Ever since the release of Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey on July 17, a photograph featuring Matt Damon with a book in his hand has been trending online. Posts featuring the Damon photograph claimed that it features the actor reading Homer's Odyssey on the set of his 1999 film The Talented Mr Ripley. Initially, netizens claimed that the photograph or the claim about him reading Homer's epic poem is not real. However, the man who took the photograph has set the record straight now.
Greg Williams confirmed that he took the photograph of Damon reading the book, on which his film with Nolan is based, on the set of the 1999 film. Sharing it, the photographer shared, "This was taken in August 1998 in Piazza Navona, Rome, and shot on film, hence the grain. It happened because I’d met the late director Anthony Minghella, who lived at the end of my road and was very supportive of me, and someone I cared for very much. I was doing a Sunday Times commission celebrating British cinema – which I turned into my first book, Greg Williams On Set. These shots were part of that project."
Williams also confirmed that the person sitting next to Damon in the photograph is Cate Blanchett. Sharing another interesting insight, he wrote, "This was a moment when he was moving from co-star roles to lead; he was really dialled into the work. A quick Google revealed he was reading a 1954 Penguin edition of Homer’s classic, which is very much what Tom Ripley might have chosen to read."
Interestingly, around 27 years after The Talented Mr Ripley, Damon is now a bona fide star with a leading role in a Nolan film that has already generated much Oscar buzz. A case of life coming full circle for him.