Matt Damon Sits Down For An Interview On The 'New Heights' Podcast And Reveals He Lost 40 Lbs For 'The Odyssey'
Earlier this week, the Good Will Hunting icon sat down for an interview with two of the biggest names in football, Jason and Travis Kelce, to be a special guest star on their popular podcast, New Heights.
The trio talked about a myriad of topics, especially dwelling on Matt's upcoming film, a highly anticipated Christopher Nolan-directed action movie based on the iconic Greek epic written by Homer. He plays the titular character and had to go under quite a dramatic transformation to portray the legendary Greek hero, which he opened up about to the two athletes.
"Yeah, I was in really good shape," he recalled. "I lost a lot of weight. [Christopher Nolan] said he wanted me to be lean but strong. It's a weird thing."
The actor also mentioned that he "used to walk around between 185 and 200 pounds," but filmed the epic movie "at 167 pounds."
Matt Damon Shares How He Slimmed Down & Bulked Up To Prepare For The Role
When it came to having to get "lean but strong" for the intense film role, Matt gave some insight into his eating and training regimen, which many feel sounds rough but not necessarily too intense or drastic. While talking to the podcast hosts, he shared that one of the keys to his shedding of excess pounds was to stop eating gluten, something he was already working on with the help of his doctor, and is now eating "gluten-free everything."
"I literally just, because of this other thing I did with my doctor, stopped eating gluten," he recalled. "It was a lot of training and a really strict diet."
When looking back on his transformation and just how far it went, the 55-year-old reflected on how he hasn't been this slim or lightweight since he was a teenager.
"I haven't been that light since high school," he noted.
As he continued speaking to the Kelce brothers, he compared his exercise and training process for the film to how they train for an upcoming football season, noting how this isn't the first time he's had to get fit for a movie.
"When I do that or when I do the Jason Bourne movies or whatever, it feels almost like a season, I would imagine, what that feels like for you guys where you're preparing," he said. "It's like just part of your day. It's part of your job, right? It's like you get really routinized about it and kind of build your day around all that stuff. That's kind of the physical side of getting ready."