HOT FACES: KIEFER SUTHERLAND AND MEG RYAN

In a brave new movie world populated by pretty boys, partyin’ dudes and lounge lizards, the shadowed and sardonic Kiefer Sutherland wakes you up like a strong cup of black coffee.

His is a “character” face, which too often can be the kiss of death for the young actor trying to establish his leading-man credentials. The character face can mean an actor will be typecast as the “bad guy,” the “psycho” or the “druggie.”

But when the actor with that kind of face can’t seem to keep from working--eight films in two years--and has welcomed every kind of part, from teen vampire in “The Lost Boys” to small-town gang member in “Stand By Me” to man-about-New-York in the upcoming “Bright Lights, Big City,” the traditional rules don’t necessarily apply.

It’s also a good thing that Sutherland isn’t too interested just now in those traditional rules anyhow.

“I really do want to work a lot, to get a respectable body of work up in not too much time,” he said in a telephone interview from New York, where he was recently working on the movie version of Jay McInerey’s novel “Bright Lights, Big City.”

“But I’m trying hard not to get caught up in the ‘only big films’--that’s a bad trap. It doesn’t matter to me whether the picture has a cast of thousands or a hand-held camera; if I’m interested enough, I’m gonna do it.”

In this Sutherland hearkens to the example of his father, Donald, who has managed to forge an acting career that blended box-office hits with art films. “That’s one of the things I admire about him,” Sutherland fils , 20, says. “He did what he believed in, no matter what people would say about ‘career moves’ and ‘poison at the box office.’ ”

With showcase parts in “Lost Boys” (opening July 31) and “Perfect Stranger” coming up later this summer, and a handful of other films on the horizon, Sutherland expects that the public side of acting will become more of an issue for him as the year rolls on. He admitted to observing “Bright Lights” colleague Michael J. Fox handle the finer points of dealing with high recognition.

“I’ve watched him a lot, and I think he’s in a funny position because nobody really dislikes him: He’s always smiling, has a kind thing to say. I know it’s a cliche but it’s just a question of staying open, not dodging the thousands of things coming at you.”

What part did his famous father play in the acting career? “My dad’s thing quite honestly had nothing to do with why I’m here in New York City, being in a picture,” he says, adding that much of his life was spent with his mother in Canada. “In a way, I find it condescending to have people cite the generational or genetic example as a way to explain how I’ve been working steadily for the past two years. That just negates everything that I’ve brought into this thing--and man, I’ve really worked hard.”

Joel Schumacher, who directed Sutherland in “Lost Boys,” agrees. “It still shocks me to think that Kiefer was 19 when we did the film,” he said. “He really takes command; I think he prepares so much, for every little thing, that he has the screen presence of a much older person.”

The tendency for many young actors who work with intensity is that they also “play” with intensity: gamesmanship on the set, one too many nightclubs and so on. Sutherland acknowledged the temptation--”and I’ve been weak a few times,” he adds--but he believes that “blowing your chances at a real career for the sake of some isolated moments of enjoyment is pretty stupid.”

“I mean, I’m a young guy, and am really feeling all this out for the first time around,” he says slowly. “But I know a great many mistakes have been made by people with unbelievable talent who’ve just self-destructed, gone boom publicly. And a person paying attention to life can learn from those examples. Once you’ve done a few things, though, and people notice you, it becomes easy to just shut yourself off from everything that’s not within the esoterica of the business--and that’s when the fuse gets lit, I think.”

Sutherland pauses, then laughs. “And you know who really opened my eyes to that? My dad. As occasionally as I saw him, growing up, I still managed to learn that from him. They gave him lots of rope but I don’t think he hanged himself.”