Beginnings (1991–1998) After joining
Central Junior Television Workshop at the age of 13, she was soon being offered small-screen roles such as Clare Anderson in the first series of
Lucy Gannon's
Soldier Soldier and also Mandy, in an episode of
Boon — both were
ITV Central productions. Moving to London at sixteen, Morton applied to numerous drama schools, including
RADA, without success. She made her stage début at the
Royal Court Theatre, In
Jane Eyre, Morton starred as a Yorkshire orphan who becomes a governess to a young French girl and finds love with the brooding lord of the manor. Like her previous small-screen projects, the 1997 film originally aired on ITV. She took on the leading role in the independent drama
Under the Skin (1997), directed by
Carine Adler, where she played Iris, a woman coping with the death of her mother. The movie garnered favorable reviews from writers, with
The Guardian placing it at number 15 on its list of the Best British Films 1984–2009. Janet Maslin for
The New York Times remarked that Morton "embodies the role with furious intensity and with a raw yet waifish presence" and
James Berardinelli wrote that the actress "forces us to accept Iris as a living, breathing individual". She won the Best Actress accolade at the 1998
Boston Society of Film Critics Awards and was nominated for the
BIFA for
Best Female Performance in a British Independent Film.
Critical recognition (1999–2005) Impressed by her performance in
Under the Skin,
Woody Allen cast her in
Sweet and Lowdown, a romantic comedy about a fictional jazz guitarist in the 1930s (played by
Sean Penn) who regards himself as the second greatest guitarist in the world. Morton played Hattie, a mute laundress and the love interest of Penn's character. The film was released in September 1999, to wide critical acclaim and moderate success at the
box office in the arthouse circuit. George Perry for
BBC.com found her to be "extraordinary" as an "adoring mute who suffers [...] She uses her eyes to convey meaning, reviving techniques of
silent cinema". Morton earned
Academy Award and
Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress for her role, which was especially notable, considering the fact that she does not utter a single word of dialogue in the film. During a 2007 interview with UK's
The Guardian, she remarked that her Oscar nomination meant "incredible things for me in the [United States]. I'm grateful for that. It means that [...] I'm able to support the industry". Morton would next star in the small scale drama ''
Jesus' Son, which found a limited release, and praise from critics. She received a Satellite Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture for her performance. Her other film in 1999 was the romantic drama Dreaming of Joseph Lees, an adaptation of a story written by Catherine Linstrum set in rural England in the late 1950s; for her part, she won the Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actress. She appeared in the biographical drama Pandaemonium'' (2000), directed by
Julien Temple, playing Sara Coleridge, the wife of the poet
Samuel Taylor Coleridge. She was nominated for a
British Independent Film Award in the category of Best Actress. Morton also played a
mermaid opposite
Larry Mullen in the
Anton Corbijn-directed promotional video for
U2's "
Electrical Storm", and provided the voice of Ruby for the Canadian animated series
Max & Ruby from 2002 to 2003. Morton found wider recognition and mainstream success when she took on the part of a senior
precog in
Steven Spielberg science fiction thriller
Minority Report, opposite
Tom Cruise. Although critics felt she was "slightly
typecast" in her role of "feral, near-mute victim",
Minority Report grossed US$358 million. She won the
Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress and the
Empire Award for Best British Actress. In her next film, the drama
Morvern Callar, she played a grieving young woman from Scotland who decides to escape to Spain after the suicide of her boyfriend. Writing for
Rolling Stone, Peter Travers stated that Morton "fills this character study with poetic force and buoyant feeling", as part of a positive critical response, and she earned the Best Actress Award at the
5th British Independent Film Awards and the
7th Toronto Film Critics Association Awards. In the independent drama
In America (2003), directed by
Jim Sheridan, Morton played the matriarch of an immigrant Irish family struggling to start a new life in New York.
In America met widespread critical acclaim, with Terry Lawson of
Detroit Free Press calling the film "an achingly intimate and beautifully observed account of the immigrant experience".
Roger Ebert felt that Morton "reveals the power of her silences, her quiet [and] her presence", while
A. O. Scott, of
The New York Times, found the "blunt, inarticulate force of her feeling [...] at the center of the drama". Her performance earned her nominations for the
Academy Award, the
Independent Spirit Award, and the
Broadcast Film Critics Association Award in the category of Best Actress. In 2004, Morton starred as a love interest in the dystopian film
Code 46, directed by
Michael Winterbottom and alongside
Tim Robbins, and played the wife of a man who witnessed a deadly accident in the drama
Enduring Love, opposite
Rhys Ifans and
Daniel Craig. Critics were polarized for the latter film and suggested that Morton did not have enough time on screen. Nevertheless, she earned a nomination for the Best Supporting Award at the
2004 British Independent Film Awards. In
River Queen (2005), she took on the role of a young Irish woman finding herself on both sides of the wars between British and
Maori during the British colonisation of New Zealand. The film was a box office success at the New Zealand box office, grossing around NZ$1 million in the country. For her role, she received a nomination for the
New Zealand Screen Award for Best Leading Actress. She starred alongside
Johnny Depp in the little-seen
period drama
The Libertine, and appeared in the drama
Lassie, both of which were also released in 2005.
