Matt Damon overcame his real-life claustrophobia by shooting for Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. Behind the scenes of the highly anticipated summer blockbuster, the celebrated leading man faced his deepest personal demon on set. Despite battling a lifetime of severe anxieties, ranging from heights to snakes, Damon successfully conquered this fear by enduring a cramped filming process.

The legendary performer willingly subjected himself to highly uncomfortable physical spaces to capture the authentic tension of the sea-faring journey.

According to a recent PEOPLE interview, Matt Damon spoke about how he tackled his claustrophobia during Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey by confronting it head-on. While bringing to life Homer’s mythological monsters, the main actor was alternately lashed with freezing fake rain by two massive jet engines blowing water on the crew and stuffed into a giant, enclosed Trojan Horse. This intense experience helped him master his own claustrophobia.

"I worked through a lot of them on this one, definitely," Damon stated while reflecting on the intense emotional journey of filming.

"Claustrophobia was one, but I hope I am on the other side of that one now," Damon said to PEOPLE. Nolan's extreme filming setup effectively forced him to overcome his intense daily panic to capture the grand cinematic vision.

By jamming himself, the visionary director, Christopher Nolan, and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, into incredibly tight, cramped spaces to film on massive IMAX cameras, the actor learned to organically build raw, palpable tension on set, as he shared with PEOPLE. In this sweeping mythic adaptation, Damon portrays Odysseus, the brilliant but battle-worn King of Ithaca who struggles for a decade to return to his home and his faithful wife, Penelope.

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Beyond the challenges of tight spaces, the acclaimed star has battled several other notable anxieties throughout his extensive career.

Apart from claustrophobia, Matt Damon has openly discussed several other specific fears and phobias throughout his professional journey. During a trip to Dubai in 2004, the actor discovered a paralyzing fear of heights when he visited a helipad perched 1200 feet above the ground with his wife. 10 years back, during The Late Late Show with James Corden, he admitted that his body immediately went into a primitive survival mode.

Furthermore, the actor struggles with a profound fear of snakes, which presented a massive challenge while filming the comedy-drama We Bought a Zoo. Scarlett Johansson revealed to PEOPLE in 2011 that the actor was visibly terrified and crying when real-life reptiles were brought anywhere near his feet on the set.

“He was pretty terrified,” Johansson told PEOPLE.

According to a recent GQ interview, Damon confessed that he still fears the unpredictable and ruthless nature of Hollywood, and as a protective father of 4 daughters, the star frequently expresses deep worry over the modern challenges of raising children in the relentless social media age.  By actively confronting his severe claustrophobia inside Christopher Nolan's massive Trojan Horse, Matt Damon delivered an incredibly authentic performance while permanently putting one of his greatest fears behind him.

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