Samantha Morton doesn’t get much screen time in “The Odyssey,” but her performance as a witch is transformative. That’s a theme in the British actress’s life: making an awful lot out of very little.
Morton was born in the industrial city of Nottingham in 1977 and almost immediately became a ward of the court. She spent her chaotic childhood bouncing between foster parents and social care facilities. Refuge arrived in the form of a group that provided theater training to working-class kids. Something proved appealing about pretending to be someone else.