‘Groundhog Day’ actress MacDowell steps from the shadows By Frank Lovece AA brunet Botticelli, actress Andie MacDowell sits in a plush suite over- looking New York City's Central Park, pondering how she got to be here — not in the hotel suite per se, but at a career crossroads, After star: ring in several well-received films, MacDowell is now the romantic lead ina major studio release — “Ground. hog Day,” a wonderful comic-fantasy starving Bill Murray. Everything in her briet, strong eareer has led up to this, and been bolstered by a quietly efficient round of magazine covers ‘and interviews. I's her springboard. Ws her moment. ‘And on the whole, she'd rather be in Montana “If T went on and my career just continued at the pace it's gone, T would be happy,” MacDowell says, quite believably, This is a woman who, after all, lives in the college hhamlet of Missoula, as far from film: industry mecca Los Angeles as one can get without crossing into Canada. “I don't want my career to be the focus of my life,” she says, with the barest trace of a feisty Southern ‘accent, “Every time I go to Los Ange les, I get extremely nervous, because I used to have a really hard time just meeting people. I always assumed my ‘work would speak fr itself, “L used to get really irritated,” MacDowell remembers, "because certain people would ask you to dinner, and I felt like they had dif ferent expectations of me than if T ‘were a man, Coming from my back- ‘ground — a highly successful model turned-actress — “I thought they were trying to take advantage of me.” ‘That probably doesn't happen much anymore, MacDowell, at 34, is 4 tall, solid-looking yet ethereal beauty with mounds of swirling dark hair, who takes command of a room simply by walking in. Anyone ex- pecting a mannequin actress- ‘wannabe need only check out her film ‘work to be set straight — she won praise for her strong, quirky yet nat lralistie turn as a frigid yuppie wife in “sex, ies, and videotape” (1989), then turned and did a completely di ferent role as an outwardly tough ro- mantic in the Manhattan comedy “Green Card” (1990) Tn “Groundhog Day,” she plays Rita, ‘a one-of the-guys producer for a Pitts burgh TV station, accompanying weath: erman Phil (Murray) to the annual ‘If my career just continued at the pace it’s gone, | would be happy. I don’t want my career to be the focus of my life. Groundhog Day festivities in Punx sulavmey, Pa Ina Twilight Zoneish turn, Phil keeps awakening to the same day, ‘ver and over again, the only person in the snowbound town with any memory ‘or knowledge of what's happening, After ‘going through a remarkable succession ‘of shock, horror, lbidinousness, despair ‘and finally aeceptance, he finds himself in love with Rita — with only a single recurring day in which he might make it mutual. ‘To prepare for her part, MacDow. ll, who handles her subtly shifting role with fluid grace, met with a real life producer from Chicago, near ‘where the movie was filmed. “She told me more or less what she did and how most of the time you just sort of stand back and watch, just waiting o get the goods,” MacDowell says. *That was basically my homework.” ‘That seeming casualness is some- thing new. “The greatest acting lesson Lever had,” she says, “was watching ferard Depardieu (her co-star in ‘Green Card’). I was used to working with people who were quite more in: tense, and I had been more intense myself — like with ‘sex, lies, and videotape,’ I was always on the set, pondering, thinking about what T was gonna do. And I thought that was the best way to go about it — until T worked with Gerard, who just sorta throws everthingavay andjust kinda joes it” ‘Andie MacDowell If that relaxed approach was a long time coming, it’s not surprising, con: sidering her tough, responsibility: laden early life. MacDowell describes adirt-poor childhood, the youngest of four daughters of a divorced, loving yet alcoholic mom. Taking advantage ‘of her natural beauty, MacDowell, a parttime model in her native South Carolina, dropped out of college after two years to try her luck in New York. Heer luck was good, She signed with the big modeling ageney Elite, which sent her to Paris. There she became ‘ hit, and spent a year dating cham- pagne heir Olivier Chandon. Return- ing to the United States, she met future husband Paul Qualley, then a ‘model, at a photo shoot, and married him three months later. Today they have a 6-year-old son, Justin, and a Sryear-old daughter, Rainey. ‘There have been career bumps, of course, Her voice was redubbed by Glenn Close in “Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes” (1984), and she appeared in the mis. begotten adventure “Hudson Hawk” (1991) and the sodden “The Object of Beauty" (1991). Yet even in these films, critics often singled her out as a natural “Considering what I came from,” ‘MacDowell muses, gratefully, “I think Ive done ineredibly well. I think somehow when hard things happen to you in life, you learn to be happy about smalier joys. Maybe some people who've had great opportuni- ties all their lives feel they need to achieve something grander than grand in order to feel like they've done something. But I already feel like I've achieved a lot.” ‘Sig NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN. 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