Christopher Nolan was quite taken with the “Euphoria” star’s performance.

Why Matt Damon and Tom Holland were jealous of Zendaya on The Odyssey set

Christopher Nolan was quite taken with the "Euphoria" star's performance.

By Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence is a former associate editor at **. He left EW in 2022.

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May 21, 2026 6:56 p.m. ET

Matt Damon, Zendaya, and Tom Holland in 'The Odyssey'. Credit:

Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures (2); Universal Pictures

- Matt Damon says that he and Tom Holland were jealous of Zendaya on *The Odyssey* set.

- Christopher Nolan handed out unexpected levels of praise to the *Euphoria* actress.

- The filmmaker is calling her "an incredible actor."

Matt Damon is still hunting for the type of compliments that his *Odyssey* costar Zendaya received from Christopher Nolan.

The Oscar-nominated actor is the lead of the director's upcoming epic, his third collaboration with Nolan, but he says that he and costar Tom Holland were constantly jealous of the level of praise Nolan dispensed to Zendaya on the *Odyssey* set.

“Chris is known for being very circumspect. So when you do a take, it’s not like he says, ‘That was great.’ He’ll go, ‘Yep, good. Okay.’ And that is the equivalent of the greatest praise you could ever get,” Damon explained to *ELLE*. “Zendaya, on the other hand — there were takes where she did one thing, she did this amazing scene, and he said, ‘Cut.’ And then he went, ‘Perfect.’"

Damon continued, "Literally, Tom and I were obsessed with this. She got a ‘perfect’? I’ve never even gotten a ‘great.’ She got a ‘perfect’? He and I b----ed about it for the entire rest of the film. ‘Did you get anything today?’ ‘No, I got a 'good' — moving on.’ ‘Yeah, me too.’"

Damon and Zendaya in 'The Odyssey'.

Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Studios

Damon is the face of *The Odyssey* as Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, whom the film follows on his 10-year trek home following the Trojan War. Zendaya stars as Athena, the goddess of wisdom, who protects Odysseus throughout his adventures. And Zendaya's fiancé, Holland, plays Telemachus, the son of Odysseus and Penelope (Anne Hathaway), who, in Homer's original literature, eventually leaves Ithaca to seek information about his father's whereabouts and fate.

“We would be in the maddest, craziest situations, just all of us fighting the elements, tearing our hair out, all these things going on, and she would sort of parachute in from her other job with this sense of true grace and poise," Nolan said of the perfect actress. “I mean, she’s literally playing a goddess; it’s a tall order. She’s a true movie star, but also an incredible actor.”

Everything we know about Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey': Release date, trailer, and more

Matt Damon slimmed down to his high school weight for 'The Odyssey'

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Releasing on July 17, the star-studded adaptation also features Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong'o, Jon Bernthal, Benny Safdie, and Robert Pattinson.

"I can tell you that it is an absolute masterpiece, and I’m taking myself out of that equation," Holland recently declared. "It’s unlike anything that I’ve ever seen before. I think when I saw the movie, I found myself asking a question that I haven’t asked about a movie for a long time, which is, 'How did you do that?'"

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