Samantha Morton turns Circe Odyssey into a brief, concentrated charge of screen time. She appears about halfway through The Odyssey, and her roughly 10-minute sequence as Circe dominates the film when she arrives.
Morton’s 10-minute Circe sequence
Roughly 10 minutes is all Morton gets, but the role lands with unusual force. Circe transforms Odysseus’ men into pigs, and Morton said the dialogue Nolan wrote for her was “so impactful because there’s no extra meat on it.”
Christopher Nolan called with the offer after Morton read the script, and she said, “When I got the call, I started to cry.” Morton also said, “He could have anybody on the planet, and he chose me.” For an actor who has worked since she was 12 and earned Oscar nominations for Sweet and Lowdown and In America, the part marked a rare major-film opportunity.
Christopher Nolan’s Imax setup
The Odyssey was shot entirely with Imax cameras, and Morton said the setup was physically impossible to ignore. “I would be lying if I didn’t say the first take was…interesting,” she said, adding that the cameras are “immense” and weigh 300 lbs.
She said Nolan gave her room to work, describing him as “so hands on” and saying, “Chris just made sure I had everything I needed and the time I needed to do what I had to do. There was an unbelievable sense of freedom and trust, and then just the gentlest, kindest suggestions and guidance to get me where I had to go.” By the end, she said she forgot about the cameras and treated them like any other camera.
In Homer and on screen
Morton’s Circe is not played as a decorative seductress. In Homer, Circe is a beautiful temptress who toys with the soldiers for pleasure, but Morton said she drew on her military family background and on the fact that there are people in her family who have been sexually assaulted and raped. She said, “War is complicated. Men are complicated. Our relationships with men as wives, sisters, daughters are complicated. I drew on that. And there are people in my family that have been sexually assaulted and raped, and I thought of that as well.”
That approach turns the scene toward survival rather than spectacle. After Odysseus gains the upper hand, Circe delivers a monologue about the cruelty of men and the way they can abuse their power, which gives the 10-minute stretch a different center of gravity than the version in Homer.
Morton said the role felt personal because larger film parts have become scarce as she has gotten older: “As you get older as an actress, roles like this are just few and far between.” She still works regularly, mostly in independent films or on television, but this one puts her back inside a large-scale release with a part built to command attention fast. How much of Morton’s Circe performance will be seen beyond that roughly 10-minute sequence is the open question, and the answer will define how long this turn stays in the conversation.
