COMING BACK A WINNER NOMINATED THIS YEAR FOR 'MYSTIC RIVER,' MARCIA GAY HARDEN KNOWS WHAT IT'S LIKE TO TAKE OSCAR HOME.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

Three years ago, Marcia Gay Harden's story played like something out of a fairy tale.

Her under-the-radar work on stage and screen long respected, the actress was a surprise winner for best supporting actress for playing Lee Krasner in Ed Harris' ``Pollock.'' Looking ultra glamorous in red, she took the stage and delivered a graceful, heartfelt speech acknowledging her parents and her peers.

Then she did what working actors do: She went back to work.

She acted in several TV movies, signed on for a TV pilot and nabbed a choice role in a starry Central Park production of ``The Seagull'' directed by the same person, Mike Nichols, who did not select her to reprise her acclaimed role in Broadway's ``Angels in America'' for his HBO adaptation (the part went to Mary Louise Parker).

In other words, Harden's life changed, but it didn't.

``I think people put too much expectation on the fact that you won the award,'' says Harden. ``Once the sky was blue, now it will be blue with rainbows every day. Your reality will change. It is not the be-all and the end-all, but what it is, is an extraordinary honor - and you are certainly rewarded with a different kind of attention.''

Her next major film role after ``Pollock'' was in Clint Eastwood's ``Mystic River.'' It's one of three films Harden appeared in in 2003 (``Casa de Los Babys'' and ``Mona Lisa Smile'' are the others), and she also has a role in the just-released Ray Romano comedy ``Welcome to Mooseport.''

She's Oscar nominated again for ``Mystic River,'' but the first-time giddiness has been tempered. This time around, says Harden from her home in New York, the aim is to enjoy the ride.

``You know what to expect,'' says the 44 year-old, La Jolla-born actress. ``It's still fun and kind of glamorous with all the parties, but it's not about the competition for me. We get a chance to do good work and stretch, so I'm already a winner. The work itself is the reward, and I deeply, deeply feel that.''

``But then there's this kind of fun tradition of these parties. Some of them are crazy, and some of them are really funny. So you look at it in that light. You go and have fun, enjoy a bit of the glamour and the pampering. Then you get back to doing really good work, and you get to go back to your family.''

In Harden's case, that family is on the verge of expansion. The parents of a 5-year-old daughter, Harden and her husband Thaddaeus Scheel are expecting twins - a boy and a girl - in late April or early May. The actress's pregnancy has made award-season gown selection a little less complicated, and the travel schedule that has Harden commuting back and forth between L.A. for awards ceremonies and her home on the East Coast has been manageable as well.

When it's suggested that the spring additions will likely keep her out of circulation for a while, Harden says, ``for a couple of months to get used to them, learn how to juggle them and still try to meet all their needs. The more you think things are doable, the more they become doable. I have a good team. I like spending the summers upstate anyway. We'll put in a garden in May, harvest it, and, come September, I'll go back to work and be a wide load on the airplane.''

Ed Harris remembers Harden from her pre-award, pre-family days. He recalls building a solid stage rapport with Harden when the two worked together in Sam Shepard's ``Simpatico'' at the Public Theatre in the mid-1990s.

Half a decade later, when Harris was looking for a Lee to star opposite his Jackson in ``Pollock,'' he wasn't sure that Harden was right for the role.

``Marcia Gay is really expressive. She has a certain buoyancy and gregariousness. She's really outspoken and free in a way,'' says Harris. ``Lee was really pent up. I knew Marcia Gay was a wonderful actress, but I just had never seen her play a character similar to that. But it didn't take long for her to prove to me she knew where she needed to get to.''

``She worked her ass off,'' he added. ``She was such a trouper. I can't say enough about her.'' Harris ended up placing a call to Clint Eastwood to recommend Harden for a role in Eastwood's geezers-in-orbit drama, ``Space Cowboys.'' Harden got the part but didn't meet the director until the first day of shooting, at which time, she says, she was so intimidated, ``I literally bit a hole through my tongue.''

``I blurted out, 'Hi, I'm Marcia. I'm in your movie.' He said, 'I figured,' '' Harden recalls. ``I was so nervous. He's fairly legendary.''

And those nerves dissipated, when? ``Day three or four,'' says Harden, ``as the tongue healed.''

When she learned about ``Mystic River,'' Harden placed her own call to Eastwood. If you think I'm right, she told Eastwood, I have some ideas about the character, and I'd love to play her. The director told her that the team was still ``working on it'' (Eastwood-speak for ``we haven't cast the film yet.'').

``Then we went upstate. We were sitting down to dinner several weeks later, the phone rings and and my niece from Texas, who is 14, picked up the phone,'' recalls Harden.

Her voice drops to a spot on imitation of Eastwood's rasp.

`` 'Hello, it's Clint.' My niece said, 'Who?' 'Clint. Clint Eastwood.' 'No, it's not!' `Is Marcia there?' Now she believed it. 'Oh my God, Aunt Marcia.' The phone skittered. And everybody was quiet listening to every single word I said.''

In the film, based on Dennis Lehane's novel, Harden plays Celeste Boyle, the devoted but deeply conflicted wife of a man (played by fellow Oscar nominee Tim Robbins) who, she discovers, may have committed murder. Harden says she came to the set with some specific ideas about the character.

Being a hairdresser, the blue-collar Celeste would probably herself have too much hair. She'd also be a nurturer, says Harden, and a seeker of truth.

``Vocally, there was probably a quality about her that was sensitive. She was a communicator, always trying to reach out and find out 'what is truth, what is truth?' '' says Harden. ``My character thought she was doing the right thing. Maybe she told the wrong person. She felt like she had lost her ability to find the truth.''

Brian Helgeland's script also struck a personal chord with Harden. Reading it over for the first time, Harden came upon an early scene where one of the main characters is abducted as a child. She says she watched her daughter, Eulala Grace, curled up asleep and decided to finish ``Mystic River'' the following day.

``I thought, 'Dear God, how could anything happen to children? Please don't let anything happen to children,' '' Harden says. ``The script had such truth in it, the truth of a parent's greatest fear. And the ending for this character, Celeste, who was so alone and bereft of community, bereft of family while she was trying to do the moral thing, it moved me very much.''

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) Tim Robbins and Marcia Gay Harden are a couple whose lives take a turn when he's suspected of murdering a friend's child in ``Mystic River.'' Both are nominated for Academy Awards.

(2) Marcia Gay Harden