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

DATE: TUESDAY, October 4, 1994                   TAG: 9410220015
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WRIGHT DOESN'T MIND TAKING ON RISKY ROLES

In the film, now playing at the Salem Valley 8, she's a wounded character who is clinging none-too-firmly to what little self-respect she has left. In person, she is precisely the opposite: a tall, striking young woman with beautifully braided hair.

Her name (pronounced neh-BOO-shay) is Swahili for "Godly One," and that's just how she walks into an interview. She moves with the balance and seemingly effortless precision that dancers have. It comes from serious training with Martha Graham and Alvin Ailey.

She made her screen debut two years ago in "Zebrahead," a serious low-budget feature. That led to a recurring roles on two critically acclaimed TV shows, Barry Levinson's "Homicide: Life On the Street" and "I'll Fly Away."

On a promotional tour for "Fresh," she admitted that the role was a risky one for her. The film is an unconventional thriller about a young boy who's involved in the drug trade. In the wrong hands, it could have been pure exploitation. But when she met with writer-director Boaz Yakin, he convinced her that it "wasn't just another movie. He was really interested in making a rich film. When he told me he had Giancarlo Esposito and Sam Jackson, I said OK. If he's picking actors like that, he's going to try do a classy flick."

At first, she made the transformation from dancer to junkie with conventional research. She went to clinics and observed the ways addicts moved and acted. But that wasn't enough.

"The way that I got connected [to the role] was through my body. I took an emotional, physical approach to it.

"There's something called a contraction in the Martha Graham technique. It's very dramatic, there's a lot of swinging and wide, loose body movement. It's all connected with breathing. You get deep into a breath and make it much longer and slower than normal."

She demonstrated by stretching out her arms, letting out a long breath and relaxing the muscles in her back and shoulders until she slumped forward in her chair. It looked like a huge, formless weight was pressing her down. In 15 seconds she had become the character she plays on screen.

From such a promising and diverse start, N'Bushe Wright's career could go in any number of directions now, and she's not sure what she'll do next.

"Basically," she said, "I was a dancer for most of my early life and then I decided that I'd like to add voice to my movement. Now I'm considering Juilliard or Yale. I just finished a short independent film as an opera singer, so I'm getting to show my versatility."

Indeed.