Seven things we learned from Samantha Morton's Desert Island Discs
Samantha Morton was still a teenager when she got her breakthrough acting roles in the TV dramas Cracker and Band of Gold. By her mid 20s, she was a Hollywood star working with the likes of Steven Spielberg and winning two Oscar nominations. She grew up in and out of care, and her childhood was often chaotic, experiences that are reflected in the BAFTA-winning films I Am Kirsty and her directorial debut The Unloved.
1. She describes herself as an intuitive actor
So what’s it like when she takes on a role? “[It’s] a bit scary and a bit weird,” says Sam. “Sometimes I watch actors - I work with actors that have been trained - and I get very intrigued and envious about their process because I wasn't really taught how to act. I think I have always been a watcher. So as a kid, I used to watch people on the bus, how they smoke their cigarettes, how they move their head, how they listen, how they get off the bus and walk down the street. Have they just had some news, what's their morning been like? Are they happy? Are they sad? Why have they got the hands in the pocket? I’m just constantly asking questions about people.”
I work with actors that have been trained - and I get very intrigued and envious about their process because I wasn't really taught how to act.
2. Her first musical choice brings back strong memories of her childhood
“This song is a song that I loved as a child and danced to,” says Sam. “It reminds me of growing up in care, really reminds me of Nottingham, running around the flats in Hyson Green playing with my friends till it was dark. My dad would put my sandwiches, my salad cream sandwiches in a Sunblest bag, fold them in half and say, 'Come back when it's dark'. Me and my siblings, off we'd go and it was magical really.” The song is Burden of Shame, released in 1980 by the Birmingham reggae band UB40.
3. She had no interest in acting until a drama teacher changed her life
“What happened was I was at Junior School in West Bridgford,” explains Sam, “And this teacher turned up, Mr Thompson. And he was amazing. And he did drama. I didn't really know what drama was. He just said I was good. He wrote down on a piece of paper Central Junior Television Workshop, and he said that I should go and look into it because I might get it and I'd be good. Because you couldn't just go into the group, you had to audition - it was really hard to get in. At Red Tiles [the care home where she was living at the time] one of the staff members took me along and I got into the Workshop. And what Ian [Ian Smith, who ran the workshop] did, or what the Workshop did, they put on their own plays. They had an edit suite with camera equipment. Ian was just doing the maddest improvisations and putting on plays and then we'd get cast as extras in shows that Central TV were doing. So it was just different and seemed to suit me.”
4. A song from a New York band became the soundtrack to her first stint in the USA
“I'm now 19, I've moved to New York and this song encapsulates meeting my baby's father Charlie, Esme's dad, meeting my best friend, working in New York, and there's a place called the Terry Tavern,” explains Sam. “I was living in the East Village and going to this little pub and we had this jukebox, and it was the first time I ever heard this song. Oh my, it just blew my mind… that line ‘sing into my mouth’. I had this really amazing childhood friend, a guy called Derren Smart. He moved in with me when I moved back to London, and it became our song. Derren sadly passed away a few years ago so I read the words of this song at his funeral. This song means so much to me to do with Derren, living in New York. Just hope. Optimism.” The song is Talking Heads’ This Must Be The Place, from their 1983 album Speaking in Tongues.
I think that there is music everywhere from birdsong, to the sounds of buses to the gentle breeze in our ears, to the voice of a child or the snore of a dog, or whatever we can hear
5. Despite her tough childhood, she always knew that she would pull through
What is it that kept her going? “Faith and God and love,” says Sam. “When I was little, I did get very confused with my relationship with faith. But I always felt loved. And in the same ways I look at my children, and I know I love them and it's so enormous and it's so overwhelming, and it's so huge. That's the love I feel from God. And so when you're small, or if you're in pain, or in a very, very tough situation, by accepting that love, and allowing that love, the most amazing transformative things can happen to you. So that's how I think that I was able to, to survive, I suppose.”
6. She doesn’t bear a grudge against the carers who failed her when she was a child
“I think I have absolute forgiveness for everybody,” says Sam. “But I do not forget that. When you become an adult, you are in a position of power, certainly over children. I think that people in a professional role have a duty of care, not only to the children that they're looking after but to do their jobs properly. I think a lot of people failed in those jobs in regards to me, and many of my friends, foster siblings, my siblings, and I just wish certain individuals would put their hands up and say, ‘Yeah, we were wrong, we could have done better’, but people don't want to admit any liability in the culture that we are in now because… people get sued, [but] what's that going to achieve? Unless people say ‘We got it wrong, we want to get it right,’ then how are we going to change things?”
7. Music is essential for her
“I think in my life, I couldn’t live without it,” says Sam. “But I think that there is music everywhere from birdsong, to the sounds of buses to the gentle breeze in our ears, to the voice of a child or the snore of a dog, or whatever we can hear. Do you know what I mean? We can hear it but music, as in music that we know it to be, it's like breath to me, oxygen.”
