Samantha Morton has spoken about playing the sorceress Circe in Christopher Nolan's blockbuster adaptation of "The Odyssey", a role she says felt like "a rebirth" after fearing such major Hollywood opportunities had passed her by. Though her screen time is brief, the roughly ten-minute sequence in which Circe transforms Odysseus's men into pigs has been singled out as a standout moment in the film, with Morton reshaping the character from Homer's seductive temptress into a woman using magic to guard against sexual violence, drawing on experiences within her own military family.

The 49-year-old actress, an Oscar nominee for "Sweet and Lowdown" and "In America" whose career began at age 12, said she had increasingly found herself confined to independent film and television work in recent years, making Nolan's personal invitation to join a blockbuster alongside Matt Damon especially significant. She praised Nolan as a hands-on but trusting director who gave her freedom to shape the performance, while noting practical challenges of filming with the production's bulky, 300lb Imax cameras. "The Odyssey" recently opened with $17.6 million in preview takings.