Among the movies nominated for Golden Globe Awards to be handed out tonight, In The Bedroom is the Cinderella contender.

        An emotionally intense, low-budget independent film made by a first-time director, it beat long odds to become a favorite with critics on the strength of the performances by its small cast, led by Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson.

ON THE AIR

What: Golden Globe Awards     When: 8 p.m. today     Where: Channels 5, 22

        Louisville native William Mapother, who plays a small but critical role in the film, will be cheering for his nominated colleagues with special fervor. After a dozen years in the movie business, he is thrilled to have notched his first substantial role in a movie like In The Bedroom.

        In person, he is gracious and outgoing and easily lapses into mischievous laughter — entirely unlike the dangerous character he plays in the movie. He said he enjoyed playing the bad guy.

        “This is my first real role, my first complex role,” he said. “It's a struggle to make the audience care about someone who at first glance they might not like, to humanize someone who might not be easily humanized."

        Mr. Mapother also is grateful to be be playing an important role in a movie without the famous relative who paved his way into the movie business, his first cousin, Tom Cruise.

        Of the dozen movies in which Mr. Mapother has appeared — usually in minor and non-speaking roles — five have been with Mr. Cruise: Born on the Forth of July, Magnolia, Mission Impossible 2, Vanilla Sky and Minority Report. He also had a role in Without Limits, which Mr. Cruise produced.

        The relationship “has been nothing but a help,” he said of Mr. Cruise. “He has been as generous and supportive and kind as you've read. He's a great guy and we're very good friends. I've turned to him sometimes for advice or watching how he's run his life.”

        The problem of not being taken seriously because of his family connection “is happening less as I get older,” said Mr. Mapother, 35. “People now will say, "Oh I worked with William before, and he's a nice guy, a hard worker. ...

        “But early on, sure, they'd probably keep an extra eye out for me, just wondering, "Is this guy serious? Is he just going to try to ride on Tom's coattails?' So I think I'm on probation maybe longer than the average person.”

        “Partly because of Tom and partly because of the way I am, I still feel the need to justify my being where I am. I'm very, very fortunate,” he said. He was particularly aware of his good fortune in working with Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson and Marisa Tomei, he said.

        “It's a bit daunting, as you can imagine, especially for someone who's a newcomer like myself. But everyone was very professional, very friendly, so down to earth that it made it much easier than it might have been.”

        He rates his director Todd Field highly. “Terrific, terrific, both in terms of dealing with actors, because he is an actor himself, also as a director behind the camera, he was very prepared and unruffled.”

        After growing up in Louisville, Mr. Mapother attended Notre Dame and worked in New York before relocating to Los Angeles to concentrate on film, both acting and writing. Eventually, he hopes to write and direct his own film.

        In the meantime, he is happy to wave the flag for In The Bedroom.

        “I think it honors the audience,” he said, “by presuming that they have intelligence and the ability to react to events on the screen without being manipulated, and I find that amazing.”
       

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