Christopher Nolan‘s “The Odyssey” continues to burn up the box office, surpassing $600 million globally in its second weekend of release
One of the film’s most striking scenes features protagonist Odysseus (Matt Damon) facing off against giant, armor-clad cannibalistic warriors known as the Laestrygonians. In that scene, they tower over Damon — yet there was no CGI trickery involved to pull of that scene.
Instead, Nolan was able to create the illusion thanks to some very tall stunt performers — and a short-statured woman who doubled for Damon during the scene.
‘The Greatest Arms I Have Ever Seen’
Damon recently appeared on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, and revealed that Nolan’s scene created a forced perspective, utilizing camera angles and stunt performers of radically different heights.
“I don’t know if there’s been a thing about how we did it, but there were these stunt men who were all seven feet, right?” Damon explained.
“And then they got stunt men who were under five feet,” he continued. “And so my double was a woman, a female stunt performer who had the greatest arms I’ve ever seen. And when she came into the catering tent was the first time I met her. I went up and I hugged her, and … I thanked her for all the work she’d put in.”
He jokingly bragged that, other than that scene, “it was almost 100 percent my arms in the movie. But give credit where it’s due. Got to give it up …”
Stunt Performer Devyn Dalton
While Damon didn’t mention the stunt performer by name, her friends tagged her in the video. Next thing she knew, Vancouver-based stunt performer Devyn Dalton discovered she’d gone viral.
“I’m like, what is going on?’ Dalton told The Canadian Press. “And of course I’m ignoring it, and then when I woke up, I saw the video and my friends are so sweet — they had tagged my name in the video, and then that is how people actually found out.”
She admitted that it felt “awesome” to suddenly receive all this unexpected attention.
A Stunt Superstar
Dalton has been a stunt performer for 17 years, and has amassed more than 90 screen credits. Due to her size — she stands just four-feet-six-inches tall — she’s doubled for children (both girls and boys) and has played an assortment of zombies, demons and apes, with her first stunt role coming in 2011’s “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.”
“And through that, I met amazing stunt people. Shout out to the Vancouver stunt community, because we have so many incredibly talented people there, and they kind of showed me the stunt world,” she told The Canadian Press.
“And it’s so much fun when you get to dive into a character and transform into something else,” she added. “I find it so liberating and freeing as a performer and an artist, and that’s why we call it acting, right?
Her Size Has Been Her Superpower
While some might view her diminutive size as a hurdle, Dalton has experienced great success by leaning into it.
“It’s easy to kind of be put in a box or maybe stereotyped, but I think you just embrace whatever your difference is and you believe in it,” said Dalton.
“I always knew that I could do more than just what people thought I should play with my size or my look. But if you believe in yourself and you put the training in, and the time and the dedication, you can do whatever characters you want,” she added.
When she’s not on a film or television set, Dalton is likely to be involved in some sort of athletic training. That, she said, included running, biking, swimming, martial arts, dancing and yoga.
Her commitment to athleticism is clear in a video she posted via Instagram, featuring the intense fight choreography she had to master for “The Odyssey.”
