The best workplace lessons from the ‘Odyssey’ cast, from carrying your own armor to sharing credit

• The cast of “The Odyssey” has been talking about what it took to bring Christopher Nolan’s epic to life.
• Their behind-the-scenes stories also revealed lessons on teamwork, resilience, and leading by example.
• Here are the workplace lessons that stood out from the cast’s press tour.

The star-studded cast of Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” had plenty to say about working on one of the year’s most ambitious productions.

They also shared a surprising amount of practical advice about leadership, teamwork, and being the kind of coworker people want on their team.

From carrying your own armor to giving credit where it’s due, here are some of the best workplace lessons from the film’s press tour.

Leaders should lead by example

Christopher Nolan may have been the director, but he still made the same 1,000-foot hike to the film set as everyone else.

In a joint People interview on July 16, Tom Holland said Nolan didn’t skip the daily trek, even though he could have “justified” taking a helicopter instead.

Nolan said he had considered it, but his wife, Emma Thomas, who is also a producer on the film, shut the idea down.

“I tried, but Emma would not let me. She’s like, ‘You have to walk up the hill. If you’re going to ask people to walk up the hill, you better be walking up,’” Nolan said.

Carry your own weight

Matt Damon, who plays the titular Greek character, Odysseus, said he made a major blunder on the first day of the shoot in Greece.

In a Today interview on July 14, Damon recalled arriving before his costars after making the 25-minute hike to set.

“Everyone started coming up, and everyone was wearing their armor. And then I saw Corey, the guy who was handling my wardrobe, carrying my armor, and I felt so horrible,” Damon said.

Realizing his mistake, Damon said he immediately apologized to his wardrobe assistant and to the rest of his team.

“That never happened again. That was embarrassing,” Damon said.

One person’s attitude can shape the entire team culture

Matt Damon said Jon Bernthal inspired the rest of the cast with one grueling scene early in production.

Damon recalled that Bernthal was half-submerged in icy water in Morocco during winter while filming a scene inside the Trojan Horse.

“Jon was shaking and putting his hands together and pressing so that he could get the shivers out so he could get one line of dialogue out,” Damon told People in an interview published last Thursday.

Christopher Nolan repeatedly checked in on Bernthal, but the actor simply urged him to keep filming. “John was just like, ‘Just go, just go,’” Damon recalled.

“That set the tone for the cast. The message was, at some point, you’re going to be the guy in the water, and you’re not going to complain about it. You’re going to push as hard as you can,” Damon said.

In a separate July interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Damon said Bernthal was the “first example of somebody pushing past what they thought they could do.”

“Nobody in that horse was ever going to complain for the next five months about anything because of what we saw,” Damon said.

Develop a strong work ethic

Anne Hathaway said Matt Damon’s enthusiasm reminded the cast to make the most of every day on set.

In a July 3 interview with Fandango, Hathaway said she was inspired by Damon’s ability to return to set each day with the same positivity, despite the grueling production.

“You didn’t take a moment for granted, and you’re like, ‘Oh my god, he gets to be here for 10 months. I’m only here for this part. Better not waste a moment,’” Hathaway said.

In the same interview, Tom Holland said Damon’s work ethic showed the cast how to carry themselves on set.

“There was always a smile on his face. He was always kind to everyone in the crew,” Holland said.

Never stop learning from the people around you

Tom Holland said one of the best parts of being in “The Odyssey” was getting to learn from some of the industry’s most accomplished people, including Christopher Nolan.

“To get a front row seat to that and to be a part of the process and to collaborate with a true master of his craft and learn from him was the best experience I’ve ever had,” Holland told GQ in a July 2025 interview.

He also relished the chance to work alongside veteran actors he had long admired, like Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway, Holland said.

In a separate July interview with Empire, Holland said reuniting with Robert Pattinson, whom he’d worked with before, felt like having “a real safety blanket” on set.

“I’m always eager to share scenes with Rob, because he just brings the best out of everyone,” Holland said.

Focus on what you can control

Matt Damon said he tried to focus only on the job he was responsible for — and do it well.

In the Fandango interview, Damon said he initially wondered how Christopher Nolan would pull off the ambitious production after reading the script.

“But a lot of those were his problems and the technical problems for everybody else, and I was like, ‘I’m just going to show up, and I’ll be ready,’” Damon said.

The actor said he saw himself as responsible for one part of a much larger production.

“If I can remove everything from his plate and put it on mine that relates to that one element, so that he doesn’t have to worry about that, that frees up his bandwidth to engage with all these other things,” Damon said, referring to Nolan.

Similarly, if every department took ownership of its responsibilities, Nolan could devote more attention to every aspect of the film, ultimately making it stronger, he said.

Give people room to do their best work

Matt Damon said Christopher Nolan creates an environment where actors can do their best work.

In the Fandango interview, Damon said Nolan comes to set with a clear vision, but gives actors “creative freedom” to make each role their own.

“It’s his incredible ability to understand, ahead of time, the story so well that he collects all the elements he’s going to need, but he’s not prescriptive about how he deploys them,” Damon said.

Rather than dictate every moment, Nolan lets performances take shape organically, he said.

“It is an unbelievably difficult thing to do without gripping onto it too tight and choking the real life out of it,” Damon said.

Giving credit where it’s due

Matt Damon said his female stunt double deserved much of the credit for his on-screen physique.

On the July 20 episode of the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, host Josh Horowitz praised Damon for having the “greatest bicep work” he’d seen “outside of a Hemsworth film”

However, Damon quickly redirected the compliment to his female stunt double, whom he said had the “greatest arms” he’d ever seen.

“It was almost 100% my arms in the movie, but you’ve got to give it where it’s due,” Damon said.

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