`THE MIGHTY' SHARON STONE; ACTRESS EXUDES THE POWER OF LOVE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Writer

After a while, the big stuff just isn't enough.``The work is so different for me now,'' Sharon Stone explains. ``It used to be about sex and money and power and love and life and death. A character like Catherine Tramell (`Basic Instinct's' icepick princess, the role that made Stone a superstar in 1992) was a power character for me at that time. But if I played her now, she would have to be a love character, because it's all that now for me.'' Now 40 and married earlier this year to San Francisco Examiner executive editor Phil Bronstein, Stone uses the L-word a lot in conversation these days.

Loves old pals Woody Allen (``Stardust Memories,'' Stone's first film) and Sylvester Stallone (``The Specialist''), with whom she shared vocal duty on the hit computer animated comedy ``Antz.'' Loves writer-director-actor Albert Brooks, whose obsessive comedy ``The Muse'' she's just wrapped. Loves Kieran Culkin and Elden Henson, the young stars of her latest release ``The Mighty,'' which opens today.

It shows on the screen, too. At least in ``Antz'' and ``Mighty,'' there's very little of the bad girl act that Stone has astutely exploited in both her popcorn (``Sliver,'' ``The Specialist,'' ``The Quick and the Dead'') and her serious (``Casino,'' which earned her a Golden Globe award and Oscar nomination, ``Last Dance'') work.

None of this means, however, that Stone's gone completely marshmallow. She's just, as always, defying expectations.

And, as always, defiantly.

``So many rules are made for so many stupid reasons,'' says Stone, who indulges such anti-movie star activities as turning down lucrative sequels (``If they make `Basic Instinct 2,' it won't be with me'') and cutting her own hair. ``And to follow a rule instead of following the joy of life is so disturbing. But it's a very complicated thing, because rules are made so that people don't get hurt.''

Subtle change

That's one of several knotty themes addressed in ``The Mighty,'' which Stone co-executive produced and has a supporting role in as the strong, supportive single mother of a handicapped child with an empowering imagination.

Based on Rodman Philbrick's novel for young adults ``Freak the Mighty,'' the film charts the nurturing relationship of two junior high outcasts - Kevin Dillon (Culkin), who suffers from the growth-inhibiting, degenerative Morquio's syndrome, and Maxwell Kane (Henson), a socially inhibited giant of a boy from a criminally dysfunctional home.

``I read the script and I was impaled by the emotion of it,'' Stone says. ``I'm glad that I got to do it because it evoked so much in me emotionally that I really needed a place to put it.''

Compounding this admission from one of Hollywood's toughest cookies was the requirement that ``Mighty's'' Gwen Dillon always wear the most reassuring face for her doomed son and his uncomprehending friend.

``The part was much more about controlling the emotions I felt than finding the emotions of it,'' she says. ``She has to allow him quality of life, as much as she possibly can, without risking the length of his life. She has a big juggling act to do. She has to be his friend, be his mom, be his dad, be there for him without suffocating him. It's a fine line.

``But I wanted to play a subtler character. OK, it's true not everyone can do opera. I can hit the high notes; in fact, that's probably my specialty, playing erratic, intense characters. But it's like, every time I do something, everyone says, `Why'd you do that?' or `That's not like anything you ever did before.' I really want to do something different every time because I want to be the best artist I can be.''

According to ``Mighty'' director Peter Chelsom, the operatically inclined star arrived at the movie's freezing, Toronto location without diva baggage.

``When you make a film like this, where everyone is doing it for the one reason only that they believe it's a story they want to tell, there's a kind of dispersing of the hierarchy,'' says the British Chelsom (``Hear My Song''). ``It's easier; life is not about trailers and how long it takes to get them out of the trailers.''

That looks like the pattern for the foreseeable future. Besides having already shot Brooks' independently produced ``Muse'' and a Sidney Lumet-directed remake of John Cassavetes' odd mix of violent gunplay and adult-child bonding ``Gloria,'' Stone is set to do two scenes for ``Simpatico,'' a film based on a Sam Shepard play. Then she'll star in a San Francisco-set romantic comedy by a first-time director; Stone returned part of her salary in exchange for filming the movie in her new hometown.

