Live From New York, It’s . . .

“Saturday Night Live’s” guest host this weekend is a surprising one--the rather faultlessly dignified young British rage Miranda Richardson, who has had the good fortune in a short 18 months to score in three of the most talked-about movies in recent years--”Enchanted April,” “The Crying Game” and “Damage.” (The latter film by Louis Malle earned her a best supporting actress nomination.)

Miranda and I sat down for some Tex-Mex at El Rio Grande cafe the other day. It is difficult to reconcile her rather shy, retiring personality with the aggressive and dynamic brunette who carries a Uzi in “The Crying Game.” She seems so much more sophisticated than the staid English girl needing a “husband holiday” in “Enchanted April.” Also, she appears much younger than the perfect wife she played opposite an obsessed Jeremy Irons in “Damage.”

“I go by instinct when I select roles,” says Miranda. “People always try to bracket you, but I try to avoid being put in a box. It’s part of my job to illuminate something in the character. That may sound very grand, but I try.”

Miranda, whose parents are here for the Academy Awards, says: “As for winning or losing, it’s impossible to second-guess. It’s great to be in the running at all. I really don’t want to think about it. I like working here, although there is this separation. You’re either a film actor, a stage actor or a TV actor. In Great Britain, one can cross over more easily. But here when you’re ‘up’ you’re ‘up’! People are enthusiastic and that’s wonderful. In England, when you get anywhere, they try to kill you.

“I know people think I’m difficult, distant and cold. Sometimes I’m simply scared so I am misunderstood. I am shy, like most people. But I am willing to take chances and I think everything informs one’s work.”

Miranda lives in a London flat that is more like a house. She says she likes to putter, garden, cook, play with her two Siamese cats, Waldo and Otto. “I like to read, I love music and sometimes I do both at the same time and also watch TV so I don’t miss anything. I don’t wish to be anybody else. Sometimes I date. Sometimes I don’t. I’m not married. Now and then I go to a gym. I love to watch other people working.”

This summer she’ll play the wife of poet T.S. Eliot in the film of “Tom and Viv.”