Mimi Rogers Hoping for ‘Really Co-Starring’ Film Roles for Women

Mimi Rogers sees a gleam of hope that women may one day achieve equal status in today’s macho movie world.

“It’s an unfortunate fact that there are many more roles for men than there are for women. A favorable sign is the success of films like ‘Pretty Woman’ and ‘Ghosts’--much more successful than big, male-dominated action films,” she said.

“With these two films, in which women are on more of an equal level, being so successful, maybe the trend will start to shift in the direction of having men and women really co-starring.”

If not equal, Rogers has a vital role in “Desperate Hours,” with Mickey Rourke and Anthony Hopkins. It’s Dino De Laurentiis’ update of the 1955 movie, with Rogers in the part originated by Martha Scott. Rourke plays the Humphrey Bogart role of a criminal psycho who takes a suburban family hostage. Hopkins has the part of the husband, originally played by Fredric March.

Rogers has three new films: “Desperate Hours”; “The Doors,” Oliver Stone’s biography of rocker Jim Morrison; and “The Rapture,” an apocalyptic drama. Last January, she and Tom Cruise ended their three-year marriage, during which she seemed to be subordinating her own career as his zoomed skyward.

She corrected that impression: “I actually worked quite a bit. Unfortunately, two of the films that I did haven’t been released in this country.”

“I did a picture for Vestron called ‘Hider in the House’ (with Gary Busey) that got caught up in the company’s bankruptcy. Then I did a film with James Belushi called ‘To Forget Palermo.’ We spent 14 weeks shooting that. It was an Italian-financed film--an English (language) film with an Italian director. That’s always a bit of an experiment,” she said.

“I don’t know what happened to it. Maybe American distributors looked at it and thought it wasn’t going to make money. Both of those films, I think, have been released internationally but not here. So there’s an apparent void that didn’t really exist.”

Like her former husband, Mimi (short for Miriam) Rogers had a traveling childhood. Both their fathers were engineers who took jobs all over. Rogers was born in Coral Gables, Fla., but she moved to Virginia, Arizona, Michigan, England and finally Los Angeles. A good student, she graduated from high school at 14, and started acting in her 20s. Her first film was “Blue Skies Again” with Harry Hamlin.

She usually plays “the love interest.” But she hopes that will change as movies take a feminine tilt.