Christopher Nolan likes to shoot as much in-camera as possible. It’s a well-known aspect of the esteemed filmmaker’s process and one that even extends to the hairs protruding from his stars’ faces. Case in point: Matt Damon, who plays Odysseus in “The Odyssey,” suggested he don a fake beard for the historical epic, but Nolan immediately shot down the idea, insisting that Odysseus’ facial hair absolutely had to be real.
Nolan has made no secret of his specific filmmaking tastes. The director has gone to great lengths in explaining his love for shooting on celluloid and has made promoting the IMAX format a major cause throughout his career. Nolan even had an entirely new IMAX film made for his Oscar-winning biopic “Oppenheimer.” But it’s not just the physicality of film that Nolan likes. If he can shoot something without CGI, he’ll do it — like when he literally dangled a plane from another plane over the Scottish Highlands for the very real opening of “The Dark Knight Rises.” In fact, he’ll avoid using VFX of any sort if he can get away with it, and in the case of Damon’s Odysseus, that meant a fake beard was out of the question from the get-go.
For the latest issue of Empire magazine, Damon spoke about his experience working on Nolan’s next project. The actor recalled feeling insecure about his ability to grow a sufficiently majestic beard in order to play the Greek king of Ithaca. “I’d never tried to grow a beard that size,” he admitted. “I mean, there are about 100 things to take a beard off my face before it can get that long, starting with my kids.” Nonetheless, Nolan insisted on real facial hair for the movie, with Damon adding, “He wants it all real.”
Read more: 5 Years Ago, Director Christopher Nolan Clashed With Warner Bros. Trying To Save The Box Office
Christopher Nolan demands realism from his actors’ facial hair
Matt Damon as Sir Jean de Carrouges is seen in closeup in The Last Duel – 20th Century Studios
Speaking to Empire, Christopher Nolan elaborated on his requirement for Matt Damon to grow a full beard for “The Odyssey.” “I’m not a big fan of wigs and fake beards,” the director explained. “You want the physicality of real hair, so that you can put a firehose on the guy and do all the things we need him to do.” As such, when Nolan and Damon met to discuss the script and the latter suggested using a fabricated facial mane, Nolan quickly shut it down.
While it might seem like the director was being overly-fastidious, you can bet he’s paying attention to historical detail with his upcoming movie, and if the star was wearing a fake beard throughout, there’s every chance that could distract from the all-important immersion. Considering Nolan is literally changing movie theaters in preparation for “The Odyssey,” working with IMAX to build new theaters capable of projecting 70mm film, it would be a shame if all that hard work was undone by less than convincing facial hair.
The movie is shaping up to be Nolan’s biggest undertaking yet. None of that was lost on Damon, either, as he recalled how his experience on the project began when the director called him at home and began with a terse, “I’m thinking of going back to work.” “We probably talked for four hours,” Damon recalled. “At the end Chris said, ‘This is going to be a very hard film.’ I said, ‘I know.’ And he said, ‘No, this is going to be a very hard film.'” Whatever struggles he faced, Damon doesn’t seem to have struggled with his beard, judging by the images we’ve seen so far.
“The Odyssey” opens in theaters on July 17, 2026.
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