Matt Damon Got Emotional at ‘The Odyssey’ Premiere — and His Daughters’ Sacrifice During Filming Is the Reason

Matt Damon may have spent months portraying one of literature’s most legendary figures on screen — but at the London premiere of The Odyssey, it was his real-life family that moved him most.

Speaking with PEOPLE at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on July 6, Damon, 55, opened up about what it meant to celebrate the film’s release alongside his wife Luciana Damon and their four daughters — Alexia, 27, Isabella, 20, Gia, 17, and Stella, 15. For the actor, having his family there wasn’t just a nice moment — it was a meaningful acknowledgment of everything they had quietly given up while he was away bringing Odysseus to life.

Damon told PEOPLE that his daughters had to “sacrifice a lot” during the production, which he described as both extremely long and physically grueling. He was away from home for an extended period, and while his girls were able to visit him on location at certain points during filming, the overall experience placed a significant demand on his family. Standing on the red carpet with all four of them beside him, he said he was genuinely excited for them to finally see what all of that time and distance had been in service of.

The emotional weight of the evening became even clearer in a separate conversation with Entertainment Tonight, where Damon reflected on watching his daughters at the premiere and finding himself unexpectedly overwhelmed. He described a quiet “dad teary moment” as he looked at how much they had all grown — a feeling he said was wonderful, if also a lot to take in at once.

Damon leads Christopher Nolan’s epic adaptation of Homer’s ancient Greek poem as Odysseus, the King of Ithaca, navigating a 10-year journey home following the Trojan War. The production was shot across multiple international locations, contributing to the lengthy time away from home he referenced on the red carpet.

Now that filming is behind him, Damon is heading directly into a global promotional push with virtually no downtime in between. Upcoming premiere stops include Mumbai, Beijing, and Seoul, and he plans to bring his family along for as much of the trip as possible — giving them a chance to see parts of the world his career has taken him to while making up for some of the time they lost during production.

The film also stars Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, and Jon Bernthal, among others.

The Odyssey opens in theaters on July 17.