Matt Damon recalls painful 'The Odyssey' shoot

Matt Damon revealed that filming Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey took a physical toll, with the actor saying running in period-appropriate sandals during the film's action scenes left him suffering from back pain.

Speaking on SiriusXM's Radio Andy with Andy Cohen, the 55-year-old said the cast's authentic footwear made the demanding sequences particularly uncomfortable.

Authentic sandals made action scenes painful

"Well, a lot of us were middle-aged people," Damon said. "What we got was back pain. Because running through Troy, you know, it's all stone. You're in these sandals, and they're very real."

He added that the footwear left the cast with sore feet as well as aching backs.

"Our feet were all scuffed up. But more than the little scratches and cuts on your feet, it was the back pain for us," Damon said. "It was a heavy Advil movie in those weeks where we were doing that action stuff."

Christopher Nolan banned modern footwear

Damon also revealed Nolan insisted on maintaining authenticity on set, including when it came to footwear.

The director recently explained on CBS Mornings that actors were not allowed to wear comfortable modern shoes, including Ugg boots, between takes because they disrupted the atmosphere on set.

Nolan said seeing modern items during filming could pull actors out of the world they were trying to create, describing Ugg boots as "a signifier of modernity."

Epic opens with record-breaking box office

Damon leads an ensemble cast that includes Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Samantha Morton, Mia Goth, Lupita Nyong'o, Charlize Theron, Elliot Page and John Leguizamo.

Despite the demanding shoot, The Odyssey has enjoyed a strong theatrical debut, earning $264 million worldwide in its opening weekend, surpassing the previous global opening record for a Christopher Nolan film.