FOUR FILMS, 5 ROLES FILL HER YEAR

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 12, 1993                   TAG: 9302120406
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOHN HARTL KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
FOUR FILMS, 5 ROLES FILL HER YEAR
When it comes to winning awards, Miranda Richardson may end up canceling out her own chances this year. The British actress is competing with herself in four movies in which she gives wildly different, yet equally compelling, performances.
One of them, Neil Jordan's "The Crying Game," in which she plays a brutally committed IRA terrorist, was named 1992's best foreign film in December by the Los Angeles Film Critics' Association.
The LA group also named Richardson (no relation to Natasha and Joely Richardson) the runner-up for best supporting actress for her "body of work" in 1992 - citing not only "Crying Game," but Louis Malle's "Damage" and Mike Newell's "Enchanted April," which became the runaway art-house hit of last summer.
She plays Jeremy Irons' intuitive, embittered wife in "Damage" (opening today in Roanoke) and the dreamy British vacationer, Rose, in "Enchanted April." She also turned up in two roles - playing both Keith Carradine's suicidal sister and the widow he later courts - in "The Bachelor."
"I'm just not interested in doing the same kinds of roles," Richardson said by phone from LA. "I like variety, but it's just a happy coincidence that these pictures all seem to be coming out at the same time."
She pointed out that "The Bachelor" was completed three years ago, "April" and "Game" were shot in 1991. She has since completed another picture, "Century," a thriller in which she plays a turn-of-the-century worker at a subterranean research institute.
"It's a story about how all these people's lives mesh as they express their hopes and expectations for the century," she said. "There are certain similarities to our own situation at the end of the century."
Born in Lancashire in 1958, Richardson worked in professional theater for several years before making her film debut in the starring role in Mike Newell's 1984 drama, "Dance With a Stranger." It was the story of Ruth Ellis, an obsessive blonde who was executed for killing her abusive lover in 1955. There's a Marilyn Monroe-like quality to that performance, so it's not surprising to find that she was cast with that image in mind.
"The Crying Game" is a complicated, twisty romantic thriller that has been criticized as being both pro-IRA and anti-IRA.
"People who come with preconceptions may think otherwise, but I don't think it's about the IRA at all," said Richardson. "It's anti-war, it's about lack of love, and it's very colorful and exciting and surprising - and it takes something to surprise audiences these days. I really like Neil's work, his originality. Aside from the fact that I'm not Irish, I didn't have a problem with the role."
Although director Malle wanted her for "Damage," he wondered if she might be too young for the role of Irons' wife (the actor is 10 years her senior). But her performance has drawn the strongest comments from critics so far. Movieline's Stephen Farber, comparing her scenes to Beatrice Straight's Oscar-winning work in "Network" (as William Holden's wife), wrote that "rarely has a wronged wife's rage been so eloquently and powerfully expressed. . . . Richardson makes Straight seem like an amateur."
"Louis finally decided if the acting was good, there shouldn't be a problem about aging," she said. "Hopefully it works."
Richardson may come up empty when the Academy Award nominations are announced this month because she'll be competing with herself in the same category, best supporting actress. The Oscar rules decree that she can be nominated for only one film, and it may be impossible for the voters to agree on which of her performances is best.
"If there's one film they pick, I expect it will be `Enchanted April,' because it's a sustained performance," she said. "In `Crying Game' I'm in and out, and `Damage' is the same kind of thing. But being recognized for a body of work would be fine."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB