As soon as regular people began seeing Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, consensus quickly took hold that certain actors will likely be heavily favored in the awards season. Samantha Morton is at the top of the list for her performance as Circe, the witch who turns Odysseus’s men into pigs. The 49-year-old has been a working actress since the early 1990s, and she already has two Oscar nominations (both noms from over 20 years ago). Her career, vibe and energy reminds me a lot of Emily Watson – if you hire Emily or Samantha, you know they’ll give an absolutely scene-stealing performance “out of nowhere.” Well, it’s been a second since Morton has been in a big, studio movie and she’s getting such a kick out of all of it. She loves Chris Nolan, she loves the Odyssey cast, she loves getting dressed up for premieres and interviews. She recently gave a lovely little interview to Vanity Fair about all of it.

How she ended up playing Circe: “I got a phone call saying, “So, Christopher Nolan would like to meet you. ” And I cried a little bit because it was, “Really? Me?” I didn’t know anything about the project. I was just blown away to meet him and [producer] Emma [Thomas] and to be in their space. And then I read the script and fell in love with the part, and then hoped that my interpretation would be enough that he would want me to do the part.”

She had never read The Odyssey: “First of all, I didn’t know that I was going to be reading The Odyssey. I hadn’t read the book at school. I didn’t study the classics. So for me, it was just a character in a script, and my interpretation of this character was what it was. Once I was given the role, I did a bit of a deep dive into Circe and found it quite extraordinary. I very, very quickly pulled away because I didn’t want to be burdened by that responsibility. It’s there, but forget about it because I’m there to make this movie.”

Circe is an Everywoman: “I don’t overanalyze. I don’t put my characters in psych therapy ever. But the one thing I did take away from it, and what I discovered as I was playing her, was that she felt so familiar. She felt so contemporary. She felt like my mom. She felt like my sister. She felt like my daughter. She felt like my friends. She felt like she could be anybody’s mother, sister, daughter, grandma, lover, great aunt. She just felt very, very of every woman and all women, and that she carried the pain of all women throughout history.

Arriving on set: “I arrived on set, I was like, “Where did you find this place? This is incredible.” And they were like, “No, this is a set.” I was floored. I’ve been on a lot of movie sets, and that says a lot if I thought it was a real building. And I did have my glasses on, so I wasn’t being stupid. Scotland for me is a very special place, because my foster parents live in Scotland. I think that the environment I was in helped feed that as well, that I felt so at home. I felt that the ground beneath my feet was so familiar, and that my ancestors had been there…. I was thinking about women in history that have been vilified—midwives or herbalists or mothers or wise women. And so to me, that connection to the earth and her respect for nature, it all tied in so beautifully with the fact that I knew my surroundings so well.

Nolan previously said that Morton was so amazing in one take that the crew started to applaud: “I didn’t recall it, but then when I started to try and go back in time, I remember a day when it was an alignment of everything. This is movie magic as well: when the weather’s right, when the camera works, when the sound was good, when the special effects are working well, and when the acting works. And I think I was in the zone and ready to just go again and again and again. And when you’re in the zone, you’re in the zone. You’re almost not present as Sam. I’m not a method actor at all, but when I’m doing it, I’m gone, and I just go to a different place. So there was an appreciation of something that happened, and I felt really, really, really moved—because the crew, they’ve been on that odyssey too. They’ve been all over the world with Chris, in the elements. Chris is the first on set every day. He’s the last to leave. We’re all so supportive of each other, and that’s so beautiful.

Working on a studio movie: “I don’t get to do this kind of stuff very often. I do really interesting work, but it’s been a long time since I’ve been on a studio movie like this. The kindness and the compassion and the excitement that everybody feels, and the love for this film by the people that are part of it, is really rare. It’s so different. And also how lovely Zendaya has been, because I’ve done most of my press with her. How extraordinarily grounded she is.”

Whether it’s harder on young actresses nowadays or 25 years ago: “Harder now. Much harder. When I was at the Oscars in 2000 or whenever it was, I certainly didn’t have an email address. There was no social media. The world has changed enormously, but the pressure on actors, women in particular, to tick all those boxes must be extraordinary. When I was young, you’d just be a good actor and that was enough. I think that it’s hard to be a kid anywhere. It’s hard to be a young woman. The world is very different, and you have to navigate it differently and learn how to take care of yourself.

Her background: “I didn’t have anything to lose. I came from nothing. I was a homeless kid. I was fostered from when I was born. I had 12 foster families and many children’s homes. I had nothing to lose. And I’m 49 and I’m still working. And thank goodness I’ve managed to carry on, but it’s not all just about my own terms because terms are always changing. The world is changing, the roles are changing, the requirements are changing. So just making sure I try to treat people as I want to be treated, but equally protect myself.

[From Vanity Fair]

I had no idea that she was a foster kid with that kind of tragic backstory. No wonder she can tap into all of that emotion in her work. She’s extraordinary. What a lovely gift this is for her too – to be in a Christopher Nolan movie, to travel the world for the promotion, and to get singled out in review after review, with critics saying that she’s the best part of a fantastic movie.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.