The Raw Stuff

Kelli Williams thinks that not having a track record is a definite career advantage.

“I can go out there and do anything,” says the 19-year-old actress, who gives a knockout performance as an anguished teen in Daniel Faraldo’s “How Does It Feel . . .?” (at the Gnu Theatre in North Hollywood). “Since this is my first professional play, people look at me with fresh eyes. So I go out there and just let myself go, put all my energy into it. Maggie’s got a lot of raw stuff inside of her--and I do too.”

Raw language too. “I had a hard time asking my father to come see this play,” admits the actress, who graduated Beverly Hills High School in 1988. “He said, ‘No problem. I saw you do (the series) “Day by Day.” ’ I said, ‘It’s not the same, Dad.’ ”

The language is tamer in Williams’ other current role, playing Mattie, Elvis’ first love, in the series “Elvis: The Early Years.”

“Originally I was supposed to be in one or two episodes, but they liked me so they kept me in,” she explains of her real-life character. “The way my story ends on the show, Elvis and I get in an argument and I go out with another guy.” Now that ABC has given a go-ahead for four more episodes to be shot, the actress hopes to satisfy her character’s left-hanging status. “Maybe I’ll return for a big breakup.”

The acting bug bit early.

“But I waited till I graduated high school, then sent out hundreds of pictures from my last play--and I got an agent out of that.” Now on her own and living in Hollywood (and sporting such credits as “Quantum Leap,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Hillside Strangler”), the actress claims, “I feel more like an adult than a kid--because most of my peers are adults, the people I’m working around. And I’m learning more and more ever day about this business. Mainly to stay out of the business end.”