Samantha Morton explains why she thought Bafta gong was a mix-up
The actor thought there had been a mistake when she was given the Bafta Fellowship Award
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Samantha Morton has revealed she thought her agent had made a mistake when she was told she was being honoured by Bafta.
The Minority Report actor was given the prestigious Bafta Fellowship Award at the ceremony this year. The gong is the arts charity’s highest honour and is given in recognition of “an outstanding and exceptional contribution to film, games or television”.
However, Morton admitted that when she received an email saying that she was getting the gong, she assumed there had been a mix-up.
What, how, and why?
She opened up about it on The One Show, explaining that she had been at the cinema with her family when she got the news.
“We had gone to see My Neighbour Totoro at the Barbican and couldn’t go earlier so it was a really big thing for us as a family,” she said.
“Went off to get ice-cream at the interval, I don’t eat ice-cream so I was sitting down and as we are all addicted to our phones, well I am, it’s a really bad thing, I checked my phone and I had an email and it said what it was.
“I said to my team, ‘No it’s a mistake.’ My agent looks after another Sam and I said, ‘I think it’s for the other Sam’ and they said, ‘No it’s for you’.”
“And I just sat and burst into tears,” said the star. “I was worried that people would think something was wrong and I was like, ‘I’m alright, I’m alright’. So yes I did think it was not for me!”
What else did Samantha Morton say on The One Show?
When Morton collected her accolade, she dedicated it to every child in care or who had been in care.
Asked on The One Show how important it was for her to speak about things that really mattered to her, like representation on screen, she said: "Growing up, first of all, in abject poverty, because of what happened to Nottingham in the 80s and the lack of employment and Thatcher closing all the mines… my family suffered and I ended up in care, in and out of care, when I was very very little and then made a ward of court in 1989.
"So I was in many children’s homes, 12 foster homes, which is nothing compared to kids today, but I had a very disadvantaged childhood. I didn’t go to drama school, ended up not completing my education, so left school at 12."
"So for someone like to me to even have a career or have a family, a loving family, is to me, a bit of a miracle," she said.
Read more: Samantha Morton
Watch: Samantha Morton dedicated her BAFTA Fellowship award to 'every child in care, or who has been in care and who didn't survive'
