Samantha Morton(I)
- Actress
- Writer
- Director
Samantha Morton has established herself as one of the finest actors of
her generation, winning Oscar nominations for her turns in
Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown (1999) and
Jim Sheridan's In America (2002). She has the talent to become one of
the major performers in the cinema of this young century.
Samantha Morton was born on May 13, 1977 in Nottingham, England to parents
who divorced when she was three years old. Peter and Pamela Morton took
other spouses and made Samantha part of a mixed family of 13; she has
eight brothers and sisters. She turned to play-acting early in her
life, while she was a school-girl.
At 13, she left regular school to train as an actress at the Central
Junior Television Workshop, where she learned her craft for three
years. It was at the end of her training then that she decided that a
life as a professional actress was for her.
She honed her skills in television roles, working her way up from
series television to TV-movies and prestigious mini-series, such as
Emma (1996) and
Jane Eyre (1997). Her first
major film role,
Under the Skin (1997), won her the
Best Actress Award from the Boston Film Critics Society. Woody Allen
cast her as Hattie, the "dumb" (unspeaking) lover of
Sean Penn's caddish jazz guitarist in
Sweet and Lowdown (1999), a
beautiful performance in a role that could have flummoxed a
less-talented performer. Penn was Oscar-nominated for his performance,
but it was Morton's Hattie that was central to the success of the film,
Allen's last unqualified success. She provided the moral and narrative
center of the film. It was quite a remarkable performance for a 21-year
old as she had to do all her acting with her face, having been shorn of
her voice. The role of Hattie won Morton a Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award nomination.
Ironically, Morton had never seen a Woody Allen movie before. (She grew
up watching the TV and listening to the radio.) She agreed to do the
film after reading the script (as she says, well-written roles for
women are hard to find), and the movie made her a hot commodity in
Hollywood after she won the Oscar nomination. (She lost out to Angelina Jolie). Morton was offered many roles, but was
very choosy as she was not in acting as a game with a payoff of stardom
and money.
She had consolidated her reputation by following up the Allen film with
work in indie features that showed that she was not only talented, but
quite courageous as a performer. She played a heroin addict in the
underrated Jesus' Son (1999) and gave
a brilliant performance in
Morvern Callar (2002), the story
of a Scottish supermarket clerk coping with her boyfriend's suicide.
Steven Spielberg cast her,
opposite superstar Tom Cruise, as the
clairvoyant in
Minority Report (2002), in which
she more than held her own opposite Cruise and the special effects.
(She took the role as Cruise and Steven Spielberg are favorites of hers). As
good as she was, Morton was better served by Irish director
Jim Sheridan, Sheridan cast her as
a character modeled after his wife in an autobiographical picture more
in line with persona and that made better use of her talents. Her
performance as the young Irish mother coping with life in New York City
in In America (2002) won her numerous
critics' awards and another Oscar nod, this time as Best Actress.
At this point, one feels that the odds of her winning the Oscar are
even or better. Samantha Morton continues to deliver fine work in
provocative films such as
Michael Winterbottom's
Code 46 (2003), though she is branching
out towards the mainstream, taking a role in the remake of that
perennial family favorite, Lassie (2005).
her generation, winning Oscar nominations for her turns in
Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown (1999) and
Jim Sheridan's In America (2002). She has the talent to become one of
the major performers in the cinema of this young century.
Samantha Morton was born on May 13, 1977 in Nottingham, England to parents
who divorced when she was three years old. Peter and Pamela Morton took
other spouses and made Samantha part of a mixed family of 13; she has
eight brothers and sisters. She turned to play-acting early in her
life, while she was a school-girl.
At 13, she left regular school to train as an actress at the Central
Junior Television Workshop, where she learned her craft for three
years. It was at the end of her training then that she decided that a
life as a professional actress was for her.
She honed her skills in television roles, working her way up from
series television to TV-movies and prestigious mini-series, such as
Emma (1996) and
Jane Eyre (1997). Her first
major film role,
Under the Skin (1997), won her the
Best Actress Award from the Boston Film Critics Society. Woody Allen
cast her as Hattie, the "dumb" (unspeaking) lover of
Sean Penn's caddish jazz guitarist in
Sweet and Lowdown (1999), a
beautiful performance in a role that could have flummoxed a
less-talented performer. Penn was Oscar-nominated for his performance,
but it was Morton's Hattie that was central to the success of the film,
Allen's last unqualified success. She provided the moral and narrative
center of the film. It was quite a remarkable performance for a 21-year
old as she had to do all her acting with her face, having been shorn of
her voice. The role of Hattie won Morton a Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award nomination.
Ironically, Morton had never seen a Woody Allen movie before. (She grew
up watching the TV and listening to the radio.) She agreed to do the
film after reading the script (as she says, well-written roles for
women are hard to find), and the movie made her a hot commodity in
Hollywood after she won the Oscar nomination. (She lost out to Angelina Jolie). Morton was offered many roles, but was
very choosy as she was not in acting as a game with a payoff of stardom
and money.
She had consolidated her reputation by following up the Allen film with
work in indie features that showed that she was not only talented, but
quite courageous as a performer. She played a heroin addict in the
underrated Jesus' Son (1999) and gave
a brilliant performance in
Morvern Callar (2002), the story
of a Scottish supermarket clerk coping with her boyfriend's suicide.
Steven Spielberg cast her,
opposite superstar Tom Cruise, as the
clairvoyant in
Minority Report (2002), in which
she more than held her own opposite Cruise and the special effects.
(She took the role as Cruise and Steven Spielberg are favorites of hers). As
good as she was, Morton was better served by Irish director
Jim Sheridan, Sheridan cast her as
a character modeled after his wife in an autobiographical picture more
in line with persona and that made better use of her talents. Her
performance as the young Irish mother coping with life in New York City
in In America (2002) won her numerous
critics' awards and another Oscar nod, this time as Best Actress.
At this point, one feels that the odds of her winning the Oscar are
even or better. Samantha Morton continues to deliver fine work in
provocative films such as
Michael Winterbottom's
Code 46 (2003), though she is branching
out towards the mainstream, taking a role in the remake of that
perennial family favorite, Lassie (2005).