By Bedika He is quite happy to keep getting lost, says Matt Damon who has done so in several earlier films and now again in a cinematic and personal journey that has been epic in every which way - playing Odysseus in Christopher Nolan's ambitious retelling of Homer's The Odyssey. "It was fantastic. It was the experience of a lifetime," the Hollywood superstar told PTI. Getting lost has been quite the running theme in his films. And now comes The Odyssey about the Greek mythological hero on a journey back to Ithaca. "The movies where I get to come home so far are Saving Private Ryan, Interstellar, The Martian and this one. So I'm happy to keep getting lost," Damon said. Damon said he is just happy he got to embody the character of Odysseus, a story that is almost 3,000 years old and has inspired countless poems, stories, paintings, movies and other art for centuries now, in Nolan's big screen adaptation. He gets to distil his experience of almost four decades in cinema and many blockbusters in playing the battle-weary hero haunted by his choices and desperate to go home to his wife and son in Ithaca. During the decade-long journey after the Trojan War, he confronts vengeful gods, mythical creatures and much more. The actor, who won the Academy award with friend Ben Affleck for writing Good Will Hunting, went on to build an enviable body of work in the Bourne and Ocean's franchise as well as movies such as The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Rainmaker and The Departed. The filmography also includes Nolan's Interstellar and Oppenheimer. Graduating to Nolan's leading man has been great. "I love working with Chris.

 

I love his approach. I love his crew. And it's always such a pure work experience. I mean, he just elevates the project and puts it in the centre and everybody just checks their ego and focuses on this project. "And so to finally, you know, get this huge role in what is as ambitious a movie as I'd ever seen. It was really the thrill of a lifetime." The Odyssey is the most challenging film of his career, the 55-year-old said. "Some days started with a hike up a mountain and then a hike down altogether at the end of the day. And the beauty of it was that every single person was in it. There was no special treatment. And everyone was there for the love of cinema. And we knew what we were doing was really challenging. And that was the joy," he said. Asked whether he could recall the toughest moment from the movie, Damon shook his head. "Impossible to say. I mean, we were on a boat. The rule number one in Hollywood is never go on a boat. We were on a boat for months," he said, referencing the popular Hollywood sentiment that films set in water pose a huge logistical challenge. "We were at the top of mountains. We were in a cave that you had to hike up to get to and then shot inside a cave for two weeks. It's just that every location presented a different challenge. And they were equally difficult, but in completely different ways." "I think he's (Nolan) has put all of the skill that he's built over his incredible career and he brought it all on this project because this project is like six movies in one. And you are seeing everything he has in his toolkit in this movie. And it's all been captured on the largest format that's ever been done on. So it's definitely one to see at the cinema," the actor said. The Odyssey will be released in theatres on July 17.