BRAVE PERFORMANCE

Ben Affleck’s Savage Take on Robert Pattinson Revealed

Matt Damon is spilling on Affleck’s first impressions of “The Odyssey.”

Ben Affleck can’t stop talking about Robert Pattinson’s performance in The Odyssey.

During a screening event in Los Angeles on Saturday night, Matt Damon, who also stars in the Christopher Nolan film, revealed that Affleck couldn’t stop raving about Pattinson’s performance after seeing the movie.

“Ben Affleck probably talked to me for 20 minutes about just Rob after he saw the movie,” he said.

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“When they talk about a brave performance — Ben goes, ‘You had the benefit of all of the might and power of Christopher Nolan storytelling at your back,’ and I went, ‘Yeah,’ and he goes, ‘Rob had all of the weight and heft and power of Christopher Nolan’s storytelling coming down on him. And the way he did it, it was like watching a guy run into an avalanche,’” Damon told the crowd during the Q&A.

Damon said he was also impressed by how Pattinson approached his character, the villain Antinous.

“Any moment that he could be more cowardly, more hateable, you could see his wheels turning. ‘How could I make this even worse for myself?’ And it was so fun to watch because he’s such a dynamic actor and so interesting.”

Other cast members, including Tom Holland, John Leguizamo, Zendaya, Charlize Theron, Himesh Patel, and Elliot Page, were also interviewed on the panel.

Patel turned the attention to Damon, revealing he gave the cast some tough love during filming.

During one particularly brutal scene at sea, Patel recalls Damon turning to the cast and saying, “I know this is hard, but how many actors are in SAG? Every single one of them would die to be where you are right now.”

“And we were like, ‘Well, we can’t argue with that.’ I mean, that’s completely true. Shut up, get on with it,” Patel said, adding that Damon was always “smiling, happy, just loving it,” even during more taxing moments.

Damon also commented on Nolan’s unique vision for Odysseus.

“His adaptation made it really clear what he wanted: that weariness, that regret, that shame. It’s this foundational story in Western literature, and it’s about homecoming and this idea, this kind of twist, that he wasn’t actually ready to go home was kind of shocking from an academic standpoint,” Damon said.

“When I got to that line the first time I read the script, where Annie says, ‘You were the people from the sea,’ I literally just put the script down for a second. I was very shocked.”

Lauren HartleyBreaking News Intern

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