Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 27, 1994 TAG: 9405270081
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BOB THOMAS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
Eric Stoltz plays a sensitive - and homosexual - Harvard graduate, and Randy Quaid is a blustery former bank robber, a straight man who contracted the disease from a blood transfusion.
The special note of compassion in the Monday night drama (at 9 on WSLS-Channel 10) is provided by Elizabeth Pea, who plays the social worker who arranges for the men to share a room in an apartment complex for AIDS patients.
Pea had a special interest in appearing in "Roommates."
"I, unfortunately, have lost over 38 friends to AIDS," she said, close to tears. "The first that passed away was in 1981. I do know a couple of friends right now who are HIV" positive.
"How do I deal with it? You have to be strong. You really can't do anything to change that. All you can do is be the best friend you can possibly be, and be there for them. I constantly try to keep myself very well-educated on the subject, so I can help out when the time comes."
The pairing of Quaid and Stoltz is fiery from the start, especially when Quaid rants that AIDS "is God's way of cleaning house."
With the social worker's help, the two men eventually find a way to share each other's views.
Pea, who is of Cuban descent, appears to be beginning to shed the Latin type-casting that has followed her since her days as a student at New York's High School of Performing Arts.
At one time, she was nixed for the role of Madge in the play "Picnic" because she didn't seem the small-town Midwest type.
And consider the names of her film characters: Rita (``They All Laughed''), Carmen (``Down and Out in Beverly Hills''), Marisa (``batteries not included''), Rosie Morales (``La Bamba''), Consuela (``Vibes''), and Tracy Perez (``Blue Steel''). Usually, she has been cast as a fiery Latin.
"Lisa in `Roommates' is the most `together' character I have ever played," she said. "She's pretty well-balanced, and I've never played anybody who was completely well-balanced. I found it much more difficult to play basically the straight man. Most of the time I have roles that are emotional or slightly off-center."
Her next role appears equally "together." She was leaving for the Puget Sound for her part as a whale doctor in "Free Willy 2." She and Jason James Richter will help rescue Willy from the effects of an oil spill.
Pea got her name from her birthplace, Elizabeth, N.J. - "I had very creative parents," she said wryly.
She lived in Cuba until her parents moved to New York when she was 8. She came by acting naturally. Her father, Mario, founded New York's Latin American Theater Ensemble in New York, and her mother, Margarita, served as its executive producer.
After high school, she performed in regional and off-Broadway theater. Her film debut came in 1979 with a low-budget Spanish-language film, "El Super." "Down and Out in Beverly Hills" provided her big break; she was the sexy maid hired by Bette Midler and Richard Dreyfuss.
Pea has appeared in three short-lived TV series: "Tough Cookies," as Robby Benson's cop sidekick; "I Married Dora," as a Latin-American nanny who marries her charges' father for a green card; and "Shannon's Deal," as a secretary to a criminal lawyer. She also has appeared in several TV films and series, most recently "L.A. Law."
In conversation, her accent is barely perceptible. That took work.
"I've been through thousands of teachers to lose my accent," she said. "Onstage, I can manage to sound completely accentless. But I almost have to do it like a dialect. My natural patterns come back whenever I get emotional.
"I haven't had much trouble with type-casting in the past eight years. The woman in `Roommates' is not necessarily Latin. The woman in `Free Willy' was written for a WASP. The role in my film after that, `Dead Funny,' was also written for a WASP. I've been lucky in meeting directors who are hiring actors, not ethnic groups."
by CNB