18 February 2024 , 18:40
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Samantha Morton has faced some tough battles in her personal life on her journey to stardom on-screen.
The award-winning British actress and director, 46, has a series of accolades to her name, and tonight is set to be honoured once again at the BAFTA Film Awards. Samantha will be awarded the BAFTA Fellowship, the arts charity's highest title, in recognition of her "outstanding and exceptional contribution to film and television."
Her credits span independent British cinema to Hollywood blockbusters, television and theatre. From her breakout film role Under the Skin (1997), to her directorial debut The Unloved (2009), to She Said (2022), across three decades and counting, the star has championed the portrayal of complex and often underrepresented stories.
In some roles, she has drawn inspiration from her own difficult upbringing, while Samantha has endured a far from plain sailing love life, and has battled with a terrifying health condition. In light of her latest award, The Mirror takes a look at Samantha's life off-screen...
Samantha has come a long way since her tough upbringing (PA)
Samantha Morton and Tom Cruise arrive for the premiere of Steven Spielberg's 'Minority Report' (Press Association)Samantha had an unconventional start to life in Nottingham, where she spent the majority of her formative years in and out of foster and children's homes. Her father was an abusive alcoholic, and got the 15-year-old babysitter pregnant (he went on to marry her). While her mother was involved in a violent relationship with her second husband.
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Her bleak 2009 film, The Unloved, was harrowingly based on her own experiences as a child. The main character Lucy found herself in a care home after being rejected by both of her parents.
She told the Guardian: "There are a lot of similarities between me and Lucy, but my mum and my dad and my eight brothers and sisters can all watch the film and go, 'We know that's not our story, but we get why she's done it.' At the same time I do love them and I do respect them, and I'm not about to exploit them."
Whilst attending school, at 13 she joined the Central Junior Television Workshop, and was soon offered TV roles including in Soldier Soldier. At 16, she headed for the Big Smoke and signed up to performing arts schools.
TV jobs soon starting rolling in, and on set of the film The Last Yellow in 1999, she met actor Charlie Creed-Miles. The couple dated for some time however broke up when Samanta was just 15 weeks pregnant with their daughter, actress Esmé Creed-Miles, born in February 2000.
She then went on to form a romance with filmmaker Harry Holm, whom she met while filming a music video for the band The Vitamins. They have since welcomed two children, Edie and Theodore, and have lived in Derbyshire since 2012.
Despite being one of the UK's most successful acting exports, Samantha, who has twice been nominated for an Academy Award, stays firmly under the showbiz radar. "I am very lucky really, considering I am very working class and have managed to do incredibly well both here and in America," she said in 2012 during the promotion of American drama The Messenger. "And I have done it on my own terms.
"I don't think I'm a big celebrity and don't feel I have to act a certain way to get work. There are people out there I admire, and who like to work with me – so it's all going well." The mum-of-three also revealed her family usually doesn't tune in to watch her stellar performances, opting to watch lighter TV instead.
"My family don't watch a lot of my stuff," she sighed. "They like the soap operas and Benidorm!" Elsewhere in her family life, it was revealed in 2011 that the star had written an open letter to her stepfather, hoping to reunite after being estranged for several years. However it was soon revealed he had died of prostate cancer four years previously.
The actress had been so desperate to heal a rift with Frank Braidwood that she hired a private detective and begged him to get in touch in a letter to a magazine. She said she wanted forgiveness for the hurt caused during her troubled childhood and was left devastated upon hearing she was too late.
Meanwhile in 2008, it was revealed that Samantha had to start her life again, after she was close to death and unable to walk following a stroke. The Minority Report star was hidden from the public eye after it left her severely debilitated.
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She suffered the health condition from head injuries sustained when the ceiling in her home fell on her. She pulled out of thriller Transsiberian in 2006 as a result - but the reason was kept secret at the time.
Morton then endured a battle to learn to walk and took an unexplained 18-month break from films. After a long rehabilitation, she was back to good health and gave birth to a second daughter. Gradually well enough to work again, she went on to play a Marilyn Monroe impersonator in Mister Lonely.
Following her recovery, she spoke of her bond with singer Jason Pierce, of Spiritualized, who almost died of pneumonia. She said: "He was the only one who understood, being near to death. He got me through."