Samantha Morton: Cruise and Spielberg were nice, but here's what she's really excited about

When we caught up with Samantha Morton, she was resting in Italy--no doubt preparing for the onslaught of attention that will focus on her after the opening of Minority Report, with its unsettling futuristic story and formidable collaborators. Celebrated for searing, risky performances in contemporary independent classics like Under the Skin [1997] and Jesus' Son [1999], as well as for her Oscar-nominated role in Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown [1999], Morton's own future takes a surprising turn with Minority Report--that's her, acting in Steven Spielberg's latest blockbuster and co-starring with Tom Cruise and Colin Farrell.

SAMANTHA MORTON: Hil I'm in Tuscany. I've never been here before, and it's unbelievably beautiful. But I'm a little bit apprehensive about this interview, because I haven't seen the film yet.

PATRICK GILES: Well, that makes two of us. Have you at least seen the trailers?

SM: Yes. And I've seen bits of the film, due to post-synching, and what I have seen looks amazing.

PG: Can you tell us about your part in Minority Report?

SM: I play Agatha, who is one of the three PreCogs [short for "Precognition"]. Agatha is owned by the government, because she can predict the future, identifying people who will commit crimes and murders. This is how, in the future, the police department works: They stop people before they commit the crime.

PG: You're a digital age Sybill, in other words.

SM: [laughs] Yeah, in a way. I kind of understand why Mr. Spielberg approached me, because a lot of the roles I've played before this one have been quite raw and explosive. You have to be pretty strong within yourself to give that kind of performance, because it can bring up a lot of stuff. Do you hear my daughter, Esme? She's screaming! Sorry if it's hard to hear me.

PG: My sister and my agent's wife both gave birth recently. Everywhere I turn there are screaming babies.

SM: [laughs] Agatha was the most traumatic role I've ever attempted to play. This girl not only predicts the future and all the awful things that happen in society, but she feels everything physically, as well. She's like an emotional antenna. She can tell someone if they're going to die, if they're going to get married, or what. Playing her was also challenging because you don't know if you're doing too much. If someone can feel another person getting murdered, it's emotionally . . . [pauses] Agatha's so pure. She's like a petal. But if you push a petal just slightly, you can bruise it.

PG: Her psychic intelligence gives her almost a God's-eye view of life.

SM: Completely. You know in the trailer where Steven shows her eye? That's, I think, half of what all that's about.

PG: The risks you take are remarkable. Where does this courage come from?

SM: I think it's about telling the truth. I don't know, maybe I'm silly to give a lot of myself away in an interview, but my mentality is, if you're going to do something, do it completely. If I'm going to give an interview, I will talk honestly and openly. If I'm going to do a film, I will do the film to the best of my emotional ability, while making sure that I can come back alive [from acting] mentally, without being damaged--I think a lot of actors play these challenging roles, but they don't look after whoever they are. It's also about being true to the art of it. A lot of people nowadays call themselves "actors" and that makes me laugh because they want to be stars! They want to be glamorous and have lots of money and have a big house. And at the end of the day, they've learned their lines, they might shed a tear or two in character, but they don't know that character inside out. They don't do the work.

PG: Some actors do learn to "do the work," and maneuver around the pressures. Billy Crudup, with whom you've acted, was once called "the new Tom Cruise." But he's been able to control his career path and shed that label.

SM: Oh, he's got everything. He turns down the most astonishing roles. Because the work matters more to him: If he doesn't believe in it or doesn't feel that he can play it, he won't.

PG: There's almost never been so honest a depiction of people on drugs than in Jesus Son, particularly the scene in which Crudup's character overdoses and you save his life.

SM: If you're a clever person and you're choosing to take heroin to the levels that [Michelle, Morton's character] was taking it, you do think, I could die any minute, before you put that needle in your vein. You don't just think about the high.

PG: You're about to be seen in your first blockbuster, and the first film Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg have done together. What do you think awaits you?

SM: When the film comes out, maybe I'll know. [laughs] I never get recognized in the street, which is lovely. I don't think I will after the movie comes out, either, because I'm bald in it, and I have no eyebrows and wear this weird kind of bodysuit. But when I'm 80, I'll sit with my grandkids and say I've worked with Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg. I admire both of them as much as I admire any indie director or actor.