Samantha Morton(I)

In early 2008, she revealed that she had been "close to death" after suffering a debilitating stroke due to being hit by a piece of 17th-century plaster that fell on her head (damaging her vertebral artery) when filming for Transsiberian (2008) in 2006 causing partial paralysis and loss of vision and was replaced by Emily Mortimer. She was in hospital for three weeks after the incident. She withdrew from the public spotlight and took an 18-month break from film acting to spent time in physical and speech therapy, learning how to walk and remaster her speaking skills. She went straight from therapy into filming Synecdoche, New York (2008). She reports "I still have a slight dis-fluency, sentences are spaced differently, but I was given a clean bill of health.".

My foster mother died and I did not have a relationship with my real parents. I know who they are. It's not upsetting; it's just the way it is. You cannot change things. My childhood isn't like an albatross around my neck.