The tall and handsome Morse, whose white hair is speckled with gray, was in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia to discuss his latest film Down In The Valley, an interesting take on westerns. Edward Norton, who co-produced, stars as Harlan, a modern-day cowboy who moseys into Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley to woo teenager Tobe (Evan Rachel Wood) while befriending her little brother Lonnie (Rory Culkin) by showing him how to shoot his gun. As Harlan--who has a shadowy past and all the affectations of a 19th century cowpoke--insinuates himself into Tobe’s life, her often-absent, short-fused law officer father Wade (played by Morse) tries to forbid his daughter from continuing the relationship.

After a while on the shelf, Down In The Valley has been picked up for theatrical distribution. A sizable chunk has been trimmed, including a subplot in which Ellen Burstyn played the owner of an orphanage. Still, Morse thinks the film has enough merit to interest filmgoers, and he’s right. The well-shot effort from writer-director David Jacobson (Dahmer) presents an intriguing modern-day western, while pondering questions of family, identity, responsibility, and coming of age.

“It’s taking those things and kind of using those images and turning them on their head,” says Morse, 52, when asked about comparing Down In The Valley to classic westerns like The Searchers. “It may not be so far out of the spirit of the John Ford westerns that are a little more complicated and darker. Like those, it’s not necessarily all the hero and good guy-bad guy stuff. That’s what I love about it. You think you have one movie and the characters are one way and it’s all together different at the end of it.”

Morse, who also co-starred in the Bruce Willis actioner 16 Blocks earlier this year and has a serial killer thriller called Disturbia already slated for release next summer, says he was initially attracted to the script because of Norton’s involvement.

“I heard Edward was a part of it and you have to pay attention to anything he’s involved with,” Morse explains. “I remember reading (the script) and I thought it was so smart, just showing that world in Los Angeles. I lived in the San Fernando Valley, so I knew one version of it. But to see David’s vision of it, having grown up there…One of the things that attracts me to directors is when they really have a vision, and this clearly is a vision.”

But director Jacobson’s vision was not always shared by co-producer Norton, known for a hands-on approach in the making of the movies in which he’s appearing.

Except for the stuff on the cutting room floor, “[t]his was pretty much the script,” Morse says of Down In The Valley in its finished form. “Edward, because he was so involved, has this reputation anyway. He’s a very smart person and he has very strong feelings about the way things are done. That’s the way it is—Russell Crowe is another one--and having to be the producer and develop the script can sometimes be an uncomfortable set to be on, Russell is the same way. (Morse performed with Crowe in Proof Of Life.)

“When you have the director supposedly in charge of the show questioned by his lead actor, and they have to have conferences about scenes you are involved with, that can be awkward. Hugh Grant—It was the same thing when he was the producer of a film I worked on along with Elizabeth Hurley (Extreme Measures). It can be awkward for the director to be challenged by the crew and cast, but everybody is there to make the best film they can.”

The actor himself lived “Down In The Valley” before a 1994 earthquake destroyed his house, prompting his family of five to move to Philadelphia, his wife’s hometown. The actor, who was born in Hamilton, Massachusetts, has now comfortably relocated to the City of Brotherly Love, and even starred in the 2002-2004 CBS TV series Hack, which was filmed in Philly. In the show, Morse played Mike Olshansky, a former Philly cop who becomes a cab driver after he’s dismissed from the force for taking money from a crime scene.

Comparing his Hack character to the role of the ill-tempered father he plays in Down In The Valley, Morse says, “Hack was searching for redemption and is in the process of redemption. This is a guy who hasn’t gotten there yet. He’s kind of out of control of his behavior, and that’s part of why the kids have such a hard time with him. Here’s a guy who probably wasn’t meant to be a father and relates to the world in the way he knows it.”

Morse doesn't hide his disappointment about the demise of Hack, which was well reviewed during its brief run, but is happy to get a chance to work on many other projects rather than be tied down to a TV series. He claims there was an offer from CBS to continue production of the show—if the production location was moved.

“I was actually told that if I took it to Toronto, we would keep shooting,” relates Morse. “I didn’t want that. I felt it was a Philadelphia show. A lot of the crew and my character are from Philadelphia, plus my family’s here. It didn’t make sense.”

At the same time Hack was offered to Morse, he got solicited to star in Without A Trace. Despite good vibes about that show's potential success, he went with Hack since it brought him close to home. Since Hack ended its run, Morse was presented with the lead in Friday Night Lights, NBC’s upcoming series based on the 2004 hit movie about high school football in Texas. Morse regrettably declined the opportunity to work with producer Peter Berg, who directed the movie version of Friday Night Lights, so he can focus on other projects and not commit to another series that would take him away from Philly.

