A few weeks back, Matt Damon made this rather unexpectedly philosophical comparison on the Joe Rogan show, about something that, to most of us, has usually been a less intense thought when we first plan a movie outing: “There’s nothing like watching a film in IMAX – that feeling of sitting with strangers, people from your community, all sharing the same moment. It’s almost like going to church - you arrive at a set time, it doesn’t wait for you, and your attention is total… It’s a completely different level of attention.”

And more recently, he said: “The Odyssey was an experience that I just was in it every day and loving it. And the funniest thing happened, which is just all of the things that might have been difficult for me at an earlier point in my life weren’t difficult. They became fun. Like being wet and cold was not a hardship. It was actually something I felt really lucky to be experiencing. It felt temporary and like a gift. So it was very strange. It’s not something I’ve ever experienced. That’s why I kind of sound like a born-again Christian. It’s a feeling that I’ve wanted and finally had.”

Not many actors have spoken of watching cinema, or being part of a movie, in terms that are adjacent to devotion and faith. So one was waiting to sit across Matt to ask him this: Is this just a turn of phrase, or do you actually feel this deeply about this space and your craft?

“Both”, he says. “Both. Because I do feel that deeply about it, and also... you know, it was such a huge part of my life, and the joy of going… And I talked about it in terms of church because I think, in the cinema experience, you have to go at an appointed time. It’s going to start whether you’re there or not. And so, already, that changes the relationship between something you’re doing at home that you can stop and start. And, also, when you’re viewing at home, which we all do, you’re usually in a room where other things might be happening. The lights might be on, kids might be running around, the dogs might be running around. When you go to the cinema (however), you’re stepping into this other place where you’re paying deference to this event that’s occurring. And so, it’s just a different relationship to what you’re watching. And it’s one that I treasure.”

Then he pauses to rewind. “And it was a big part of growing up. Ben Affleck and I would go to the movies – every weekend we would go. And if you got shut out of one movie, you just went to another that was playing. And sometimes stay and see two movies back-to-back. And I love that experience.”

That memory will bring reassurance to all those who have been castigated for the time we supposedly wasted watching movies. Then Matt shifts to the omnipresent post-Covid screen question: “I’m glad that it’s coming back, that it feels like we’re out of the pandemic, and that young people seem to be going again (to the movie theatres). Because I want that experience for them, because it was such an important part of my life.”

Young people? Well, there is a representative of young people right next to Matt, so we ask Tom Holland, who could still easily pass off as a 21 year old, whether he agrees with what Matt is saying, or does that sound like an older person’s perspective?

“No, I relate to what he says”, Tom instantly says, “and I’m, you know, really excited for the future of cinema. It feels like there’s been this kind of competition between streaming and the theatrical experience, and I feel like people have recognized that they’re not two of the same thing. They’re completely different experiences now. Both can exist in the same world,” he is emphatic on that point.

“And for me, to be a part of a movie like The Odyssey, with Christopher Nolan directing and kind of bringing all of those younger people into the theatre is such a pleasure and it feels like something to be so grateful for.”

Then Tom makes a point about what one has been reading a lot about – the younger age group driving the footfalls to halls globally.

“I think being a cinephile now is something to celebrate, especially in, you know, younger communities. And I think something that I’ve been learning – as I’ve been allowed behind the curtain with the producers and the directors – is that there’s such a great deal of respect for audiences. You know, I think that they really understand that people are coming into these movies with such knowledge about how they’re made, and that’s what I love about how Chris has made The Odyssey, because it’s going to challenge their knowledge. There’s going to be things that they see where they leave the theatre and go, ‘How on earth did he do that?’ I almost can’t wait for the secondary press tour where we can spill all the beans about how he made this movie as epic as it is!”

One holds back the urge to make a quip along the lines of yes, Tom, we are all very aware you can’t wait to spill all the beans . But then, serious-looking Matt’s there, and we move away before Tom spills anything.

Every one of us has seen the memes about the cost of Hollywood bringing Matt Damon home. He is forever in a distant land trying to get back home. However, it was back in 2012 or thereabout when he first spoke about how different it is personally. He has a two-week rule: ‘We don’t stay away from family for more than two weeks if I can help it’. So how does somebody with that mindset, when he plays a character like this – how does he imagine he could ever actually live this, could you be away for 20 years from family?

