Jonathan Storm: At 11, Montgomery County's Morgan Turner plays key role in 'Mildred Pierce'

The Mildred Pierce promotional clip is everywhere. A clownishly cosmeticized little girl with a big, red-bow barrette in her curly hair gives as good as she gets - whammo - as she slaps her mother across the face.

It's part of a polished performance in the HBO mini-series premiering Sunday at 9 p.m. The starting point came as a surprise.

"What? No way," Morgan Turner says she thought when she learned the identity of her audition partner. Turner plays the serially charming and horrid Veda Pierce as a girl. "Me and Kate Winslet in the same room? Not possible."

Ah, but the world of an 11-year-old, especially one as talented as Morgan, a Montgomery County sixth grader (her mother asked that specifics be limited), is filled with possibilities - even the prospect of fake-bashing a distinguished Oscar winner, or getting close to one of the world's throbbiest heartthrobs.

Mini-series director Todd Haynes said Winslet "was the only actress" he could see reprising the role of Mildred, first assayed in 1945 by Joan Crawford, who won an Academy Award for her efforts.

The search for someone to play her daughter Veda was not as clear-cut. True Blood's Evan Rachel Wood got the job of portraying Veda as young adult in the final two episodes. But who would get the child's role for the first three?

"My mom said, 'Hey, there's this audition for a mini-series called Mildred Pierce,' " Morgan recounts. She says she became even more interested when she heard that Elle Fanning, of the Fanning Family Child-Acting Factory, was also taking a shot.

Sorry, Elle. The competition came down to Morgan and Chloe Moretz, a seasoned veteran with two years on Morgan and about 50 more professional credits, including the role of Rachel in 500 Days of Summer.

"I got a callback," says Morgan. "I talked with the director, for, like, an hour." Then, another callback. "I auditioned in front of Kate Winslet. Her presence was awesome. There's no words for it."

A divorcée when such a thing was rare and condemned by society, Mildred makes her way in the 1930s, becoming a successful businesswoman but always clinging to her daughter, who grows into a terrible spoiled child.

"Evil," Morgan says with a mischievous smile. "I get what I want."

We learn the depth of her depravity in a pivotal scene where Mildred slaps her cigarette-smoking little demon for her cruel remarks to mommy, and Veda slaps right back. Perhaps figuring that if the actress could handle that, she could do all the rest, Haynes made it the audition a year ago.

Winslet understood how hard it was. "Afterward," says Morgan, who will turn 12 on April 29, "she just hugged me."

Morgan performs with the nuance of an adult, delightfully charming one minute, defiant the next, smoothly ingratiating the next.

"It's a very complex character," says executive producer Christine Vachon. "Morgan brought something to it that was complicated and interesting and really terrific, comparing with someone who has three times the experience and three times her age."

Edie Robb, who has repped a long lineup of Philadelphia kid actors, is Morgan's manager, and Morgan's mother, Sandra, works as an acting coach at Rodney Robb's Actors Center in Center City.

Aha, you think.

Wait a minute. Nobody's pushing anybody, both mother and daughter emphasize. "When I was about 5 1/2," Morgan says, "I realized acting was something that Mommy does. It's got to be cool. I loved my mother so much when I was 51/2. Bright colors and fashions. I could do that. I could wear that. I could be a part of that."

"If she wants to stop tomorrow, Edie will have a heart attack," says Sandra Turner, "but it's her choice."

"In the many years that I've been making movies," says Vachon, "I've encountered two types of child actors - ones whose parents are making them do it, and ones who want to do it. That's when you see a kid is really willing to do the work to get the performance where it needs to be. Acting's a real passion with Morgan."

Morgan hasn't got much of an idea of where she wants to be - maybe acting, maybe music, maybe something else. She's been in commercials. She played former Eagles coach Dick Vermeil's daughter in the 2006 Mark Wahlberg flick Invincible, and she has a handful of other small credits.

Recently, she was "Taunting Classmate" in Remember Me, which starred Robert Pattinson, best known as the soulful vampire in the insanely popular Moonlight movie series.

"It was crazy," says Morgan. "There were girls around the block. I was freaking out in my mind: 'Remember me. Taunting Classmate. . . .' "

"I really never intend to be famous, or any kind of thing like that."

Most of them don't. But after the world sees Mildred Pierce (and young Veda), there may be little choice.

Television

Mildred Pierce

9 p.m. Sunday on HBO