Updated

Updated · NBC Insider · Jul 29

Devyn Dalton, Matt Damon's 4'6" Odyssey Double, Gains Viral Fame as Practical Effects Draw Buzz

Updated

Updated · NBC Insider · Jul 29

Devyn Dalton, Matt Damon's 4'6" Odyssey Double, Gains Viral Fame as Practical Effects Draw Buzz

Q: What practical movie magic did Christopher Nolan use to transform a Canadian stuntwoman into a legendary Greek king?

Christopher Nolan used practical forced perspective to turn Devyn Dalton, a 4-foot-6 Canadian stunt performer, into Matt Damon’s Odysseus. For the Laestrygonians sequence, Nolan cast very tall performers as the man-eating giants and very short stunt performers as the Ithacans. By carefully placing them at different distances from the camera, the production made the giants look enormous and Odysseus’s men look much smaller, without relying mainly on CGI. Dalton stood in for Damon in shots where her size helped sell that illusion. That is why the muscular arms seen from behind in the battle footage were Dalton’s, not Damon’s. One of those back-facing sword shots was also used on a poster for the film. The technique is an old-school visual trick: practical staging, size-mismatched casting and camera placement create the scale difference in-camera. Coverage of the production also points to additional practical methods such as wirework and large costumes and armor for the Laestrygonians, all designed to make the enemies feel physically imposing and real. In short, Nolan made a shorter stuntwoman into a legendary Greek king by using Dalton as Damon’s double and combining her with oversized scene partners and forced perspective so the image read as Odysseus facing towering giants.

3 articles · Updated · NBC Insider · Jul 29

Devyn Dalton, a 34-year-old Canadian stunt performer standing 4'6", has become a viral breakout from The Odyssey after Matt Damon publicly praised her work as his stunt double.
Christopher Nolan used forced perspective for the Laestrygonian scenes, pairing very tall performers as giants with smaller doubles like Dalton to make Odysseus and the Ithacans look overwhelmed.
Matt Damon said Dalton had the "greatest arms" he had ever seen and thanked her for the work she did on the Scotland forest sequences.
Dalton's credits include The Last of Us, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Thunderbolts and Twisted Metal, and she said the attention could help give stunt performers wider industry recognition.