Samantha Morton ‘Hasn’t Worked For A Year’ Since Filming The Odyssey

Christopher Nolan’s much-hyped latest film The Odyssey famously features a sprawling cast of A-list performers, but there’s one actor in particular whose performance has been singled out for praise.

During the epic adaptation, Samantha Morton makes a brief, but memorable, appearance as the sorceress Circe, and has already found herself at the centre of awards buzz for her performance in the movie.

Interestingly, though, the Oscar nominee has claimed that she’s not had any other film work come her way in the year since shooting The Odyssey, citing Hollywood ageism as her explanation.

Speaking on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast, she told host Josh Horowitz: “I haven’t worked for a year since making The Odyssey, you know. And I’ve got really good agents and a manager, but at the end of the day, I’m 49.

“While I do believe I’m a good actor, there are other good actors out there. Do you know what I mean? So, the politics of the industry has changed massively.”

Last month, Samantha admitted that she’d found the reaction to her performance in The Odyssey “validating” after what she described as a career of “ups and downs” where “you work for a bit and then you’re not working for a bit”.

She also said that “even meeting” Christopher Nolan about working on the film “was enough”, let alone being cast in it.

“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,” she enthused.

Samantha reiterated this during her Happy, Sad, Confused interview, claiming: “I feel confident, with the ups and the downs, that I will keep working, till I’m in my 80s or whatever, touch wood.

“But it’s more that, for me, I got to work with Christopher Nolan in my lifetime. That’s it. I’m happy now. I mean, I was happy before, I’ve worked with some brilliant people, but as an actor, you’re always at the mercy of who your employer is and what they expect of you and what they believe in you to do for them.

“And without sounding corny, I genuinely cried when I got the call from my team saying ‘Christopher Nolan would like to meet you’. Even being in a room with him, to talk to him, to listen to him, I’m obsessed with cinema, I have been since I was very, very little, it’s my saviour, it’s my life, if I wasn’t an actress I’d do anything on a film set just to watch the magic and watch it happen. And it’s The Odyssey!

“So, being part of something that’s bigger than any individual is really important in this day and age, because we’re living in the age of the I, the me, the Instagram, the selfie, the ego, and The Odyssey is the opposite of that. It’s a deeply human, spiritual experience for me personally, when I saw the film for the first time. So, to be part of that is incredible. Obviously, it’s awesome.”

The Odyssey is in cinemas now.