He also beams when I bring up the scene in which the witch Circe, played by Samantha Morton, transforms Odysseus\u2019s crew into pigs, re-sculpting their faces like a potter at her wheel. Nolan looked back to some of his favourite transformation scenes in films he\u2019d grown up with, such as An American Werewolf in London, \u201cwhere they were done largely in camera and had a tactility to them that was simultaneously credible, compelling and repulsive. But I also knew I wanted Samantha Morton to do it because I\u2019d never had a chance to work with her before and always knew she would come up with something incredible.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I told the visual and special effects guys, \u2018Whatever you come up with, this has to be driven by performance. I can\u2019t tell her to act to a piece of electrical tape\u2019. So they came up with\u201d \u2013 he pauses \u2013 \u201cmechanisms that allowed her to find things through performance, and really just play with the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n
After filming it, the cast and crew gave Morton a spontaneous round of applause: Thomas later pointed out to Nolan that it was the first time that had happened on one of their films since Heath Ledger\u2019s underworld pow-wow scene, with the notorious \u201cvanishing pencil\u201d in The Dark Knight.<\/p>\n
There are some technological advances that Nolan remains determined not to embrace: he famously doesn\u2019t own a smartphone, and says his stance isn\u2019t liable to soften any time soon. \u201cYou guys have all become pod people,\u201d he laughs. But while he has no intention of buckling, \u201cI worry the world is eventually going to wear me down. The return of the QR code since Covid has been particularly tricky for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why is he so against phones? \u201cPartly because I know I\u2019d become horribly addicted to them if I had one. I\u2019d spend all my time looking things up. And I find I\u2019m only able to advance my thinking on projects in those pockets of time where everybody usually jumps on their phone \u2013 waiting for a train, or in an airport, or sitting in a restaurant waiting for somebody to turn up for dinner. Those are the moments I work out whatever it is I need to do next.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having no smartphone, he adds, also means he\u2019s never tempted to hop online to debunk rumours, spar with haters, or respond to gossip \u2013 such as the odd story that circulated last year that his next film would be a remake of the 1983 helicopter action thriller Blue Thunder. He says he was \u201cbewildered\u201d when he read it: \u201cI have absolutely no idea where it came from. And besides, I was always more of an Airwolf fan.\u201d<\/p>\n
If he owned a cinema, would he ban phones? \u201cWell, my local cinema is the Vista in Los Angeles, which is run by Quentin Tarantino, and they have a hard and fast attitude towards smartphones and watches: if you have to make a call or need to look at your phone, just step outside into the foyer. And I think it\u2019s a wonderful rule. And the other thing I\u2019d borrow is that they play the audio track from the film in the toilets, so if you have to step out you don\u2019t miss anything.\u201d<\/p>\n