries to get to the city to find more brown people. Oh, that's great. That's basically my life. I'm jumping in that movie. Yeah, yeah. I want to be a part of it. I'll be a sidekick. Yeah, yeah. And Lupita, you've shown how powerful silence can be as an actor. I think like you can say a thousand words about saying anything. Just just just on your face. And I was wondering if you'd maybe ever asked a director if they can cut a line so you can replace it with a look. Most definitely. Oh, yes. That happens often. Yeah. I can't remember any specific line, but sometimes oftentimes that's the workshop of getting something off the page is that there's when you consider behavior. You don't need the words as much. And it can be so much more powerful. Definitely. Well, you do it so well. Thank you. I was wondering if at any point, Vinny, that if you tapped into that director side of you while you were acting, like did it did it at certain moments just click? Ah, no, not really. You know, because like Chris has got a pretty, pretty under control. Yeah, it's like you never feel the. No, but there definitely is a part of me that's like looking around and it's like, oh, OK, it's not. Yeah, not not so bad or I can't. I wish I had a thousand people that I could throw in. Yeah. But there's yet part of it is like, yeah, you in this, though, it's it's it's a nice experience to kind of just give yourself up and and take be a part of the process. You know, and yeah, it's it was amazing. You recently said that filming this was more like an expedition. Yeah. And I was wondering, was there any situations during either being out in the ocean, in the storms and stuff that you actually feared? No, no, no, no, no, never. Chris is super safety conscious. Yeah, yeah. He's obsessive about safety. And the trick is to to and what what's hard is to make something look dangerous, but not have it actually be dangerous. And so there was a lot of that, but that takes a lot of of work. And and and but no, there was never any, never any fear, even when he was waterboarding me at the end at the at the universal back lot. I knew I was still going to make it to lunch. What's the story behind that? Well, we had to get some close ups on the raft and it was the last day of shooting. And so I'm lying on this raft because we've done stuff in the open ocean. But but that we needed a controlled environment to shoot these these very these tight shots. And so I just water started getting poured on my head and and I just heard him giggling and I'm like, I haven't I haven't heard you laugh while we're working for 100 days. And this is the one I'm like, you're waterboarding me on the last day of work. So I was wondering for the both of you, if you could steal one quality from each other as actors, what would it be? Oh, my God, I love it again. Yeah, I was I was going to say that moment where you were deciding that you were going to turn against Matt Odysseus. I mean, you could read everything in your face and the way you take your time to give us all those emotions that you were going through and so transparent. It was thank you. It was great. Yeah, I it's John Leguizamo. I don't know. Where do I start? If I could do any of the iconic roles, but we were just talking about Ice Age. So that was pretty. If I could play if I could. Yes, like this. Just just like that. 20 years of iconic animated movie. Luigi as well. That as well, by the way, that was I remember that when I was a kid. And I was wondering for the both of you, if you could steal one quality from each other as actors, what would it be? Your ability to access that just like raw emotion and but like. Definitely, I have to build it up. I can't just like I would. I would. I would take his long suffering nature because when we were doing our scene, he gave me permission to hurt him. And every time I checked in with him, he said he was OK. And today I found out he ended up in the emergency room. Did you actually? No, no, it was it was definitely it was. I was I was definitely not entirely truthful when I was saying it didn't hurt. He hurt. It paid off on screen. Oh, yeah. Obviously, you two play a father and son in the film. Did that relationship naturally carry behind the scenes? I know you didn't get to have loads of scenes together. I actually see him a lot more as a colleague than as a son figure. You know, I may be an older an older brother. Or maybe I'm just don't want to get old. But but but no, he's he's incredible. And and and reminds me a lot of me at that age. You know, he's accomplished more than I had by that time, I think. But like but just great choices, just unbelievably professional and kind to everybody. And just, you know, I wish I could claim him as a son. Would you claim him back? Oh, God, yeah. Yeah, way cooler than my dad. Don't let him see that. Oh, please let him see that clip. No, I remember my dad. One of the most memorable moments I have with my dad is sitting down. We were on a family holiday in Portugal and he finally decided I was old enough to watch The Bourne Identity. That franchise is one of I've spoken to Matt about this at Nauseam. It's one of my favourite franchises going. And I remember sitting down with my dad in Portugal, watching that movie for the first time. So working with Matt was very special for me and for my dad. Benny, would you have added The Odyssey to your massive stack of Criterion films from the Criterion closet? Oh, would I? Yeah, definitely. What would you tell the camera about why you've chosen it? Well, I think I would I would say this is the ultimate realisation of a mythical story. You know, and it's it's as physical and as real as possible. And also just, yeah, emotionally and physically. And it's and if you want to take a trip through time and place, this is what you should watch. John, I was wondering if you could revisit one character from your career for one more day, who would it be and why? Wow. Oh, oh, damn. I mean, maybe Bob Torino, because he's such a sweet character and I don't usually play like nice, sweet characters. So I think Bob Torino that I'd like to revisit. That's not like a simple, normal guy. You got your start on Ascenders. And I was wondering if there's one lesson you learned there that you still carry with you today, even a film as big as The Odyssey. There's there's an element of pace when you shoot a soap like that. You've got scenes to get through and you don't necessarily even have time to get into what the scene is and like chat about it. And that's often the case on a movie like this as well. You have time like Chris's all is. But the day is the day and we've got to get the day. So eventually at some point you just got to do the scene and just just roll the camera and see what happens. And that like having that ability to just sort of dive into something and and get it done and trust that it's all going to be OK. That I think that definitely got fostered. Lastly, I was wondering, did I steal anything from set? Did you keep a prop? I I went back to where we were shooting in Iceland. My family came. We all went around and I was like, oh, we got to go to the spot where we film this. And when we got there, it was everything was gone. And this is where we were. And I'm explaining it to my kids. And and then there was a piece of the wood that was part of one of the fires. I was like, no, I'll take that. And of course, it was filled with all the black sand and got all the clothes. Yeah, but that was it. And I took it there. There was a hand warmer that I remember leaving. I'll take that to clean up. I just think that, you know, in like 90, 100 years, someone will make a compilation of all actors talking about the things they stole. And they think we're despicable people. I mean, I didn't steal anything. I wish I did. Not not saying that I'm above it. I'm not saying I'm above. No, for sure. But they were pretty tight over there. I wanted to steal my Helen wig. Okay, that I wanted to steal. And let me just be clear. I didn't steal the the piece of wood because it was left. Yeah, yeah. So you were just tidying up there. Yeah, I had criminal thoughts. I would be the same. I'd definitely be stealing something. And that's what we have time for. But thank you so much, guys. Again, such an amazing film. Thank you. Thank you very much so much.