Biopics and directorial debut (2006–2009) on 8 February 2008 In 2006, she played the
Moors murderess Myra Hindley in the television film
Longford. Set between 1967 and 1997, the film depicts the relationship between the child murderer and
Lord Longford, the politician who spent years campaigning (ultimately unsuccessfully) for her release.
Longford was a critical success and premiered with 1.7 million viewers. Morton, however, was severely criticised by the relatives of the children who were killed by Hindley and
Ian Brady, but she insisted, "It is my duty as a performer to raise issues [...] we're afraid to look at". She received a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the
59th Primetime Emmy Awards, and won at the
65th Golden Globe Awards. Morton took on roles in four feature films in 2007. She starred as a struggling police officer in the romantic drama
Expired, and portrayed a
Marilyn Monroe impersonator in the dramedy
Mister Lonely alongside her daughter
Esmé Creed-Miles who portrayed a
Shirley Temple impersonator. Morton worked again with director Anton Corbijn in the biographical film
Control, where she appeared as
Deborah Curtis, wife of musician
Ian Curtis from the band
Joy Division, whose biography
Touching from a Distance formed the basis of the film. The film was acclaimed by critics.
Roger Ebert remarked that Morton was "absolutely convincing as a plucky teenage bride", and
Variety magazine found her performance to be "astonishing" and "sympathetic". For
Control, she was nominated for the
BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Her last film of 2007 was another biopic,
Elizabeth: The Golden Age, in which she played
Mary, Queen of Scots. She made part of an
ensemble cast in
Charlie Kaufman's
postmodern drama
Synecdoche, New York (2008), alongside
Philip Seymour Hoffman,
Michelle Williams and
Emily Watson. In the film, she portrayed Hazel, one of the women in the life of a theatre director (Hoffman) whose extreme commitment to a realistic stage production begins to
blur the boundaries between fiction and reality. As her character ages from 30 to 64 over the course of the story, Morton used full-face
prosthetic makeup. She discovered that she was pregnant during the filming, which had a schedule that took up to 20 hours a day. The film was a
box office bomb, but garnered praise from critics, appearing on many top ten lists of the year. Morton and her co-stars were eventually nominated for the
Best Ensemble Performance award at the
18th Gotham Independent Film Awards. Also in 2008, she starred in
The Daisy Chain, an Irish horror film about a couple who after the death of their daughter, take in an orphaned girl, only to become involved in a series of strange occurrences. It premiered at the 16th
Raindance Film Festival (London; October 2008), and received a DVD release in 2010. In the directorial debut of ''Jesus' Son
screenwriter Oren Moverman, the war drama The Messenger (2009), Morton starred as Oliva Patterson, a widow whose husband was killed in Iraq. She was drawn to the "feminine" side of the story and found her part to be "one of the first characters [she has] played in a long time where [she has] felt so much in common", as her brother and stepfather both served as soldiers in the military forces. Critical reception towards The Messenger
and Morton was unanimously favorable, with Claudia Puig of USA Today'' asserting that, Morton "as always, gives a subtle, excellent performance". She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the
14th Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards and the
25th Independent Spirit Awards. Morton's other project of 2009 was her directorial debut, the semi-autobiographical
Channel 4 drama
The Unloved, which follows an eleven-year-old girl (played by Molly Windsor) growing up in a
children's home in the UK's care system, and shown through her perspective. Morton wrote the story in collaboration with
Tony Grisoni, and
The Unloved was first broadcast on 17 May 2009, drawing nearly 2 million viewers. It premiered at the
Toronto International Film Festival in September 2009. Michael Deacon, for
The Daily Telegraph, praised Morton on creating an "intense" and "vivid" dramatic film. Morton won a
BAFTA for her direction in 2010.
