The English actress Samantha Morton, star of the hit television series Harlots and The Walking Dead, has publicly apologised for threatening the life of a young girl with a knife when she was 14.
Morton, 43, said she wanted to “set the record straight a little bit” on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. The Oscar-nominated star was “incredibly sorry” about the incident, which led to her being charged with attempted murder and spending three days in solitary confinement in an adult cell block. She was convicted of threats to kill after she had confronted an older girl who had been bullying at the care home where they both lived.
“I was mortified,” she said. “And I’m sorry to her. We were all abused. She was a child herself. Nobody looked after us properly. We were rioting in that home because they were locking the fridges at night. We were not safe.”
One night on returning to the care home from a rave at which she had taken drugs, Morton saw a nine-year-old boy who she believed had been “pimped” by the bully.
“I snapped and said I was going to kill her,” Morton said. “I didn’t harm her, I didn’t touch her, but I said those words. And I regret it and I am sorry.”
Moved between care homes and foster families in Nottinghamshire, she also recalled her own attempt to put a stop to abuse. On a visit to her mother, who had suffered mental illness, she revealed she had been abused by a carer. The police were involved, but Morton, who was moved away to another care home, believes the two members of staff accused were merely demoted.
She said she now feels “absolute forgiveness” and thinks many of those working in the care system in the 1980s were admirable, with only some abusing their positions of power.
Expelled from school three times, Morton discovered her acting skills when a sympathetic teacher encourage her to audition for a drama workshop run by Central TV. It led to a role as a runaway in the television series Peak Practice.
Morton has been acclaimed since then for a body of work that includes a key role in the film Minority Report and her own award-winning directorial debut, The Unloved, based on her time in care. She earned Oscar nominations for Woody Allen’s 1999 Sweet and Lowdown and for road drama In America in 2003, but reveals this high-profile recognition meant little when she was young, although it opened doors for her in the industry.
She has come to consider awards ceremonies to be commercially debased, she admits. “These things are so branded now that it takes it away from the individuals. Nowadays you can’t get an Oscar without running a campaign. Back then it was more on merit, I suppose.”
