Matt Damon Only Let One Person Visit Him On Set Of The Odyssey (Spoiler: It Wasn't His Wife)

"The Odyssey" shoot spanned six countries — Morocco, Greece, Italy, Iceland, Scotland, and the United States — and it took Christopher Nolan six months (and 91 days on set) to get through. In all those months, across all those continents, exactly one guest made it past the gates, and it wasn't the real-life Penelope to Matt Damon's Odysseus (his wife, Luciana Barroso). Rather, it was Ben Affleck, whom Damon described as "one of the great loves of my life" during an interview with MTV UK, while recounting just how invested his longtime BFF was in the movie. Damon discussed the set visit on the January 13, 2026, episode of "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," alongside Affleck. 

"You were the only guest in six months of shooting," Damon proudly confirmed, leading even Fallon to ask, "Really?" Sadly, Barroso may be used to this pattern by now. Damon revealed on the "100 Questions with Tom Simons" podcast that when Nolan initially offered him the role, he tried calling his wife but couldn't get through. So the actor dialed Affleck instead, remaining on the line with him for 30 minutes. The "Gone Girl" star then immediately went to Barroso and delivered the news himself, prompting her to text Damon, "Why didn't you tell me first?" 

As such, by the time visiting privileges were being handed out, the pecking order was long established. In fairness, though, Damon clarified to Fallon that no one else visited because of the sheer grind. "It was such an ambitious project that the amount of work that needed to be done, there was just no time for anything else," he admitted. The effort paid off, as Matt Damon heard the five words every parent hopes to hear after his daughter saw him in "The Odyssey:" "Dad, I'm proud of you."

Ben Affleck, whose friendship with Matt Damon is a fan favorite, brought his children along to the set of "The Odyssey." Though they normally treat his own movie sets like a chore, they made an exception for a Christopher Nolan production, as the Oscar winner told Jimmy Fallon. Affleck's middle child was especially excited, since he was reading both "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" at the time. But even beyond the "Argo" director, the "only guest in six months" line says more about how Nolan works than Damon's priorities, or who among the cast's immediate friends and family was allowed to cross the threshold.

Nolan's sets are notoriously sealed operations — not because he hates visitors, but because he prefers a controlled, distraction-free working environment. Mia Goth corroborated what other Nolan veterans have said on the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast, confirming that there were no cell phones or seats allowed, with the idea that everybody should be working while they were there. "No one ever leaves the set," she noted. Damon similarly explained to Fallon that "The Odyssey" required everyone to give it their all. He even described it as "the hardest movie definitely that I've ever done" on "CBS Mornings."  

In fact, Nolan conceded on "60 Minutes" that he'd "pushed pretty hard on this one and maybe found some limits." All of which explains the guest list of one. A shoot that grueling and a set that demanding doesn't leave much room for casual visits. Ben Affleck, for his part, has been influencing  Matt Damon's acting for a long time, and he'd also been itching to see Nolan in action. It looks like Affleck is the only star outside the A-list cast who did.