John Leguizamo Couldn’t See ‘for 12 to 14 Hours a Day’ While Filming “The Odyssey ”— and Even Had to Be ‘Taken to the Bathroom’

The actor plays the role of blind servant, Eumaeus, in ‘The Odyssey’

NEED TO KNOW

• John Leguizamo revealed in a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight that he couldn’t see for up to 14 hours a day while filming for The Odyssey due to wearing contact lenses for the role
• The actor plays the role of blind man Eumaeus, who is a friend and servant to Odysseus (Matt Damon)
• “I had to be taken to the bathroom,” Leguizamo said of the filming experience

John Leguizamo is opening up about the challenges of portraying a blind man in The Odyssey.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, the 66-year-old actor, who plays Odysseus’ (Matt Damon) friend and servant Eumaeus in the film, revealed he couldn’t see for several hours a day due to the contact lenses required for the role.

“Not being able to see for 12 to 14 hours a day, like I couldn’t see my phone, I couldn’t read, I couldn’t call,” Leguizamo said in an on-camera interview with Entertainment Tonight, shared on Instagram on Tuesday, July 21. “My other eye wasn’t clear either. I could not see. I had to be taken to the bathroom, I had to be brought back. I had to be taken to eat.”

“When I was alone I just had to be inside my head because that’s all I had,” he added. “Too much time with my own thoughts. It’s a dangerous thing.”

Based on Homer’s ancient Greek poem of the same name, The Odyssey follows Odysseus, King of Ithaca, as he makes his journey home following the Trojan War.

The Christopher Nolan-directed movie, which was released in theaters on July 17, follows Odysseus and his fellow soldiers as they battle obstacles and mythical creatures.

Earlier this month, Leguizamo spoke to PEOPLE about one of his favorite moments while working with Nolan on set.

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“I was having a fever dream as my character, Eumaeus, and losing it because I’m kind of method, and [Nolan] saw that I was freezing because we’re dressed in mini skirts and it was freezing in February,” Leguizamo told PEOPLE at the July 14 New York City premiere of the film. “He took off his coat and put it on me.”

“Matt Damon goes, ‘I’ve been working for six months in the oceans, in Iceland, and you put the coat on him?,’ ” he added with a smile. “Yeah, Matt’s the funniest.”

The Ice Age star went on to reflect that “one of the most incredible things about [Nolan]” was that he physically stands behind the camera while directing.

“I think it’s the most personal and safe place to have a director because you’re eye to eye and then you feel safe, you feel seen, you feel more capable of being vulnerable,” Leguizamo told PEOPLE at the time. “It’s just an incredible place for a director to be instead of in the video village hundreds of feet away.”

Leguizamo also revealed earlier this month that he and his wife were left in tears after seeing The Odyssey in theaters.

“It was just us and maybe four other people in the entire theater. It was a very, very empty experience at the beginning,” Leguizamo told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published July 19.

He continued, “Then all of a sudden it starts and you’re like, ‘Whoa, it’s so massive. The score is so unbelievably beautiful.’ My wife doesn’t cry at movies and she gripped my hand and she was weeping and then I was weeping.”

Leguizamo joked that he “wasn’t sure” if it was his wife’s tears that made him emotional or Odysseus’ final monologue in which he expresses remorse over the brutality of war.

“That hit me so hard. It’s the beauty of what Chris did,” Leguizamo told The Hollywood Reporter.

In addition to Leguizamo and Damon, the cast of The Odyssey includes Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Elliot Page, Tom Holland, Mia Goth, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong’o, Jon Bernthal, Samantha Morton, Benny Safdie and Himesh Patel.

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