Epic in More Ways than One

NZ director Vincent Ward relates the harrowing experience of filming River Queen in a candid interview with the Sydney Morning Herald. Weather, illness and car crashes aside, it was lead actress Samantha Morton who provided most of the drama on set. “Samantha is one of the most talented actresses I have ever worked with, but the reality is she’s lived a tough life … I saw grown men cry [on set]. She made them cry,” he says. “[But] I’m a director, so I defend my actors. I defend talent and she’s fantastic, so I forgive talent anything.” River Queen is the epic story of a woman caught on both sides of a brutal war between English colonialists and a Maori tribe in 1860s NZ.