The Weight-reduction plan Change Matt Damon Made to Get in Form for The Odyssey

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is likely to be an epic story years within the making, however it’s solely taken a few weeks to develop into one of many largest films of 2026 on the field workplace. One of the primary causes it’s executed so effectively? The unimaginable efficiency of Matt Damon, who leads the Greek epic as Odysseus himself.

But how, precisely, did the 55-year-old actor get into the literal form of a legendary Greek hero for the position? It clearly took fairly a little bit of figuring out and coaching within the health club, however Damon mentioned arguably the largest change wasn’t within the weight room — it was on his dinner plate.

Matt Damon went gluten-free for The Odyssey

While speaking on the New Heights podcast, Damon detailed one of many largest modifications he made whereas getting ready for The Odyssey was giving up gluten, after realizing how a lot it was particularly affecting his physique. He mentioned coaching for the movie, and reducing out gluten, allowed him to get all the way down to his “high school” weight of 167 kilos for taking pictures — down from his normal weight vary in recent times of 185-200 kilos.

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“It was more about just getting really, really physically fit. Which just really involves changing your diet. I stopped eating gluten, among other things,” Damon informed People in a current interview about his food regimen modifications. “You have to just be very, very intentional about everything you put in your body. I didn’t realize the level to which it was affecting me. It’s completely changed my life these last couple years of not eating it.”

Damon went on to explain the choice to go gluten-free as “a whole lifestyle change” whereas making the film, which allowed him to achieve a degree bodily the place he may realistically embody the look of one of the iconic heroes in literature for Nolan’s epic. Instead of gluten-filled meals like bread or pasta, he mentioned he would as a substitute order proteins like steak at dinner.

Damon wasn’t the one one to make a giant food regimen change for The Odyssey — co-star Tom Holland revealed he went the other way of Damon, taking full benefit of taking pictures in Sicily. consuming a “fiery pepperoni pizza” just about each night time for dinner: “Fortunately, I was not cutting out gluten while I was making that movie. And I ate it every single night,” Holland mentioned.

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If you need to see Damon’s transformation up shut, The Odyssey is in theaters now. The movie is the primary full-length characteristic movie shot completely in IMAX format (right here’s the best way to see it in on an enormous IMAX 70mm display screen), and was filmed on location all throughout the globe, with Damon and his new physique trotting to places together with Morocco, Greece, Italy, Iceland, Scotland and the United States.