Joining the family business

MAMIE GUMMER, the daughter of Oscar-winner Meryl Streep, is still trying to get the hang of films. Since graduating from Northwestern with a degree in theater, the 23-year-old has appeared in two plays on the New York stage.

But lately she’s been making forays into cinema and, well, that’s a whole different thing. “Film is tricky,” says Gummer, who has a small scene in Lasse Hallstrom’s “The Hoax” (“It’s about 4 1/2 seconds”) and recently finished Kimberly Pierce’s “Stop Loss.”

“There’s a lot more that you sort of have to balance. It is more orchestration. It’s just odd. A good director seems to make all the difference.”

So, does being the daughter of one of the greatest actresses of her generation make getting film jobs any easier? “It has its own funny set of issues. But you know, it’s all I know. I don’t have anything else to compare it to.”

This summer, Gummer and her famous mom will appear in the ensemble drama “Evening,” based on the novel by Susan Minot. Adapted by Michael Cunningham (“The Hours”), the film, which opens June 29, is directed by Lajos Koltai.

The actresses don’t share any scenes, though, because they play the young and mature incarnations of a college friend of a dying woman (Vanessa Redgrave). Claire Danes plays the young Redgrave.

Gummer’s sequence takes place in 1953 at a mansion in Newport, R.I., where her character, Lila, is about to tie the knot for all the wrong reasons.

“She’s getting married because she’s 23, going to be 24, and she’s already an old maid. She’s sort of doing it to please her mother and society. She’s actually in love with someone else.”

Gummer, who was cast before Streep, recently saw a screening of “Evening,” and while she’s pleased with the outcome, she was a bit shocked to see herself on the big screen.

“I had no idea one of my teeth is longer than the other,” she muses.

-- Susan King