The Odyssey’s Samantha Morton Opens Up About ‘Trauma’

Samantha Morton, whose amazing performance in The Odyssey has earned her well-deserved praise, recently opened up about her experience of grief with The Sunday Times.

In an interview, the foster care leaver said: “My relationship with my past changes as I age and my children age, but things keep happening.

“I sadly lost my sister on April 22 this year, she was 53,” she added.

“I am still dealing with the coroners and the trauma. I lost my real father 18 months ago. Trauma. So the past is always with me and I’m not saying I’m not going to be all right next week, but every day I wake, say a prayer and say ‘Please help me.’”

One of nine siblings, Samantha continued: “I went pillar to post with foster families, homeless hostels, sleeping by the bins at the back of the Co-op, because it was too dangerous to go back to the children’s home because of the abuse.”

This experience, she said, might have helped to influence her portrayal of Circe.

She shared: “When I opened my mouth, I was every woman. I was speaking for my mother, who suffered all sorts at the hands of men. And my sister, friends, grandmother.

“It was all the wrongs and ways that women have been depicted or treated forever.”

Speaking to The Guardian in 2022, she compared her experience of foster care to being “owned by the state,” adding, “the state treated me a certain way, and I’m a product of that”.

In 2024, while receiving a BAFTA Fellowship Award, she dedicated the prize to “every child in care, or who has been in care and who didn’t survive”.

And when accepting an OBE, she pointed out that “The care system isn’t fit for purpose. It’s been privatised, and unfortunately, there’s a lot of unregulated children’s homes that are operating up and down the country.”