Not in Kansas Anymore

“It’s kind of strange; this is my first role that’s been semi-adult,” says Fairuza Balk, 15, who plays Cecile de Volanges, a young girl caught in the middle of the sexual machinations of a group of manipulative aristocrats in Milos Forman’s “Valmont.”

But despite having had much more innocent roles in the past--she made her motion picture debut at the age of 9 playing Dorothy in Disney’s 1985 “Return to Oz”--Balk doesn’t seem to have even thought twice about her most adult scene, in which she is seduced by the handsome Vicomte de Valmont.

“It wasn’t really hard at all,” she says, “because I had a lot of support, both from the director and from Colin (Firth, who played Valmont). I had a body double, so I didn’t show my body at all. So I really wasn’t nervous.

“People don’t know whether to see me as a child or an adult. This role was different (from her childhood roles), but Cecile is still pretty much a child.”

Balk says she likes the idea of growing up on the screen: “It’s kind of neat. When I’m 50 years old, I’ll be able to look back and see it all right there in the films.”

A resident of Vancouver, Canada, Balk began acting at 8 in the ABC-TV movie “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” “I watched a lot of TV as a kid,” Balk says, “and that was about as far as my imagination went. Then one day, it just clicked--these are real people and they look like they have a lot of fun. So I told my mom that I wanted to do that, and she said ‘OK.’ ”

Balk, whose big blue eyes inspired her parents to name her Fairuza (it is Arabic for turquoise ), admits luck has played a role in her young career. “I know so many people are dying to do what I’m doing, and I’m so grateful that I’ve gotten what I’ve gotten.”

She is especially grateful, she says, for getting a chance to work with Forman--now that she knows who he is.

“I was in England and heard that they were casting for this movie,” Balk says. “So I arranged an audition, and spent about an hour with Milos (Forman). I didn’t know who he was, and after the audition, I called my agent.” She informed her of such Forman credits as “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Amadeus.”

“I said, ‘Oh my God.’ But I’m so glad I didn’t realize who he was--I would have been so much more nervous in the audition if I’d known who he was.”