Tuppence Middleton has revealed that her emetophobia — a crippling fear of vomiting — is a “huge part” of the obsessive-compulsive disorder she has lived with since childhood. The 39-year-old actor, known for roles in The Imitation Game, Sense8 and the forthcoming series of Slow Horses, described endless vomiting as her greatest fear, directly linking it to her OCD.
‘Scorpions’ in the mind: Middleton’s experience with OCD
Middleton first developed OCD at the age of 11 or 12. She has spoken openly about the condition on programmes including BBC Radio 4 and Fearne Cotton’s podcast Happy Place, explaining that it manifests in self-imposed routines that can make leaving the house difficult, obsessive mental counting and compulsive checking behaviours. She describes her mind as being full of “scorpions” — a metaphor that gives its name to her book, Scorpions, which was released in paperback on 21 May.
The actor says she has found comfort in learning that emetophobia is a common aspect of OCD for others. Her fear, she notes, is closely tied to a preoccupation with cleanliness and anxiety. Although the disorder can be disruptive, Middleton has stressed that she has learned to live alongside it and that it does not typically affect her work unless specific concerns arise.
Middleton believes OCD is frequently trivialised in popular culture and has made a point of speaking about her condition to reduce stigma. “I am a private person, but I want to talk about this to help others who might be struggling,” she has said.
From Bristol to the West End
Born in Bristol on 21 February 1987, Middleton was raised in Clevedon, Somerset. She attended Bristol Grammar School, where she took part in school plays, before training at the Arts Educational School in London, where she earned an honours degree in acting.
Her screen career began with a role in the 2008 television series Bones and early recognition came with the 2009 British horror-comedy Tormented. She was nominated for the London Evening Standard Film Awards for Most Promising Newcomer in 2010. Notable film credits include The Imitation Game (2014), Jupiter Ascending (2015), The Current War (2017), Downton Abbey (2019), Mank (2020) — in which she played Sara Mankiewicz — and Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022).
On television, she played Riley “Blue” Gunnarsdóttir in the Netflix sci-fi series Sense8 (2015–2018) and Russian princess Hélène Kuragina in the BBC’s adaptation of War & Peace (2016), a role that drew critical praise for its portrayal of a “devious femme fatale.” Her other TV work includes Friday Night Dinner (2011), a celebrated episode of Black Mirror (“White Bear,” 2013), Dickensian (2015–2016), and The Defeated (also known as Shadowplay, 2020). She is set to appear in the next series of Apple TV+’s Slow Horses. On stage, she performed in The Motive and the Cue at the National Theatre and in The One at the Soho Theatre in 2018.
Life at home and personal fears
Middleton lives with Swedish film director Måns Mårlind and their child. The couple met in 2019 on the set of The Defeated, where Mårlind was directing. Mårlind is best known for co-creating the Scandinavian crime drama The Bridge and directing Underworld: Awakening. Their daughter was born in August 2022. They divide their time between London and Stockholm.
Middleton is the daughter of Tina Sheppard and Nigel Middleton, has an older sister named Angel and a younger brother, Josh, who is a musician in the metal band Sylosis. Her first name, Tuppence, began as a childhood nickname given by her grandmother to her mother.
Beyond her emetophobia, Middleton’s other anxieties and dislikes include “witchy feet” — her least favourite aspect of her appearance — and a hotel room without a bath. She describes love as “a perfect cup of coffee – warm, bittersweet, anxiety-inducing and delicious.” Her guiltiest pleasure is watching Naked Attraction when her partner is out. Her celebrity crush is Reece Shearsmith.
She has a handful of vivid anecdotes. She once congratulated Dua Lipa on managing to release a single “in such a tough industry,” having mistaken the global pop star for a struggling indie artist; she Googled her the next day and discovered Lipa has 88 million followers. Another time she bought a house with someone and realised at the housewarming party “it was a mistake.” She considers her closest brush with death to be a compulsory standup routine in her first week of drama school. Her greatest achievement, she says, is getting to 39 without needing a filling in her teeth.
Middleton’s three words for herself are “tenacious, romantic, organised.” She would choose a superpower of encyclopedic recall for symptoms of major diseases. If she could bring something extinct back to life, it would be a Rowntree’s chocolate bar called Secret, which her grandmother used to sell in her post office. She describes her worst job as a Christmas elf at the Rainforest Cafe. Every pair of tights she has ever worn is a disappointment, she says, because she always gets holes. The most important lesson life has taught her: “Try not to take yourself too seriously.”
