ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, June 28, 1996 TAG: 9606280013
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ANNE GEARAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sissy Spacek says her ``normal, boring'' life in the Virginia countryside is better preparation than one might think for her life as a movie star.
While driving the kids to soccer games or standing in line at the grocery she has time to develop and massage a character before she leaves her family and farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains and heads for work.
``I love having this thing in my mind, this character or personality I'm working on. I can be doing that for a long time, getting ready, while I'm doing all these normal, boring things,'' the actress said.
Spacek, a veteran of 25 years of Hollywood, has lived at least part-time for nearly 20 years on a small Albemarle County horse farm.
Living a continent away from Hollywood keeps her from hearing about parts at show biz cocktail parties, but plenty of scripts come her way. She picks about three projects a year, and usually spends a month to six weeks away from home on each. She commutes home for weekends when she can.
Passing up the Hollywood circuit isn't as unusual as it was when she and director husband Jack Fisk bought the Virginia farm in 1978, Spacek said.
``It used to be a bigger drawback, but it's so common now. Most actors don't live in Hollywood. Most directors don't,'' she said.
In 1984 Spacek and Fisk sold their fancy house in the Los Angeles suburb of Topanga Canyon and moved to Virginia full-time.
The couple have two young daughters and, like parents everywhere, spend much of their time immersed in the children's activities.
The girls, 13-year-old Schuyler and 7-year-old Madison, accompanied their mother for a day of movie star duty in Washington recently as she promoted her newest project on the Showtime cable network.
Spacek, 46, plays a Connecticut woman drawn into the death row appeal of a long-ago lover. She becomes convinced that her old flame was mentally unhinged by service in the Vietnam War and that the killing for which he is sentenced to die was a tragic accident.
As she becomes more involved in the case, her marriage and solid suburban life are rocked.
The film, ``Beyond the Call,'' premiered Sunday.
``It's wrenching, but it hurts good,'' Spacek drawls in plain-Jane west Texas vowels.
Mary Elizabeth Spacek, granddaughter of a Moravian immigrant and daughter of the town agricultural agent, left Quitman, Texas, for New York nearly 30 years ago, but took her lilting accent with her.
The actress has specialized in complicated characters - backwoods strivers, mentally fragile waifs and lately middle-class, middle-age women facing ethical challenges.
Spacek has been nominated for five Academy Awards and won the Oscar for Best Actress in 1979 for ``Coal Miner's Daughter.'' She is perhaps best remembered as the eerie, ethereal teen-ager ``Carrie'' in 1976.
Spacek has two more projects - a feature film and a HBO drama with Cher and Demi Moore - scheduled for release later this year.
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Actress Sissy Spacek has lived for nearly 20 yearsby CNBin Albemarle County. color.