NEED TO KNOW
Samantha Morton shares her thoughts on the comparison Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas made between her performance in The Odyssey and Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight
Morton has received considerable praise for her turn as Circe, a goddess whom Matt Damon’s Odysseus encounters on his journey in the movie
The Odyssey is in theaters July 17
Samantha Morton is thrilled to know that Christopher Nolan and his wife and producing partner, Emma Thomas, favorably compared her impact on The Odyssey to Heath Ledger’s’s iconic performance in the 2008 movie The Dark Knight.
“That’s very moving to me,” Morton, 49, tells PEOPLE at the movie’s New York City premiere on Tuesday, July 14. Nolan, 55, shared an anecdote a week prior during an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
He recounted how the movie’s crew “gave [Morton] a great round of applause” after she filmed a take for one of her scenes as Circe, a goddess whom Odysseus (Matt Damon) and his soldiers encounter during their perilous attempts to return to their home in Ithaca following the Trojan War. “I was talking with Emma [Thomas] afterwards and she remembered that the last time that had happened was with Heath Ledger on The Dark Knight,” Nolan said of the applause Morton received on set.
Samantha Morton in New York City on July 14, 2026
Credit: Christopher Polk/Deadline/Getty
On the red carpet, Morton described that comparison as “very emotional” for her, because she got to know Ledger, who died at 28 in 2008, during his lifetime. “I have a slight connection to Heath where we nearly did a movie together and didn’t, and I spent some time with him,” Morton says.
She adds, “The word ‘fan’ diminishes how I felt about him as an actor because I respected him as an actor and as a presence. And I think his interpretation of the Joker was so vulnerable and so multidimensional it blew me away. And I think so that’s an honor.”
Ledger, who died six months before The Dark Knight’s release, brought portrayals of the fan-favorite Batman villain to new heights in Nolan’s 2008 movie and posthumously won an Academy Award at the 2009 Oscars for his acclaimed performance. Ledger was the only actor to have received an Oscar from a performance in one of Nolan’s movies until Robert Downey Jr. and Cillian Murphy both won awards for their turns in 2023’s Oppenheimer.
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In The Odyssey, Morton is surrounded by an ensemble of actors who could be up for Oscar nominations come this winter, including the movie’s lead Damon, 55. Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Elliot Page, Jon Bernthal, Mia Goth, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong’o, Benny Safdie and Himesh Patel also star in the movie. Morton herself is a two-time Oscar nominee for the movies Sweet and Lowdown and In America.
Charlize Theron, Samantha Morton, John Leguizamo, Tom Holland, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong’o, and Zendaya at The Odyssey’s New York City premiere on July 14, 2026
Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty
“They’re like the nicest bunch of people,” Morton says of her costars on this film. “And I don’t know, [Nolan] just managed to pick these very lovely people to work with who are kind and generous and just awesome.”
The Odyssey is in theaters July 17.
Read the original article on People