“No, I can’t imagine how it would impact me! It’s one of the reasons why the film Interstellar was so emotional. When I first read that script, that idea that Matthew McConaughey’s character lost the childhood of his own children because he went to that planet and lost all that time, which just was so terrifying to me. And so we did always have a two-week rule. And we always observed it until this film – this film was the first time. The first stretch I was away, I think, for three and a half weeks, before my kids came to visit. And so, yeah, it definitely, for me, it was a shocking experience in that regard, and it certainly helped me relate to the character.”

Nolan keeps saying that The Odyssey is made around ethical dilemmas and impossible situations, and that’s what makes this story work. We ask both the actors to give a sense of what was their ‘impossible situation? Something so far away from their own personal space or your own philosophy that when it was read out to them, they said, ‘okay, how do I create this, this moment, in this situation?’

Tom goes first. “Well, for me, it would be the idea of growing up without a dad. I was so lucky in my life that my dad was so present. I had both my parents work from home. My dad was a comedian, so his job would exist once we had gone to bed. So, in our minds, dad was home all the time. And I couldn’t imagine growing up in any other way. So, for me, playing Telemachus felt like a huge departure from the personal life that I’ve been lucky enough to live.”

But he goes on to add a caveat, as to why it was not as difficult as it might have been: “We were very lucky, though, with Chris’s script. You know, any of those questions or those unknown or uncharted territory, everything was on the page. You know, we were really spoiled with this script that was full of every detail you could possibly want. And then Chris is so up for discussion. He really, really loved to chat through the characters and all that sort of stuff. So we were really, really spoiled as actors.”

(Bollywood directors, leaving that here for you: be up for discussion, ok, even Nolan is!)

“I would say the same thing about the script”, says Matt, and elaborates. “Something like the song of the siren is something, you know, I’d wondered ever since I read it in the Odyssey, in the poem, what is that song? What does it sound like? What is it actually doing? But Chris’s specificity of what he wanted me to do was so clear. And because he builds the real world around you, what I knew for certain when I read the script was, well, I will be strapped to the mast of an actual ship in the Mediterranean, passing some rocks, with women on the rocks that are calling to me. So he’ll give me every advantage possible so that I can play that kind of existential crisis.”

Given the amount of testosterone-fuelled, macho, angry cinema that has had the box office registers ringing away in recent years, there’s something one had to just ask them. Basically, this: Both of you play warriors of an earlier age, and the sword is your life, so to say, and yet you aren’t afraid to bring tears to your eyes, or be sad and melancholy on the screen. ‘Boys don’t cry’ seems to have returned to cinema of late. When you are a powerful man and a wielder of weapons, and you have this comfort with weakness and emotion, is this a message to the younger audience, men in particular, that being strong doesn’t mean being unsentimental or being afraid of tears?

“I don’t know if that it’s a message, per se”, Matt says, then elaborates. “I think it’s a part of being a human being. I mean, you go through trials and struggles, you know, oftentimes it can be difficult to remain stoic. It’s interesting to see where that happens, right? So, in the case of Odysseus, it’s obviously the siren song is his existential crisis, but it’s the journey home to see his wife and – I don’t want to give too much away – about his own fear in facing her, because he will have to tell her everything. And it’s a reckoning, almost, that’s so powerful, that he’s avoiding it. And so I just think it’s part of being a human being, experiencing all of these things.”

He then pauses to remind us about a philosophical undercurrent in the story: “I don’t think it’s a message about strength – I mean, he’s plenty strong in plenty places in the movie. He’s plenty brave. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t make decisions that he wishes he could take again. And it doesn’t mean that he’s not living with the consequences of those decisions.”

There’s a quaint, almost-poetic touch to the choice of words, that one hasn’t heard in ages.

To conclude, one turns to Tom for what is a fairly obvious query by now.

Tom, was Matt a father figure to you on the set? “He was a father figure to everyone on the set, you know!” Tom laughs. “He’s kind of our fearless leader, and I think Matt really set the tone for the acting department for how we should be tackling every day, and that was with grace and a smile on our face. Regardless of whether Matt was dealing with sideways winds and rain or climbing up a mountain or, you know, being nearly drowned. He always made everyone feel like we belonged and like we were there as a team and that this is going to be really tough, but we were going to have a lot of fun doing it. And I think everyone really respected him for that. And I think that this movie would have been impossible without Matt’s leadership in that.”

Would have been impossible without his leadership? Hmm, that sounded like a member of the crew on Odysseus’ ship, right?