When It Comes to Roles, They Just Say Yes

In the beginning, there was Michael Caine. Then Gene Hackman. And now, John Travolta. Their names have become shorthand for workaholism, Hollywood style--stars who never let us miss them because they won’t go away. Just try to go a week without finding one--or, more likely, all--of their names in the latest movie industry production charts.

Question: Is Travolta’s upcoming project “Face Off,” “Mad City,” “Primary Colors,” “Dark Horse” or “Run for Your Life”?

Answer: Yes.

And don’t forget other close contenders for the role of Hollywood’s busiest actor, such as Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth and Samuel L. Jackson.

So who exactly is the industry’s busiest star? Each agency and casting director would probably have a different pick--but few, if any, can top the credit list of one recent Oscar nominee. “To paraphrase some ancient proverb, to those that have everything, they get more,” says Jennifer Tilly, this observer’s choice for Hollywood’s busiest, whose last 18 months show that screen overachievers come in both sexes.

“If you’re in a hit movie, then everybody wants a share of the action. They think perhaps you’re responsible for some of the success, so they have more confidence in casting you. Hollywood is a confidence game.”

Tilly learned that lesson firsthand, after 1994’s “Bullets Over Broadway” earned her a best supporting actress nomination. In its wake, she was offered--and appeared in--six 1996 releases: “Bound,” “Bird of Prey,” “Edie and Pen,” “House Arrest,” “Man With a Gun,” and “The Pompatus of Love.”

Now on screens in “Liar Liar,” she’ll return in “Music from Another Room” opposite Brenda Blethyn, the Dave Foley “Fugitive” spoof “The Wrong Guy,” and Robert Altman’s TV anthology “The Gun.” Three other projects are in discussion. “I’m happiest when I’m working; I’m like a bear hibernating between films,” she explains, in an Evelyn Wood-speed staccato that seems to reflect her schedule. “You know the Isaac Mizrahi film ‘Unzipped’? It’s all black and white, except for when he’s on the runway; then it’s in vivid color. That’s sort of how I see my life.”

Though probably unbeatable, Tilly is not alone in that spectrum; besides the above-mentioned actors, at least three actresses are giving her a run for the role of Hollywood’s Busiest Performer:

* Claire Danes has turned an acclaimed supporting part in 1994’s “Little Women”-- and raves for TV’s “My So-Called Life”--into a nonstop feature career. On the heels of last year’s “Romeo and Juliet” and “To Gillian, on Her 37th Birthday,” Danes--who just turned 18--will resurface in four theatrical films: Oliver Stone’s “U-Turn,” as “a cartoony, one-dimensional, white trash kind of person,” Danes recently noted proudly; “Les Miserables,” as Cosette; Francis Ford Coppola’s film of John Grisham’s “The Rainmaker” and “Polish Wedding,” joining Gabriel Byrne to play “a 15-year-old who gets pregnant . . . she’s a bad girl, which no one’s seen me play--my halo has finally fallen!”

* Jennifer Lopez, who juggled Coppola’s “Jack” with a real-life Jack--playing Nicholson’s mistress, in the little-seen “Blood and Wine”; “Selena” followed. “The day I finished that,” Lopez recalls, “I went to Arizona to do ‘U-Turn”-- yes, the same Oliver Stone film featuring Danes. She also co-stars in “Anaconda,” which opens Friday.

“I can’t stop to think about it,” Lopez says of her schedule. “I’m afraid if I do, I’ll be out of Oz, back home in the Bronx!”

* Judith Ivey, best known for TV roles on “Designing Women” and “The Five Mrs. Buchanans,” has been shuttling lately between seven projects: Agnieszka Holland’s film of the Henry James novel “Washington Square” (playing Albert Finney’s sister), Robert Towne’s “Pre,” Taylor Hackford’s “Devil’s Advocate,” as Keanu Reeves’ ultra-religious mother, “A Life Less Ordinary” (the cigar-chomping mom of Cameron Diaz), two Hallmark TV movies (“The Summer of Ben Tyler” and “What the Deaf Man Heard”) and an upcoming return to the New York stage in Martin Sherman’s “A Madhouse in Goa.” And that’s not even counting a recent run off-Broadway, in Jon Robin Baitz’s “A Fair Country.”

“The workaholic in me is the person who does the movie so I can subsidize the play,” Ivey says. “I’m a character actress, though I hate the term--I wonder what all the other actors play.” After “neglecting” film work in favor of TV and stage (and raising two children with her husband, TV producer Tim Braine), Ivey is glad these days to be honing her movie skills. She’s also amused by the notion that she’s among the industry’s busiest performers. “There’s a certain amount of celebrity, but I’m not a big movie star. I’ve had people take my credit card, look at me, and say, ‘You know, there’s an actress named Judith Ivey!’ It’s kind of nice to have the anonymity and be protected.”

While Ivey says she only takes on projects of quality, fellow workaholic Tilly admits to being sometimes less selective. “It seems there’s a movie every day on cable I should’ve said no to,” she acknowledges. “But I really feel you learn by doing.

“And some of the more bizarre films I’ve done have a big fan following. I’ve learned never to say, ‘My God, I’m sorry you had to sit through that one,’ because a lot of times it’s their favorite movie.

“I had a guy come up to me and say, ‘I’ve only bought three movies in my life! Three movies I had to have! One was “The Maltese Falcon” . . . one was “On the Waterfront” . . . and one was “Let It Ride”!’ And I’m thinking, one of these things is not like the others.”

Others in the busiest actor club also reject the idea that a bit less work might reap more acclaim. In fact, a few would like to be even busier--like Travolta, who recently expressed envy of Dolly, the cloned sheep. Just think, Travolta remarked to a reporter--if cloned, he could say yes to 40 movies--or more.