Samantha Morton will be honored with a BAFTA Fellowship Award for her “extraordinary” 30-year acting career

Samantha Morton will be honored with a BAFTA Fellowship Award for her “extraordinary” 30-year acting career.

The 46-year-old actress will pick up the gong at the EE BAFTA Film Awards on February 18 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre.

The award is the highest honor for outstanding achievements in television and film.

Samantha said: “As a proud BAFTA member, I am honored, deeply humbled and grateful to BAFTA for presenting me with this award.”

Anna Higgs, chair of BAFTA's film committee, added: “Samantha Morton is a fascinating storyteller with incredible range.”

Samantha Morton, 46, will be honored with a BAFTA Fellowship Award for her “extraordinary” 30-year acting career

The actress will pick up the gong at the EE BAFTA Film Awards on February 18 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre

“She has had an extraordinary impact on the British film industry, consistently shining a spotlight on complex characters and championing underrepresented stories.” On and off screen, she is always working to break down social barriers and change the structure of the screen industry for the better change – often against great resistance.

“Samantha is respected by her colleagues in the UK and Hollywood alike for her versatility, talent and passion for the craft of acting, and we look forward to recognizing her extraordinary work at the EE BAFTA Film Awards next week.”

Previous BAFTA grant winners include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock and Elizabeth Taylor.

Samantha came to international attention in 1997 with her performance in Under The Skin and has since been nominated for Oscars as well as multiple Emmy and BAFTA nominations.

She has already been awarded a Golden Globe and won a BAFTA Award for Best Drama Single.

The actress starred in the award-winning films The Walking Dead and the drama I Am… Kirsty, as well as the most recent series The Burning Girls.

Speaking about the upcoming award, Samantha spoke to Loose Women panellists Katie Piper, Branda Edwards, Christine Lampard, Joanna Lumley and Kelly Holmes about the award on Wednesday.

She said: “It’s imposter syndrome because I grew up in care. When I'm sitting on the toilet in a fancy hotel, sometimes I think, 'Oh my God.'” Christine announced the incredible news of her upcoming award shortly afterwards.

Samantha will receive the award next week – it is the highest honor given in recognition of outstanding achievements in television and film

Samantha said: “As a proud BAFTA member, I am honored, deeply humbled and grateful to BAFTA for presenting me with this award.”

Speaking about the upcoming award, Samantha spoke to Loose Women panellists Katie Piper, Branda Edwards, Christine Lampard, Joanna Lumley and Kelly Holmes about the award on Wednesday

She said: “It’s imposter syndrome because I grew up in care. When I'm sitting on the toilet in a fancy hotel, sometimes I think, 'Oh my God.'” Christine announced the incredible news of her upcoming award shortly afterwards

Samantha also described what life was like before success, adding: “I was in care from birth and then foster care if you will, at 16 I went into a homeless shelter and they just leave you behind , that's what happens.” I had many, many foster homes, many, many children's homes.

“I got in trouble with the police, left school at the age of twelve and didn't have a qualification. So it’s great that I’m here today, but back then someone like me didn’t have the means to achieve something.”

“That really didn’t exist, and unfortunately it doesn’t exist today either.” It’s worse today than it was back then. “I work with the NSPCC because they cover such a wide range of ways they can help people.”

This came after she claimed that Harvey Weinstein tried to destroy her career when she was in her early twenties.

The actress accused the disgraced producer – who is currently in prison after being found guilty of sex crimes – of threatening to ensure she “wouldn't work again” after she received an offer for a role in his 2000 romantic comedy About Adam, in which she starred Kate Hudson, Stuart Townsend and Frances O'Connor.

She recalled on the Louis Theroux Podcast: “I said, ‘I don’t like him. I think the film is really misogynistic and I don’t want to be a part of it.”

The Minority Report actress said the casting director then told her, “You're not saying no to Harvey.”

But Samantha insisted she wasn't rejecting the producer, just the film – and was given a chilling warning when she refused to change her stance.

She said, “I [then] got a call saying, “You can’t say no.” The “no” wasn’t listened to. So they kept coming back with this role and I was told in no uncertain terms: “You won't work again if you don't do this role.” I will make your life hell. You will not work again' – Weinstein pictured in October 2022

She said: “I had just worked with Stuart Townsend on Under The Skin. It just wasn't interesting to me. I was extremely polite.

'I [then] got a call saying, “You can’t say no.” The “no” wasn’t listened to. So they kept coming back with this role and I was told in no uncertain terms:

“You won't work again if you don't take on this role.” I will make your life hell. You won't work again.'

The Whale actress refused to back down and admitted that she felt her decision cost her roles in some of Weinstein's later films, including opting for Lena Headey for a role in The Brothers Grimm opposite Matt Damon and Heath Ledger in 2005 after the producer considered her “unf****able.”

Samantha said, “That made me wonder why he was against me?” Then she remembered the warning about Adam.

She added: “I forgot about it because it was years earlier.” And then, all these years later, I realized it [when] I get an offer, I get a letter from a director, whether Miramax or then the Weinstein Company had anything to do with it, it was just terrible for me.

“He had a reason, a deep-rooted reason, to just try to destroy my career…He categorically couldn't do it because I kept working and making independent cinema all over the world.”

Speaking further about her love for America, Samantha admits that she also preferred working in the US and that the sets always felt more “comfortable”.

Weinstein was once a powerful media mogul before numerous women came forward in 2017 and accused him of rape and sexual assault

She notes that as a young woman on film sets in the UK, she was often asked to do things that “wouldn't happen now” and that she had a reputation for being “tricky.”

She says, “I didn't have the ability to articulate when I was uncomfortable or when something didn't feel right.” She said that she “never had problems like that in America.”

Meanwhile, disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 16 years in prison in February 2023.

The once-powerful media mogul, 70, was found guilty of rape and two additional counts of sexual assault in Los Angeles in December after previously being convicted of sex crimes in New York City in 2020.