Samantha Morton found it "bittersweet" to be compared to the late Heath Ledger.

The 49-year-old actress plays the enchantress Circe in The Odyssey and director Sir Christopher Nolan recently revealed the crew applauded her after filming one of her scenes, a reaction he and producer wife Emma Thomas had only previously seen during filming of The Dark Knight Rises with the late actor.

And Samantha felt very "emotional" when she heard the comparison because she had always wanted to work with Heath - who died from an accidental overdose in January 2008 - and came close when she was cast in 2005's The Brothers Grimm but later replaced by Lena Headey on the insistence of producer Harvey Weinstein.

Samantha told Entertainment Weekly: "Thinking about it, it makes me emotional, really. I'm really moved.

"[Heath and I] spent some time together, with Matt [Damon], as well, in Rome. I was aching to work with him and Matt, and it didn't work out. Things just don't always work out that way.

"So there was something bittersweet in this moment because it's an honour to be compared to him or to be even mentioned in the same breath."

Of the take in which she received the rapturous response from the crew, Samantha described it as "true movie magic".

She added: "Because it was an alignment almost, like the stars aligning, where everything worked."

While traditional translations of Homer's The Odyssey have portrayed Circe as a villain, Samantha doesn't see her as a "baddie" and thinks most women can relate to her character in some way.

She said: "When I read it, it felt like it was my mother's story or my sister's story or my daughter's story or my grandmother's story.

"You can open any newspaper and there's a woman there that you recognize within Circe.

"So I didn't perceive her as a villain. I just didn't, even though I can understand why people would think that.

"Our lessons come in really strange ways in life, don't they? And learning those lessons are sometimes very hard and I don't think it's as black and white as if she's just a baddie."