\u201cNew Heights\u201d podcast,<\/a>\u00a0Damon said he dropped to 167 pounds \u2014 his lightest weight in decades.<\/p>\n\u201cYeah, I was in really good shape,\u201d Damon said. \u201cI\u00a0lost a lot of weight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matt Damon as Odysseus in a scene from \u201cThe Odyssey.\u201d \u00a9Universal\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n
When Poehler asked whether he still had \u201cany desire\u201d for it, Damon replied, \u201cNo, because of what it does to me \u2026 I didn\u2019t know.\u201d Good Hang with Amy Poehler \/ YouTube<\/p>\n
Nolan had a specific vision for the character.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said he wanted me \u2026 lean but strong,\u201d Damon explained.<\/p>\n
The actor said eliminating gluten played a major role in the transformation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI literally, just because of this other thing I did with my doctor, stopped eating gluten,\u201d he said. \u201cI used to walk around between 185 and 200 pounds. And I did that whole movie at 167 pounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t been that light since high school,\u201d Damon added. \u201cSo it was a lot of training and a\u00a0really strict diet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anne Hathaway and Matt Damon pose for photos at the premiere of \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d in London, England, on July 6, 2026. AP Photo\/Scott A Garfitt<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Damon detailed the\u00a0grueling regimen he followed\u00a0to play the legendary Greek hero Odysseus in Nolan\u2019s highly anticipated adaptation of \u201cThe Odyssey.\u201d Getty Images for Tribeca Festival<\/p>\n
Damon also credited working with a personal trainer for helping him stay focused throughout the demanding process.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrainers are like, \u2018What are we doing?\u2019 And they can kind of do anything,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just having kind of a clear goal and setting it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The transformation wasn\u2019t the first of Damon\u2019s career.<\/p>\n
For the 1996 war drama \u201cCourage Under Fire,\u201d he shed between 40 and 50 pounds in about 100 days \u2014 a drastic weight loss he later revealed nearly came with an extreme cost.<\/p>\n
According to Damon, a doctor warned him he \u201ccould have shrunk my heart permanently.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matt Damon\u2019s dramatic transformation for \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d came with an unexpected payoff. The Oscar winner revealed during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[3213,105672,103,61,60,98032,446],"class_list":["post-539094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-actors","tag-celebrity-diets","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-matt-damon","tag-nutrition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}