Samantha Morton says she was branded ‘difficult’ for refusing to do sex scenes as a teenager after male director told her to ‘take off’ her bra

Samantha Morton has revealed she was labelled ‘difficult’ for refusing to do sex scenes as a teenager.

The 47-year-old actress was just 16 years old when directors asked her to strip down on camera and flash her breasts on the set of ITV’s Band Of Gold.

But because she felt “very uncomfortable” doing so, she was considered difficult.

Six years later, Samantha burst into tears after a male director told her on the set of a new film, “Take off your bra, I want to see your nipples.” She did this in front of the entire crew, on the set of a new film. She was 23 at the time.

After two memorable and awkward incidents, Samantha claims that “it wouldn’t happen again” because of “how far we’ve come.”

The actress was just 16 years old when she was asked by directors to strip naked for the camera and expose her breasts on the set of ITV’s Band Of Gold (pictured in the programme in 1996)

Speak with The Sunday newspaperSamantha said: I’ve been working since I was 12 and did Band Of Gold at 16, when there were sex scenes that made me feel extremely uncomfortable.

‘Directors asked me to show my breasts, but I didn’t want to. That’s why they found me difficult.’

She added: ‘When I was 23, I was in a movie and the director said through his megaphone, “Take off your bra, I want to see your nipples,” in front of the whole crew. I burst into tears. I didn’t see how it would make the movie any better. We’ve come a long way, that wouldn’t happen today.’

Last year, Samantha alleged that Harvey Weinstein tried to destroy her career when she was in her early 20s.

Harvey is currently in prison after being found guilty of sexual assault and rape in February 2020.

She accused the embattled producer of threatening to make her “stop working” after she turned down an offer to star in his 2000 romantic comedy About Adam, starring Kate Hudson, Stuart Townsend and Frances O’Connor.

She remembered on The Louis Theroux Podcast: ‘I said, “I don’t like it. 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 don’t say no to Harvey.”

Six years later, Samantha burst into tears after a male director told her on the set of a new film, “Take off your bra, I want to see your nipples,” in front of the entire crew. She was 23 at the time.

After two memorable and uncomfortable incidents, Samatha claims that “it wouldn’t happen today” because of “how far we’ve come.”

Samantha said: I had been working since I was 12 and did Band Of Gold when I was 16, which had sex scenes that I was extremely uncomfortable with. Directors would ask me to show my breasts and I wouldn’t do it, so I was considered difficult.

She added: ‘When I was 23, I was in a film and the director said through his megaphone, “Take your bra off, I want to see your nipples”, in front of the whole crew. I burst into tears’ (pictured in Band Of Gold in 1995)

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

She said: ‘I had just worked with Stuart Townsend on Under The Skin. It just wasn’t interesting to me. I was super polite.

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

“You’re not going to work anymore unless you fulfill this role. I’m going to make your life hell. You’re not going to work anymore.”

The Whale actress refused to budge, admitting that she felt her decision cost her roles in some of Weinstein’s later films. For example, she was passed over in favor of Lena Headey for a role in 2005’s The Brothers Grimm, opposite Matt Damon and Heath Ledger, after the producer called her “unfuckable.”

Throughout her early childhood, Samantha grew up in various orphanages. When she was 13, she was abused by her trusted caregivers while in one of her orphanages and the police did nothing about her case.

According to her, the youth care system is still ‘completely broken’, ‘irreparable’ and ‘needs to be completely redesigned’.

She admits that her experience “always made her feel like an outsider, being in a home and growing up, being a child of the state.”

She says she liked living in New York because she felt everyone was accepted there, a feeling she never experienced as a child in the UK.

Samantha goes on to talk about her love for America, admitting that she preferred working in the US and that the sets always felt ‘more comfortable’.

She says 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 ‘difficult’.

She says, “I didn’t have the skills to articulate when I was uncomfortable or when something didn’t feel right.” She says she “never had that kind of problem in America.”