``I can't be on the road all the time and expect my marriage to be growing, too,'' says Stone, who permits herself an occasional weekend in the L.A. sun when the Bay Area fog gets too oppressive. ``If they hadn't agreed to make it there, I wouldn't have done it.''

Obviously, the security of a solid relationship has had a profound impact on every aspect of Stone's life (she was briefly married before, when she was in her 20s).

``I've been very much like a lone warrior for a long time, and so I didn't have anything to risk,'' she reckons, adding, with an ironic smile, ``Of course, now I have less to risk because he can take care of me. Boy, there's a lot of comfort in that. Who knew?''

Not that Stone is happily hurling herself toward demure domesticity. Recent false rumors that she was pregnant annoyed her so much that, after issuing a categorical denial, she refused to discuss the subject. And maturity seems to be ruling her decisions as much as romance is these days. She is, after all, remarkably seasoned, having achieved the worldwide celebrity and Hollywood respect she so longed for ... while constantly being reminded that those are rarely sure, solid things, and that disappointment is part of the territory.

``I don't know whether I'm wiser or just tired,'' she says. ``You know how aging goes. You become much more selective day to day: what you go through, what you deal with, what you look at, what you listen to, what you answer, who you hang out with. I don't know whether it's because you have enough experience to know what's a waste of time and what isn't, or it's because you're just tired and don't want to deal with it anymore.''

`Sphere' tanks

The truth is that Stone has not been able to repeat the commercial/pop-cultural success of ``Basic Instinct.'' Even when she has tried to.

``You never know,'' she muses. ``I'm really surprised that `Sphere' wasn't a big blockbuster. It was so beautiful and interesting, had all these special effects, and we did such cool things, tons of action and great actors. Why wouldn't you expect that that would be the hugest blockbuster ever?''

The undersea fantasy plopped more like a great big water bomb when it opened in February, despite the pedigree of a Michael Crichton story, direction by Oscar winner Barry Levinson and a cast that included Stone, Dustin Hoffman and Samuel L. Jackson.

But Stone has had worse career frustrations. For a dozen years before ``Basic Instinct,'' the former Pennsylvania beauty queen and Ford model appeared in stuff like ``Deadly Blessing,'' ``Bolero'' and ``Police Academy 4.'' She got so fed up with show business that she almost quit.

``Part of it was my fault because I was accepting the crap,'' she admits. ``I thought that, if I didn't, I wouldn't have any jobs - and it's often like that. But I had to get to a point where I was willing not to have jobs. I had been a waitress and I really, really, really enjoyed waitressing. So I decided I'd just waitress, and do theater in my garage.

``I couldn't keep doing what I was doing. I just couldn't. I had to be willing to have nothing to have something.''

Luckily, things turned around before extreme steps were necessary. (Stone still indulges her avocation, though. ``Sometimes, on holidays, I'll waitress at a Salvation Army or something,'' she says. ``It's so fun because these people don't go to the movies, don't have TVs. They don't know me from Adam; they just think I'm a darn good waitress.'')

These days, professional setbacks don't inspire thoughts of career abandonment. If anything, they've encouraged Stone to reassess her relationship with her acting. To approach it, if you will, less like a job and more like love.

``You just feel something,'' she says of recent choices she's made. ``I've played parts that I could intellectualize, and then I could sense a comprehension and understanding. But more, as I understand myself as an artist, I'm drawn to projects that simply make me feel something. And I think that this is valid and worthwhile.''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1--Cover--Color) A SOFTER STONE

You'll find her using the L-word a lot these days.

(2) Sharon Stone: ``I read the script and I was impaled by the emotion of it. ... The part was much more about controlling the emotions I felt than finding the emotions of it.''

(3) Kieran Culkin co-stars as the young boy who suffers from a degenerative, growth-inhibiting disorder. Stone's character must simultaneously protect her son and let him experience life.