Samantha Morton has said that being fired from Spike Jonze's Oscar-winning movie Her and replaced with Scarlett Johansson still stings over a decade on.
The British actress, 49, was originally the voice of Samantha, the AI operating system that Joaquin Phoenix's Theodore Twombly falls in love with in Jonze's 2013 film. After recording her vocals, Morton was recast in post-production, with US actress Johansson, 41, brought in to rerecord the role. The film went on to receive five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
Morton discussed the fallout on Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused podcast, saying she still believes the work she did was really special. She said it was every director's prerogative to decide on the final cut of the film, and that no one is ever guaranteed to make the final version of a project. She said she was surprised, and that a little sad would be an understatement.
Morton said the time she spent on set with Phoenix, and working with Jonze on the script and finding Samantha, was really special, adding that they did some mad stuff. She said they designed and built a booth for her to record all her sound, and that she would be inside a black, padded phone box, or in the trunk of a car. She said her version of Samantha was very different, since the character was English.
Morton said Johansson has a beautiful voice and is incredibly evocative, and that she understood the decision but was still sad. She said it does hurt when you're fired from something, adding that what she would have wished for was another chance in a booth to do an American accent, before conceding that Johansson was hard to argue with.
Praise from Christopher Nolan
Morton has worked with major Hollywood stars and directors across a thirty-year career, and her most recent role saw her directed by Christopher Nolan. Her performance as Circe, goddess of Aeaea, in The Odyssey has been called a masterpiece by critics and fans, and Nolan himself has said he was floored by her on set.
Morton received a standing ovation from the cast and crew. A producer said of Nolan's reaction that it was something they hadn't seen since Heath Ledger on The Dark Knight. Ledger went on to win a posthumous Oscar for that role in the 2008 film.
Oscar buzz builds
Morton has two Academy Award nominations to her name, for 1999's Sweet and Lowdown and 2002's In America, and could secure her first win for her 10-minute performance in The Odyssey. Reviews for the film have been almost universally glowing, with five-star ratings widespread. The Daily Mail's Brian Viner called Nolan's film a glorious cinematic experience, a triumph both of storytelling and movie-making, adding that he rarely says of films nearly three hours long that one viewing isn't enough.
Despite the acclaim, Morton said she hasn't worked in a year since filming The Odyssey, a gap she believes is linked to her age. She said that despite having really good agents and a manager, she is 49, and that while she believes she is a good actor, there are other good actors out there too, and the politics of the industry has changed massively.
