And what is your latest film project?

The latest film I have coming out is Synecdoche, which premiered at Cannes, and it's Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut, he is a writer he wrote Adaptation and being John Malkovich, and it's with Phillip Seymour Hoffman. So that is the film that I have coming out and I just finished a project last week called The Messenger, with Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster, I play an Iraqi war widow, my husband goes out to fight in Iraq and doesn't come back, so that quite topical and I'm about to start directing my own stuff.

I was just about to ask you about that you are about to make your directorial debut on The Unloved what was the attraction of moving behind the camera?

I tried to get other people to direct it first and they all said no you do it and I thought 'no' and then the years went by and I couldn't stop thinking about it, I used to lie in bed at night and see the shots in my head. I have an incredible producer on board Kate Osbourne and Revolution Films are doing it for me, Michael Winterbottom and Andrew Eaton's Company, so I'm with really great company.

You are a mother of two how hard is it to juggle you career and your parenting commitments?

Really hard and it changes all the time what they need changes and what I need changes so you have to be adaptable and if you remember to put your children first and make sure that the choices that you make are the right choices for the family I think you can sleep at night.

It isn't easy at all, I have an eight year old and a six month old, and the government didn't make it easy for me a long time ago because I needed a have a nanny, because I was a single mum in order to work, and there is no way you could claim but I think now you can so it's been made a little but easier now.

Away from the camera Samantha supports a string of charites but is currently backing the Vodafone Group Foundation's World of Difference Campaign that is searching for four people to put their jobs on hold for a year and take their skills and passion to work for their favourite charities.

You are currently backing the Vodafone Group Foundation’s World of Difference Campaign what is it all about and how did you get involved?

Basically it’s a competition where we pick four winners who would like to take a year out of their live to go and work for a charity, they could do anything they could be in IT, media, fashion no matter how bizarre, as long as they are passionate about a charity, a UK registered charity.

Those selected will get their wages paid, up to £25,000 a year, and up to £20,000 expenses for that year. But it very important that people know that they have to get the support of that charity first, so you can’t just go oh I’m going to get in touch with the Vodafone Foundation because I want to go and work for a charity, people need to find something that they are passionate about, get in touch with the charity and say ‘Can you use my skills? and ‘can I help you in any way?’ and more often than not they are going to say yes.

The reason why I got involved was because it touched a personal note for me because a while ago I was reading the newspaper and I read about a woman who was a driving instructor and she decided, she had been in care herself, and she was looking for a charity for children in care and found that there wasn’t so set one up her own flat, literally in her bedroom.

So she set this charity up an she has now been awarded an OBE, she has offices in Manchester and London and she is someone who has made a world of difference to people’s lives and it’s courage like that I just found incredibly enlightening and exciting.

I phoned the charity up and said ‘can I help and be part of it?’ she was like ‘absolutely’ because it was something that was close to my heart so when I heard about this I was really excited that there was a foundation such as this giving this kind of money away and opportunities. And obviously the charities will gain a lot from this but the individuals themselves it’s a life changing opportunity.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw

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