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Samantha Morton has said that the reception to her work in The Odyssey feels “validating” after a career of “ups and downs”.
The British actor plays the sorceress Circe in Christopher Nolan’s star-studded epic, and while she only appears in one key scene, Samantha’s performance has already been hailed as a stand-out – and is even generating awards buzz already.
During a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Samantha admitted she’s finding the praise “emotional”.
“I’ve had ups and downs in my career,” she explained. “You work for a bit and then you’re not working for a bit. You are criticised for your physicality. It’s a tricky game.”
Samantha claimed that “even meeting” Christopher Nolan “was enough”, adding: “Everything else is very special, very personal. It validates the fact that I’m good at what I do and I care. I’m very grateful and I take it very seriously.”
Meanwhile, she also told Variety that landing the role of Circe “felt like a rebirth”.
“I got to do what I do best for the best,” she enthused. “To get the role felt like a second chance to be seen by the wider world.”
Asked about the awards buzz now encircling her performance, she added: “If your peers feel that you’re worthy of an accolade that means something, but I’ve never been somebody that chased that kind of gratification.
“I just love what I get to do for a living.”
Director Christopher Nolan previously shared how when Samantha was done with her performance on set, her co-stars and members of the crew stopped in their tracks to applaud her.
The filmmaker added that “the last time that had happened” on one of his movie sets “was with Heath Ledger on The Dark Knight”.
Samantha began her career as a child actor in the early 1990s, with some of her stand-out projects including the TV series The Walking Dead, the Channel 4 drama I Am Kirsty and the first Fantastic Beasts film.
Over the years, she’s twice been nominated an Oscar, for her work in the movies Minority Report and In America, and received the Bafta Fellowship award in 2024.
The Odyssey is in cinemas now.