“You say, ‘This going to be a hit, it’s going to be on a long time, you’ve got to commit to seven years. I don’t know if I can do seven years, I don’t think I’d be happy.”

Of course, mixing work in different mediums is nothing new to the increasingly busy actor, who skipped his high school graduation to join an acting repertory company in Boston. After a year honing his craft in theater in New England, Morse was cast as an injured basketball player in Inside Moves, Richard Donner’s 1980 acclaimed but little seen drama, which also starred John Savage and Diana Scarwid and focused on the troubled denizens of a neighborhood bar.

“Inside Moves felt like a big breakthrough,” recalls Morse of the Oscar-nominated film. “People were saying I was going to win the Academy Award, and ‘you’re going to get three-picture deals and your life is going to be so different.’ And then after Inside Moves, I couldn’t get a break. I couldn’t get a job. The distribution company (American Film Distribution) went bankrupt when it came out at Christmas. Universal (its co-distributor) just yanked it out of theaters and put their own films there. And I had gone from never having done a film in my life to competing with John Travolta and Treat Williams who was a big star. I couldn’t get a break. I swore I’d never do television.

"I didn’t even own a TV.”

But after not working for a long time, Morse had no other choice than to take a role in TV, playing Dr. Jack “Boomer” Morrison in St. Elsewhere. The actor figured he’d do 18 episodes and that would be it, but boy, was he wrong.

St. Elsewhere, which chronicled the lives of doctors and patients at Boston’s St. Eligius Hospital, became a critically acclaimed hit, and is considered one of the best TV shows of the 1980s. Morse played his character for the series’ run from 1982 through 1988.

Parts in TV movies during and after St. Elsewhere’s run kept Morse busy, and in the years since, strong supporting work in such films as Sean Penn’s The Indian Runner and The Crossing Guard, the Stephen King adaptations The Green Mile, Hearts Of Atlantis, and (TV’s) The Langoliers, Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys, and high profile efforts The Rock, The Long Kiss Goodnight and Proof Of Life have made Morse one of the most in-demand actors currently working.

He’s also not afraid to stretch his acting muscles by taking starring roles in such independent films as The Slaughter Rule and The Diary Of A City Priest, tackling theater again (in a 1995 version of On The Waterfront and playing a pedophile in How I Learned To Drive), or going overseas to make challenging films like Lars von Trier’s Dancer In The Dark, in which he played the unscrupulous landlord of singer wannabe Bjork.

Of the latter, Morse fondly recalls working with the controversial Danish director, who subscribes the improvisational-friendly, no-frills approach to filmmaking called Dogma.

“He’s so clever and he has such a reputation, but he does not live up to it in any way,” says Morse of the director. “His communication is with humor and with his actors. He loves to tell stories and he gives you direction through telling jokes and stories.

“He’s very hard on himself and he’ll tell stories about himself, which I appreciate. Then we started shooting and there was a scene with Bjork where I tell her about money and we both confess something and I break down to her and we talk about dancing...musicals...and how much we love them. It was very difficult material to do.

"He just cleared everybody else—it was just him and his camera and the two of us—and for 2 ½ hours we just improvised that whole scene. He was never attached to his own stuff. He was just improvising with us. I had not had an experience like that. Anything that I had in my head about moviemaking you just let go and just have the experience.”

In fact, von Trier was so impressed with Morse that he offered the actor roles in Dogville and its sequel Manderlay, but he decided to decline the offer.

“It was right after 9/11 and too soon after Dancer In The Dark,” relates Morse. “It was the character that rapes (Nicole Kidman’s character) the first time. I felt it was so hard to do Dancer In The Dark and the stuff with Bjork. I loved working with him (von Trier), but to go through that again, I just couldn’t. It was too soon.”

Not too soon, says the actor, is the notion of Morse stepping behind the camera and directing. He was supposed to make his filmmaking debut in 2005, but not everything went out as planned.

“It was supposed to happen a year ago and we were all set to go, but somebody fell out and they were attracting the money,” says Morse. “So, we had to put it off and find new money, but I’m looking forward to it.”

Of the project, Morse claims, “It’s not what people expect from me.

“I’ve been associated with intense work, whatever it is…emotionally, action…Whatever it is, it’s intense. I’ve been offered a few comedies, which pleases me and I’m happy people don’t just think of me that way. But I don’t want that first movie I direct to be intense. I want to step out of it.”

Is he looking forward to moving behind the camera?

“I can’t wait!” enthuses Morse, the actor noted for his expressiveness onscreen, in a rare display of emotion off-screen.

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