Christopher Nolan at the 2024 OscarsChristopher Nolan’s long-awaited adaptation of The Odyssey features an all-star cast that includes Oscar winners Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong’o and Charlize Theron alongside some of the biggest names in Hollywood, including Robert Pattinson, Zendaya and Tom Holland.
We were intrigued, then, when many of the early reactions to the film on social media singled out one performance, Samantha Morton’s, for praise.
The British actor – known for her work in the likes of Minority Report, Band Of Gold and The Walking Dead – plays Circe in Nolan’s new take on the Ancient Greek epic.
During a new interview with the LA Times, The Odyssey’s director Christopher Nolan agreed that Samantha gives one of the stand-out performances in his new film, comparing her to Heath Ledger, with whom he worked on the Batman movie The Dark Knight.
“This was a massive film and she is someone who comes in and changes the dynamic,” he claimed. “In some weird way, the film lived or died over that character. She was the fulcrum.”
He continued: “I’ve always admired Samantha’s work, she brings so much depth of thinking about her role, there are no limitations on her performance.
After one of her takes, the crew gave her a great round of applause. I was talking with Emma [Thomas, Nolan’s co-producer and wife] afterwards and she remembered that the last time that had happened was with Heath Ledger on The Dark Knight.”
Heath Ledger in The Dark KnightHeath Ledger won a posthumous Oscar for his performance as The Joker in The Dark Knight, having died of an accidental drug overdose months before the film’s release in 2008.
Nolan was reunited with a number of his former collaborators on The Odyssey, including the aforementioned Anne Hathaway and Robert Pattinson, as well as Himesh Patel, Benny Safdie and Elliot Page, who previously starred in Tenet, Oppenheimer and Inception, respectively.
The Odyssey sails into cinemas in just one week’s time, on Friday 17 July.