Hiatus and return to film (2010–2014) Following a three-year hiatus from the screen to focus on her personal life and family, Morton returned in 2012. She provided the voice of Sola in the science fiction film
John Carter, based on
A Princess of Mars, which received mixed reviews and flopped at the box office. She next played a chief of theory in the thriller
Cosmopolis, directed by
David Cronenberg. Her role, described as "misjudged" by
The Guardian, earned her a nomination as Best Actress in a Canadian Film Award at the Vancouver Film Critics Circle. She also served as a jury member at the
69th Venice International Film Festival in 2012. Morton was the original voice of the artificially intelligent operating system in the 2013 romantic science fiction drama
Her directed by
Spike Jonze, but in post-production, she was replaced by
Scarlett Johansson. She is, however, credited as an associate producer. Morton starred in the independent drama
Decoding Annie Parker (2013) opposite
Helen Hunt, playing a woman with breast cancer. The film was released in limited theaters, to mixed reviews from critics. Nevertheless, Betsey Sharkey of
Los Angeles Times observed that the actress "gives Parker such a humility within a warm humanity that you feel an obligation to stick with her through the mounting horrors". She was awarded the Best Actress Golden Space Needle Award at the 2013
Seattle International Film Festival. Morton starred opposite
Michael Shannon in the independent thriller
The Harvest (also 2013), as a controlling mother keeping her sick son in a secluded environment. Several critics such as Peter Debruge (
Variety) and Nikola Grozdanovic (
Indiewire) compared her role of Katherine to
Kathy Bates'
Annie Wilkes in
Misery (1990). Her performance earned her a Best Actress Award nomination at the 2014 BloodGuts UK Horror Awards. In
Liv Ullmann's film adaptation
Miss Julie (2014), alongside
Colin Farrell and
Jessica Chastain, Morton portrayed Kathleen, the fiancée of a valet (Farrell) who finds himself seduced by the daughter of an Anglo-Irish aristocracy (Chastain). The film screened at the
Toronto International Film Festival and had a limited release in the UK, France and Spain.
Miss Julie rated average with reviewers, but the cast received acclaim. Writing for
The Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney thought Morton's Kathleen was "the most satisfyingly drawn character" of the film, which he considered a "ponderous, stately affair".
Roles in television (since 2015) In 2015, Morton starred as a mother in the
First World War context in
Cider with Rosie, a
made-for-television adaptation of the
book of the same name by
Laurie Lee, and took on the role of an insurance investigator charged with recovering stolen diamonds in the European limited television series
The Last Panthers, inspired by the notorious Balkan jewel thieves the
Pink Panthers. Morton found her character to be a "very truthful, [...] strong woman" and described her as a "female
Bond". Genevieve Valentine, for
The AV Club, wrote: "Morton might at first seem a tough sell as someone so hard-boiled, but the taciturn, untouchable edifice she presents is leaking just enough poison at the edges that we look forward to watching her strike—the sort of character a six-hour miniseries was made for". Morton appeared in
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), a
spin-off from the
Harry Potter film series, with a screenplay by
J. K. Rowling. In the film, she portrayed Mary Lou Barebone, the leader of an extremist group whose goals include exposing and killing wizards and witches.
Fantastic Beasts grossed US$814 million at the international box office, becoming Morton's most successful and widely seen film. She filmed the three-part television crime drama
Rillington Place (also 2016), based on the case of serial killer
John Christie, who murdered several women in London during 1940s and early 1950s. Morton was cast opposite
Tim Roth as Christie's wife, Ethel. Intrigued by their relationship, Morton felt the depiction of the "psychological aspect of love" in the story "really developed [her] acting chops" but considered as a challenge "to play someone so submissive" as Ethel. The miniseries premiered in BBC One and was favourably received by critics.
The Guardian found Morton to be "strong" in her "difficult role", and
The Independent remarked that she "gave a fine, nuanced performance" as "a woman trapped under her husband's spell". Beginning in 2017, Morton has starred in the
Hulu period drama series
Harlots. She portrays Margaret Wells, the
madam of a low-class
brothel who seeks to improve her fortunes. The response from critics and audiences has been highly positive.
The Telegraph found her to be the "standout performer", and
The Atlantic noted: "While the role doesn't give Morton the same room to flex her acting muscles as, say, Woody Allen's
Sweet and Lowdown, she gives depth and moral conflict to a character who could easily be a pantomime dame in the wrong hands". In July 2018, it was announced that Morton had been cast in the role of
Alpha in
The Walking Dead, making her first appearance in February 2019. Alpha is the villainous leader of the Whisperers, a mysterious group of survivors of a zombie apocalypse who—as a method of self-concealment—wear skins taken from the undead. Since 11 September 2022, Morton stars as
Catherine de' Medici in the
Starz television series
The Serpent Queen. Also in 2022, Morton returned to the big screen in three different roles: in
The Whale she played the ex-wife of
Brendan Fraser's reclusive and
morbidly obese professor; in
Save the Cinema she starred as a hairdresser campaigning to save a local theater from closing; and in
She Said, Morton played
Zelda Perkins, who revealed to
New York Times reporter
Jodi Kantor the details of
non-disclosure agreements by which
sexual assault victims of
Harvey Weinstein, co-founder and at that time co-chairman of
Miramax Films, her former employer, were bound. As a musician Morton is a member of the duo Sam Morton, along with
Richard Russell. The duo's debut studio album,
Daffodils & Dirt, was released in 2024. ==Personal life==