SCENE STEALERS AT CENTER STAGE : HIS ‘WILD’ BAD GUY IS GOOD START

Liotta, a newcomer, nearly walks off with his sections of the film. --Vincent Canby, New York Times

Liotta is, if anything, too effective as Ray--he’s downright monstrous, and the intensity of the scare is sometimes more than “Something Wild” can stand. --Paul Attanasio, Washington Post

. . . a first-class performance by electrifying newcomer Ray Liotta. --Sheila Benson, Los Angeles Times

“Villainous characters tend to stand out because their evil impulses are what drive the story forward,” says Ray Liotta, whose portrayal of a violent ex-con won the lion’s share of praise for Jonathan Demme’s comedy-thriller “Something Wild.”

The film stars Melanie Griffith as a kooky vamp who seduces a strait-laced New York businessman (Jeff Daniels) and takes him to her high school reunion where her husband (Liotta), fresh out of jail, shows up to terrorize them both.

The character of Ray Sinclair, a psychopath with a short fuse, would be a plum role for any actor, and Liotta, in his screen debut, makes the most of it. But in that most familiar Hollywood story, performing in his first role wasn’t nearly as hard as getting it.

“I auditioned for plenty of film parts but no one would give me a movie,” said the 31-year-old actor, laughing. “I’ve done a lot of work in television and on the stage, but for some reason I couldn’t seem to land a film.

“When I heard about the part of Ray Sinclair, the casting people didn’t really want to see me--as usual--but I decided I was really going to go after this part. I’ve known Melanie for a number of years and she’d already been cast in the film, so I called her and she set up a meeting with Jonathan, which eventually led to my getting the part.”

Liotta, a soft-spoken native of New Jersey, bears little resemblance to the menacing hood he plays so convincingly.

“I’m not a violent person whatsoever,” he says, “but an actor has to identify with every character he plays--and in playing this character I was surprised to discover how nasty I could get!”

Liotta said he is thrilled with the attention he’s received for his performance, but he has mixed feelings about being included in a story about scene stealers.

“If an actor stands out in a particular scene, it’s because that’s the way the scene is structured and that stuff is really up to the director,” he said. “Editing also has a lot to do with how strong you come across. This being my first film, I didn’t know what to expect. Needless to say, I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out.”

Although film roles have evaded him, Liotta has been acting steadily since graduating from the University of Miami and then putting in six months as a Broadway bartender, serving drinks to theatergoers during intermissions of the Shubert presentations of “Dancin’ ” and “I Love My Wife.”

He spent three years in his first major professional role in New York, as Jerry Perrini in the TV soap “Another World,” before he packed off to Hollywood for a hoped-for film career. There was regular TV work for him--he had continuing roles in a pair of short-lived series, including the part of the bartender in David Wolper’s “Casablanca”--but it took five years on the Hollywood casting circuit before he met Demme and became the lean, mean menace of “Something Wild.”

Great things are now being predicted for Liotta, who is even getting a gentle shove from Orion Pictures in the current Academy Award campaign for “Something Wild.” Liotta is reluctant to speculate how far Ray Sinclair may take him.

“A few doors have been opened, and I’ve been meeting some people from the major studios,” he said, adding that nothing has happened in his career so far to make him pessimistic or cynical.

“I know it’s considered cool to bad-mouth the Hollywood industry, but I don’t have any particular attitude about it. I want to see where it’s at, try my hand at a little bit of everything, and I have no idea what I’ll do next. I’ve had a few offers in the past few weeks, but at this point I’m up for grabs.”