Show n o n ( 6 Violets Are Blue' opens next Friday with Sissy in her sexiest role while down on the farm with husband Jack Fisk and daughter Schuyler everything's coming up roses i B? Dan Yaidr Like a chameleon she changes appearances and emotions The real Sissy Spacek is as tough to pinpoint as the color of her translucent eyes somewhere between blue and has played country girls struggling mothers and eerie otherworldly innocents And this year Spacek adds new feces to her repertoire In Violets Are Blue opening next Friday she's found her sexiest role yet as the "other woman" Kevin Kline can't resist In 'night Marker slated for fail release Spacek plays her most tragic part to date as the suicidal daughter of Anne Bancroft Down the road fans will see her as a Mississippi belle who murders her husband in the Crimes Tm of the Heart black comedy excited about these pictures being so different from each other" says Spacek peering out of her Los Angeles hotel dining room at the foggy day It's a Saturday and Spacek is on a break from 'night Mother Shes been working all week on a window less set emoting intensely as a tormented heroine Her husband and 3' daughter Schuyler are more than 2000 miles away at home on their Virginia farm But Spacek takes it all in stride Behind facade is a womthe elfin an who at 36 has finally figured out who she is Thanks to a stable home life and her growing stature as one of the USA's finest actresses Spacek now has a strong this new sense of self And paradoxically maturity has given her the courage to be more versatile than ev er on screen "Sissy is an actress who has armed at the absolute pinnacle of her skills and maturity" says Mark RdelL who directed her in last year's The River "She enjoys a healthy mamage and motherhood that created a kind of peace in her life w hich along with her immense talent and luminosity makes her incomparable" In I ioers Are Blue for instance directed by her husband Jack Fisk Spacek plays her first really romantic role She's Gussie a d photographer whose brief visit to her Man land hometown rekindles her old romance with a journalist (Kline) who's happily married Tiome movies make a grand statement Coter aod 4 LSA inside fbcin bj Weekend 'April Soil Brora 1986 about the world and society and Tve done those (The River Marie Missing) I wanted to be in a reaL honest contemporary relationship picture" says Spacek "I haven't made a love story like that before It's about people who love each other so much that they're able to make the right decision — stay apart "I play a career woman who questions the choice she's made Since fve solved the familycareer dilemma that she's facing I wanted to tell her "You can have I was inboth" but she didn't listen estrigued by playing the 'other woman pecially because contrary to stereotypes this one isn't bad f "tolets I liked in "And looking good because so often I've played the ugly In 'night Mother my look is duckling very severe — my hair is dark brown and is pulled back and I wear gray dumpy clothes WTien I come back to the hotel at night I want to say to every bodvTm not " really like thisT In keeping with her versatile acting style Spacek has sported a number of looks during her career "I was real glamorous in Heart Beat and in Mane I was in little suits and high heels and nails My husband didn't recognize me because I'm always in real baggy clothes and a You see on the personal level I know she laughs who I am I yam what I am "I've found myself and I know what's the most comfortable thing for me to probasic is me a real The ject But on person without makeup screen I just try to look like who the character is WTien you feel different you look different And I enjoy playing with that Td love to play a fern me fa tale or a cheap with smudged lipstick It prostitute would be shocking wouldn't itT Quite a change from a few years ago when Spacek amrmed that she intended to play only "positive" roles that contributed to her as a person "I've always been attracted to playing strong women" she explains "Not anymore Now I look for vulnerability weakness You see I now feel so steady and rooted that never worry about getting knocked otf kilter after Tm filming On 'night Mother it was like opening a Pandora's box like knocking on the door and inviting all those demons in But I fed I can really rock out I have no fear as to how tar I could go I wasn't so sure of wMA IP mmI v I hi V m Him h A M 1 IUTUML Sjssi lias tees stagestroc since sii was 3 jean old vtiea "an unci taagfrt is the louse Cluo song part as Donald Buck I was reaflj into it and was gettiag a little aa le kad to towns ne over tiie lead and tell ne sat to get so exerted" Jlicfcej earned myself before especially because I tend to get very much into the character and live out her emotions after hours" Now she says she's ready to leave behind familiar roles: the ghostly waifs that she played in her early career (Badlands Came): the country and Southern women she perfected in The River Raggedv Man and Coal Miner 's Daughter m which her portrayal of Loretta Lynn won an Oscar This new confidence stems largelv from her mamage to Fisk and the pleasure of their professional collaboration Violets Are Blue is their second joint effort as actress and director and sixth joint film in alL They met in 1972 on the set of Badlands in which Spacek starred and Fisk served as an director "He was doing all the work" Spacek recalls "I thought "Who's the guy carrving all the lumber and painting all the sets? You could tell he was truly enjoying it And he would work all night if necessary Tm like that too We're both workers And probably our attraction to each other had to do with our commitment to our work" They |