ADOPTING THE UNEXPECTED JOHN SAYLES' FILMS HAVE WON ACCLAIM DUE TO HIS CREATIVE CASTING CHOICES, AND `CASA DE LOS BABYS' IS NO EXCEPTION.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

The offer came over by fax to Mary Steenburgen's office. The actress recalls being unprepared and slightly floored: My name is John Sayles, it read, I've long admired your work. There's a part I've written in my upcoming movie which I hope you'll consider playing. A script is on the way.

Steenburgen, who had never met Sayles, photocopied the letter ``so I could have it forever,'' scribbling back a reply on the bottom and faxing it back: ``Yes, I would love to be in your movie. P.S. I look forward to reading the script.''

``I didn't care what the part was,'' Steenburgen recalls, ``and that's pretty much I think how all of us who work with him feel. I can't imagine somebody saying, 'Well, I'll wait to see the script and see if I like the part.' You just say yes.''

The film was last year's ``Sunshine State'' which found Steenburgen among a large ensemble as the organizer of a small-town chamber of commerce historical pageant. A year later, she joined a very different group in ``Casa de los Babys'' playing a peacemaking, born-again Christian waiting to adopt a baby in an unnamed Latin American country. ``Casa de los Babys'' opens Friday.

That's two vastly different parts requiring the use of vastly different acting muscles. Only a very intelligent actor-turned-writer/director, Steenburgen contends, would create characters and cast against type as Sayles does.

``Because he's an actor, John doesn't impose the same kinds of restrictions on us that other people do,'' says Steenburgen, an Oscar winner for 1980's ``Melvin and Howard.'' ``There are all kinds of colors inside me and parts of myself and wild places I can go that have not been used, and I can guarantee you that every actor I know feels the same way. John Sayles assumes if you've done something well before, there are all sorts of places you can go that you've never been.''

Fresh, hot roles

Daryl Hannah concurs. The actress, whose plays the withdrawn, fitness- obsessed Skipper in ``Los Babys'' is hiding pain and secrets behind a body of steel. When she received her Sayles pitch, Hannah wasn't sure the offer was genuine. She assumed it had something to do with the fact that her uncle, cinematographer Haskell Wexler, had shot several of Sayles' movies, including ``Matewan'' and ``The Secret of Roan Inish.''

``(Wexler) knew nothing about it. Then I realized, 'My God, this is real,' '' says Hannah. ``So whatever. Tell me where. Tell me when. I'll be there. And to read the role, I understand how smart he is with his casting choices.''

The laconic, New York-born Sayles, who turns 53 this month, explains his now-famous casting formula in terms so basic that they would be edited out of an Acting 101 textbook. Granted, he writes with certain actors in mind and enjoys working with certain performers over and over again (David Strathairn has been in seven Sayles movies).

Once the script is complete, Sayles ponders performers whose work he likes and how members of a particular ensemble might mesh. The calls and faxes - and scripts - go out to see who's available and willing to work for scale.

``Actors are actors. They don't have to play the same part over and over again,'' Sayles says. ``Some of what's interesting for me in working with actors is to see them do something different.

``A lot of what I do is turn good actors loose,'' he continues. ``I get them in this cage and let them rattle around in it.''

Among those who got to ``rattle around'' a quick shoot in Mexico were Oscar winners Steenburgen, Marcia Gay Harden and Rita Moreno (whose part is entirely in Spanish); Sayles alumni Susan Lynch and Vanessa Martinez; indy queen Lili Taylor; and the very hot Hannah and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

In-house casting

Over the course of 2 1/2 weeks, the six actresses playing the hopeful mothers bonded so significantly that they moved out of the hotel and rented a house together to duplicate the cluster experience that their characters go through in the film. By day, they filmed. By night, they socialized, sang songs, told stories and talked shop.

``We would end up talking about the same subjects that are covered in the film,'' recalls Hannah. ``And some nights we would just sit there and think, `He knew this was going to happen. He knew we would all be down here and wind up in this situation.''

There is much to talk about in Sayles' script. In 95 minutes, he weaves the story of six quite different American women waiting to adopt babies; the owner and service staff at the hotel where the women are staying; the efforts of a down-on-his-luck tour guide looking to get to America, and a band of ragtag street kids.

During any given round of publicity for ``Los Babys,'' Sayles and his cast have faced questions on topics ranging from parenting, adoptive practices and Americans abroad to Third World economics and racial prejudice.

``A lot of this came from knowing so many people who have been adopted or who have adopted children from foreign countries,'' Sayles says of the story, which he originally envisioned as a short novel. ``Knowing and talking to people in countries where children are adopted and taken to the United States, I find there are some mixed feelings. Some people resent it as just another form of cultural imperialism. And some people think, 'Well, this is a very good thing that these children are getting adopted, but isn't it awful that we're not adopting in our own country.' ''

``Los Babys,'' made on a shoestring and opening in limited release, doesn't figure to break any box-office records. Sayles, who is lining up funding for his next film, ``Silver City,'' to shoot in Denver, says he is always grateful that he is able to keep making movies at all.

The longtime king of the indies, Sayles made ``The Return of the Secaucus 7'' (1980) for a reported $40,000. Sayles financed many of his early films with money he earned as a screenwriter for Roger Corman. Even today, with low costs and considerable on- and off-screen talent lining up to work in his films, the director always wonders whether there will be a next John Sayles movie.

``I really like John Cassavetes' movies, but the thing that impressed me was the fact of their existence,'' Sayles says. ``Somehow this guy got away with this, so somebody else could get away with it too. I think the phenomenon that we've gotten to make any movie has been more important to film students or people who want to make movies than what the films themselves have been about.''

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) SAYLES pitch

When renowned filmmaker John Sayles calls with a project like `Casa de los Babys,' actors come running

(2) ``A lot of what I do is turn good actors loose. I get them in this cage and let them rattle around,'' says director John Sayles, whose ``Casa de los Babys'' opens Friday.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer