Samantha Morton says Christopher Nolan gave her hope she could keep working at 49

Samantha Morton says landing a role in "The Odyssey" gave her renewed confidence that she could keep working as she gets older.

On Monday's episode of the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast, Morton reflected on the box office success of "The Odyssey," in which she plays the enchantress Circe.

The Christopher Nolan-directed film has grossed $912 million worldwide since its July 17 opening, per Box Office Mojo.

"Hope and faith," Morton said when asked what the film's reception meant to her. "That I suppose if you keep at it, and you keep producing good work, and the right people see it, then maybe you can carry on working."

The two-time Oscar nominee said she's gone through periods when work dried up.

"I haven't worked for a year since making 'The Odyssey,'" Morton said.

Although she has "really good agents and a manager," she said getting older has made her more aware of how uncertain an acting career can be.

"But at the end of the day, I'm 49, and whilst I do believe I'm a good actor, there are other good actors out there," she said.

While she now feels more "confident" she'll continue acting for years to come, she's grateful simply to have the chance to work with Nolan, Morton said.

"I've worked with some brilliant people, but you're always at the mercy, as an actor, of who your employer is and what they expect of you and what they believe in you to do for them," she said.

She added that she "genuinely cried" when she got the call from her team, who told her that Nolan wanted to meet her.

In one of the film's key sequences, Circe, Morton's character, transforms Odysseus' men into pigs by reshaping their flesh. She previously told Vanity Fair that the scene used no CGI and was achieved entirely through in-camera effects.

On the podcast, she said her early work as a magician's assistant gave her an added appreciation for the role and the filmmaking behind it.

"I think that life and art have a really bizarre way of intertwining, and what's for you won't pass you," Morton said.

In a July interview with Variety, she said she felt that major film roles, like the one in "The Odyssey," were becoming harder to come by.

"As you get older as an actress, roles like this are just few and far between," Morton said. "I still work all the time, but predominantly in independent films or on television."

Morton isn't the only Hollywood actor to speak candidly about how age can shape career opportunities.

In 2024, Kirsten Dunst said she stopped working for a while because she was being typecast as a "sad mom."

"There's definitely less good roles for women my age," Dunst said.

In 2025, "White Lotus" star Carrie Coon said she often gets typecast as older.

"The perception of me is that I am verbal, intellectual. My voice is lower, and I don't have Botox, so I tend to play older than I am," she said.