Morton's feature film debut in Carine Adler's UNDER THE SKIN received widespread critical attention, garnering Best Actress from The Boston Society of Film Critics, and a nomination for Best Actress at the British Independent Film Awards in 1998. Her additional credits include Julien Temple's PANDAEMONIUM; Amos Gitae's EDEN; THIS IS THE SEA, with Gabriel Byrne; DREAMING OF JOSEPH LEES, opposite Rupert Graves; and THE LAST YELLOW, directed by Julian Farino. She has been seen in the television films "Jane Eyre" (as Jane Eyre), "Tom Jones" (for BBC TV), and the mini-series "Emma," based on Jane Austen's novel.
From master storyteller Jim Sheridan ("My Left Foot," "In The Name of the Father") comes a deeply personal and emotionally raw tale of a family finding its soul IN AMERICA. Through the wide-open eyes of two young heroines, Sheridan transforms a devastating human tragedy into a riveting, humor-tinged story about memory, secrets, love, loss, coming together and starting over .
To begin all over again is a classic American dream. But it's remarkably hard to do, as Irish émigrés Johnny and Sarah (PADDY CONSIDINE and SAMANTHA MORTON) discover when they hit the streets of modern-day Manhattan, their two spunky young daughters in tow, and emerge into a realm as comical and adventure-filled as it is strange and terrifying. The family faces a dizzying new future -- but first they must face down a past that haunts every single one of them.
Morton had a visceral reaction to the script, finding it an engaging treatment of issues almost everyone faces in life. "I like that it's about themes like mortality, faith, survival and love, things we all experience at one time or another," she says. "But I like that it's light as well. It's a film that keeps you laughing as well as crying. And I really cared about every single character in the film. That's what made me want to be in it."
As a mother, Morton was able to closely identify with Sarah's struggles and also her over-riding sense of joy at watching her children discover America. "I was able to see Sarah as the one who has the job of keeping the family together no matter what and that she takes that very seriously," Morton says. "But I also saw that even though Sarah seems very together on the surface, underneath she also hasn't quite gotten over the loss of her son and is very much in the process of healing. She and Johnny are going to have to come to terms with it together."
Also important to Morton was the fact that Sheridan's script offers a portrait of a marriage in all its human complexity and frailty. "I like that this film portrays the relationship between man and wife, and parents and children, in a very realistic way," she says. "It's not a sort of cutesy treatment. You see that Sarah and Johnny are going through a lot as a couple. They have been in love, felt they had fallen out of love, and now they're realizing all the love that's left between them - and portraying that was very hard work for both me and Paddy."
