Matt Damon revealed that some of the most talked-about shots of his muscular transformation in The Odyssey were made possible by a female stunt performer with “the greatest arms I’ve ever seen”.Damon, 55, plays Odysseus in Christopher Nolan’s latest film, an adaptation of Homer’s Greek epic, which follows the hero’s long journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War as he battles monsters, gods and mythical foes while his wife Penelope fends off suitors and his son Telemachus searches for him.The ensemble cast also includes Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Tom Holland as Telemachus, Robert Pattinson as the suitor Antinous, Zendaya as Athena, Samantha Morton as Circe, Charlize Theron as Calypso, and Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy. Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie, John Leguizamo, Himesh Patel, Elliot Page, Bill Irwin, and Mia Goth feature as well.Damon said his stunt double was used in scenes with the Laestrygonians, the race of giant cannibals from Homer’s Odyssey. The sequence required forced-perspective filmmaking, with unusually tall and unusually short stunt performers used to create the illusion of towering giants confronting Odysseus and his men.“There were these stuntmen who were all seven feet and then they got stunt men who were under five feet,” Damon said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “My double was a woman, a female stunt performer who had the greatest arms I’ve ever seen.” Jimmy Gonzales as Cepheus, Matt Damon as Odysseus, and Himesh Patel as Eurylochus in The Odyssey (Universal Pictures)He said when he first met her in the catering tent during filming, he “went up and hugged her and thanked her for all the work she put in”. “There are those shots where you see these giants looming over me,” he said. “It was almost 100 per cent my arms in the movie, but you got to give it up where it’s due.”The stunt performer has since been identified as Devyn Dalton, who confirmed on social media that Damon was referring to her. Dalton, a Canadian stunt performer, has worked extensively across film and television. Her credits include The Last of Us, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Fall of the House of Usher, Thunderbolts, as well as Wonder, The BFG, Once Upon a Time, and X-Men: Dark Phoenix.Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 dayNew subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.Try for freeADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 dayNew subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.Try for freeADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.Dalton responded to Damon’s comments on her Instagram, writing: “This is wild and awesome. Appreciate all the support and shoutouts.”She also shared photos from the sets of The Odyssey, describing her time shooting the battle sequence in the Scottish Highlands as “an adventure”.“No spoilers just yet, but I’m incredibly grateful to be a part of the Laestrygonian battle. Stunt doubling the incredible Matt Damon. An epic team effort. We worked hard, shared plenty of laughs, and created memories I’ll never forget.” Damon has previously talked about the physical training he underwent to take on the role after Nolan asked him to be “lean but strong”.“I was in great shape. I lost a lot of weight,” the Good Will Hunting actor told Jason and Travis Kelce on their New Heights podcast in January.Damon lost more than 20 pounds and underwent intense training to get in shape to play Odysseus. He said he weighed between 185 and 200 pounds before filming the movie, but worked with his doctor to cut gluten from his diet, which proved to be the key to his transformation.“I did that whole movie at 167,” he said. “And I haven’t been that light since high school. So it was a lot of training and a really strict diet.” In her five-star review of the new movie, The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey described it as “Nolan’s best work to date”.Nolan’s “stamp is all over the film – this is intellectual, brutalist, muscular Hollywood fare – yet it never wavers in its commitment to, and comprehension of, its source text,” she wrote. “There is not a single decision here that’s been thoughtlessly made, nor that I imagine Nolan himself couldn’t easily defend, much to the imagined chagrin of certain lawless parts of the internet.”The Odyssey is enjoying a record-breaking theatrical debut with a $264.1m worldwide opening, including $124.5m in the US and Canada, making it the biggest global opening of Nolan’s career.The Odyssey is screening in cinemas now.