She’s an all-eras star, after all

Decades ago, people explained to Samantha Morton the hard realities of an acting career.
“I was told that I didn’t have a period face,” she told the Television Critics Association. “So I wasn’t a period actress.”
That was back in the ‘90s, when the British were making lots of historical dramas. And there she was , with a face stuck in the wrong period. BUT …
Turn on Starz at 8 p.m. Fridays (rerunning at 9:30) and you’ll see her starring in “The Serpent Queen.” She plays 14th-century leader Catherine De Medici. Look around for classics and you’ll see her in the title role of “Jane Eyre.” In the 27 years between those, she’s done lots of work in all periods and styles.
“Serpent Queen” was created by Justin Haythe, who was intrigued by a time when women couldn’t own property, but could rule empires. For this second season, he imagined a long visit from England’s Elizabeth I.
“They were the original PR people,” Haythe said. “One posed as a virgin, one posed as a witch.”
Minnie Driver said she jumped at the chance to play an Elizabeth who is “this witty, wily, slightly feral queen. I hadn’t seen that before.”
And Morton said she coveted this journey deeper into the past.
Even when she was a child star, she was rejected by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and others. “I’m very working class; the class system in England is quite tricky.”
She grew up in Nottingham – better-known for Robin Hood than for Shakespeare – and spent half her childhood in foster care, when neither parent was available.
But at 13, while in foster care, she joined the Central Junior Television Workshop. A few years later, she was playing a 15-year-old runaway and hooker on “Band of Gold,” a popular TV series. That show’s producer insisted that Morton, age 19, would be the next Jane Eyre.
“The networks were very nervous about that,” Morton said. “And she fought for me.”
She got the part, the praise and a long career. Now she has an empire to run.