Samantha Morton says she has not worked for a year since wrapping her role in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, despite earning widespread praise for her performance in the film.

Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Morton said: "I haven't worked for a year since making The Odyssey, you know, and I've got really good agents and a manager, but at the end of the day, I'm…" — trailing off before finishing the thought (BuzzFeed). Her comments were first reported on 4 August 2026 and picked up by Deadline the following day (Deadline).

In The Odyssey, Morton played Circe, a witch and goddess who rules the island of Aeaea in Homer's epic. The film is Nolan's adaptation of the ancient Greek poem. Morton's work in the role drew strong notices — but the phone has not rung since.

This is not the first time Morton has spoken about being replaced on a high-profile project. She told the same podcast that she was "sad" and that "it does hurt" after being cut from Spike Jonze's 2013 film Her. Morton had performed the role of the voice assistant Samantha on set, reading her lines opposite Joaquin Phoenix in real time. In post-production, her performance was replaced with Scarlett Johansson's voice (Deadline).

Her centred on Theodore Twombly, played by Phoenix, a man who develops a relationship with an artificial-intelligence voice assistant. Morton said she wished she had been given another chance in a recording booth to work on an American accent for the part — an opportunity that never came.

Morton's career spans three decades, with credits including Minority Report, In America, and The Walking Dead. An Academy Award nominee for both In America and Sweet and Lowdown, she has long been regarded as one of Britain's most respected screen actors.

There are projects on the horizon. Morton is set to star in Love and War, a rescue thriller directed by Lisa Mulcahy, who co-wrote the script with Elisabeth Gooch (Deadline). She is also attached to Amazon's crime thriller series Dirty, opposite Phoebe Dynevor. Morton plays Detective Chief Inspector Lois Mercer; Dynevor plays trainee Detective Eva Bennett, who returns to Manchester and joins a homicide investigation run by her estranged mother (Deadline).

What stands out is the gap between acclaim and opportunity. An actor praised for her work in a Christopher Nolan film, talking openly about a year without a job, is a rare and candid admission in an industry that prefers to project momentum. Morton did not name a cause. She simply described the silence.