The film, which hits theaters Friday, stars Matt Damon as the legendary Odysseus and was made by a cast and crew determined to create something larger than life.
Joelle Garguilo recently sat down with Damon to discuss the ambitious production and his enduring passion for filmmaking.
"My God, Matt. What you went through for this movie," Garguilo said.
"Yeah, but don't single me out," Damon replied. "Everybody went through it. That was what was so amazing about it. It was more like going on an expedition than making a movie. You've got to hike up a mountain, you've got to hike up to a cave, you've got to take a boat. The whole thing was just awesome."
When asked about a story from the production that he would never get tired of telling, Damon recalled watching crew members tackle extraordinary challenges on set.
"While we were shooting, the first AD came up to me," Damon said. "I was watching the grips do something extraordinary, like build a platform off the side of a mountain."
"There's nothing normal about that," Garguilo responded.
"No," Damon said. "People worked so hard on this movie. Nilo, our first AD, kind of sidled up next to me and saw me gawking. He said, 'You know, it's funny. Every single person here could be working on a movie for more money.' I knew it was true the second he said it. I love doing this so much, and I was surrounded by hundreds of people who feel that way about it, too."
Garguilo asked why that passion remains so strong.
"It's ultimately about connecting emotionally to your audience," Damon said. "Sometimes it works, and it's amazing when it does."
"It worked," Garguilo replied.
"Great movies hold a very important place in my life, and I think in a lot of people's lives," Damon said. "When you really connect to them, to be part of a group that was trying to do the first feature film shot entirely on IMAX cameras and do it in this way, with everything happening without the aid of special effects, was incredible. It wasn't like, 'That's fine, we'll paint that out later.' Everything had to occur."
Damon said nearly every aspect of the production presented unprecedented challenges.
"Every location on this movie would have been the hardest location on any other movie I've ever done," he said. "So that was a first. Just the relentless difficulty and challenge of making every day and getting all the shots we needed."
He also pointed to the demands of shooting with IMAX cameras.
"Shooting in IMAX is really challenging," Damon said. "The film goes through the camera in two and a half minutes rather than 11 minutes. So, during a big emotional scene, you've got to stop, they've got to reload. There were all these technical challenges that accompanied the attempt to tell this story in a way that people would enjoy."
The conversation turned personal when Garguilo shared that movies are "sacred" in her family and asked Damon whether there was a movie quote he lives by.
Damon immediately referenced the 1986 comedy "Three Amigos."
"My brother, my dad and I went and saw that movie, and we loved it," Damon said. "There's a moment when Martin gets shot and they realize it's real. He comes back to Chevy Chase and Martin Short and says, 'It's real.'"
The line became a family favorite, but years later it took on a deeper meaning.
"We would always say that to each other," Damon said. "And then when my dad was on his deathbed, literally, after we'd spent all this time in the hospital, he said, 'Boys, come here.' My brother and I went over, and he looked up at us and said, 'It's real.' Then he just started laughing."
Damon smiled as he reflected on the memory.
"They occupy a very special place," he said of beloved movie quotes. "Those quotable movies, you take them all the way with you."
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