Grieving actor connects with ‘In America’ role

In such underseen films as “A Room for Romeo Brass,” “Last Resort” and “24 Hour Party People,” Paddy Considine has proven himself among the most exciting actors in England today, bringing a wounded grace and alert intelligence to his roles while also projecting an explosive, barely contained well of raging emotions just below the surface.

His skillful, nuanced performances are all the more impressive because Considine, 30, had been pursuing a career in photography before longtime friend director Shane Meadows cast the then-25-year-old as the lead in “Romeo Brass.”

Now, Jim Sheridan’s “In America” pairs Considine with Samantha Morton as his wife, and the two are perfectly matched, both bringing a live-wire intensity to their parts, surprising, inventive and unpredictable.

For Considine, the part would put his instinctive style of acting to the test, as the raw emotions of a father attempting to hold his family together amid their collective grief at the loss of a young son became especially personal.

“My father died from cancer about two weeks before we started shooting,” he says. “It was his funeral the week before. But I had to go to work. Making a film was the greatest thing I could have done right then, but it was also the most difficult. I was having a bad time, grieving. My work was my refuge. But I was able to use all that, it fueled my performance. And that’s how I work. Whatever’s going on in my life, if you give me the license to do it, I’ll bring it into the film somehow. It’s a gut thing with me, every time.”

Rather than appear in films he doesn’t fully believe in and support, in the time since shooting “In America” Considine -- who still lives in his native Burton-on-Trent in the English Midlands -- briefly went to work with his brother as a roofer. He has since shot another film with Pawel Pawlikowski, director of “Last Resort,” and co-wrote and starred in a film being edited by Meadows. As well, he and his wife recently had their first child.

“I’ve only been acting a few years, five years,” Considine says, “and it’s been a nice, steady rise. One thing has led to another. Being in Burton has been a benefit in that I’m not available for every meeting, and if I go to London it’s because I really want to. It’s a two-hour trip.”

-- Mark Olsen