CRAZY FOR YOU BRITTANY MURPHY'S CAREER IS SURGING, BUT THE ACTRESS KNOWN FOR TROUBLED CHARACTERS HAS KEPT HER HEAD.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

``Oh, who knows what normal is, anyway?'' Brittany Murphy giggles through the phone. ``Sane, insane, who the heck knows? I'll be darned if I'll ever figure that out.''

She is too modest. A 10-year veteran of the acting game at the tender age of 23, Murphy has apparently managed to remain happy and keep her head on straight in a business notorious for mangling the psyches of its younger practitioners. At the same time, she's also made something of a specialty out of playing deeply disturbed young women.

Even as she's driving around her native New Jersey, Murphy's naturally bubbly personality comes through loud and clear over a dubious cell phone connection from the other side of the continent. Yet this is the same girl who has starred in the TV version of the classic crazy kids romance ``David and Lisa''; who won acclaim in the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's searing, incest-themed drama ``A View From the Bridge''; who so poignantly played the poultry-obsessed anorexic in the film ``Girl, Interrupted'' and has long been the first choice to play Janis Joplin in ``Piece of My Heart,'' the oft-delayed movie bio of the self-destructive blues singer.

And Murphy's the one who's getting the lion's share of praise for the new hit thriller ``Don't Say a Word,'' for her portrayal of an institutionalized depressive with a secret that ruthless criminals will take any steps necessary to extract from her shattered mind.

Michael Douglas plays the brilliant psychiatrist desperate to reach the girl and the information she holds - desperate because the bad guys have kidnapped his own daughter and will kill her if he doesn't. But Murphy's Elisabeth Burrows may not be as crazy as she appears, which complicates the good doctor's task even further.

``She may be more interested in protecting herself than anything else,'' Murphy explains. ``But she does have post-traumatic stress syndrome. I did do some research at (the storied New York mental hospital) Bellevue and the film's technical consultant, Dr. Robert Berger, helped key me into some of it.

``But the performance isn't based on any particular condition,'' she adds. ``She's just kind of an entity unto herself. When I take on a character, it only comes from a visceral place. It's a pure, not very analytical or cerebral process, just something I sort of know and feel when it's right. I guess I just use my instincts.''

Unstable characters?

Pure is a word Murphy likes a lot. And while she's quick to point out that she doesn't exclusively play crazies - she made her movie debut in ``Clueless,'' after all, and has an enjoyable if unlikely regular job providing the voice of Texas trailer princess Luanne on the animated TV series ``King of the Hill'' - it's that rawness of feeling they represent that keeps drawing the actress to emotionally unstable characters.

``I've always felt that people who are emotionally troubled are very pure, in that their senses are very heightened to everything that's going on,'' Murphy says. ``Being hyper-intuitive like that, you can end up institutionalized. These people are unguarded by the boundaries most of us are in life. And it's very comfortable for me to play a character that comes from such a pure, unguarded place.''

According to those who know her, there's a certain purity to the way Murphy, more sanely, expresses her exuberant love of life and her work.

``Brittany is the greatest; I went out on a date with her when we were 15,'' says fellow former child actor David Krumholtz, who co-stars with Murphy in the upcoming romantic comedy ``Sidewalks of New York.'' ``Well, what I thought was a date, but she brought two friends along with her.

``But she blew me away while we were making this movie. My job was pretty much to enjoy her company, and she was this amazing spitfire of energy, just a bundle of joy. She would sing to me, do dance routines ... I'm the kind of guy who tends not to let people in a lot, but she would have none of that.''

True to form, however, Murphy plays a young woman in ``Sidewalks'' who's trapped in an emotionally trying affair with a much older married man, portrayed by Stanley Tucci. Later this month, she'll be seen opposite Drew Barrymore, the two of them a pair of best friends/teen-age mothers, in ``Riding in Cars With Boys.'' Also coming up is a stint as a crystal meth-addict stripper in the independent feature ``Spun.'' And Murphy's just been tapped to play the female lead in the controversial rap star Eminem's first feature vehicle which, though details are sketchy, obviously has psychodrama written all over it.

But drama of another, even more psychotic kind is having an impact on what was expected to be the biggest movie season in Murphy's career. ``Sidewalks,'' which was originally scheduled to be released on Sept. 22, was postponed until at least November after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. And even though ``Don't Say a Word'' came out as planned last Friday, some considered its deadly-jeopardy-in-Manhattan theme less than appropriate for the moment. The nostalgic ``Riding in Cars'' is also set in New York.

Characteristically, Murphy has as positive an outlook on the situation as could be considered reasonable.

``It's a shame,'' says Murphy, who was in New York with her mother, Sharon, when the attack occurred. ``But as long as there's not a negative message involved - and I don't agree with films that have negative messages, anyway - it doesn't bother me if they're set in Manhattan. All of these films I'm involved in have beautiful stories, and I know, personally, that I'd be drawn to anything that has to do with New York.

``And I'm more proud now than I possibly could have been three weeks ago to be in all of these films that are set in the greatest city in the world, in my opinion,'' adds Murphy, who's been living and working in L.A. for most of the past decade. ``And right now, because of these men working so tirelessly and all of the families sticking together and the camaraderie in the city, New York is the greatest representation of America and bravery and everything good and pure in the world.''

Proper perspective

As for what effect delays and such might have on what was supposed to be Murphy Season, the actress couldn't be less concerned.

``I don't really think in terms of degrees of stardom,'' she explains. ``Maybe the business people around me do, but it's not a part of how I lead my life. I love to work, I do my job and I don't ever think about the repercussions afterwards. It's not who I am, and worrying about that stuff is not within the core of my being. I really like to live for the now.''

Sounds like an eminently sane way to deal with the madness of show business. But there's more to it.

``The simple things in life make me feel comfortable and give me security,'' she says. ``Just basically having a good, wonderful family, my mom, health and happiness inside of yourself. But I think that's true in any business you're in, whether you're an accountant or a brave police officer or an actor.''

Suddenly, Murphy's voice grows concerned. Her car is heading for the Holland Tunnel, into Manhattan, and she warns we should wrap up the interview before the cell phone signal cuts out.

But then something sends her into spontaneous squeals of delight and, interview/schminterview, she just has to share.

``Oh look! There are big, beautiful American flags up on every single tunnel ... and Gap ads right above them!'' Murphy reports. Then, amid bursts of happy laughter, she starts singing ``America the Beautiful.''

Who's to say what's normal, indeed. These days, more than ever.

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Brittany Murphy says she finds comfort playing afflicted women. ``People who are emotionally troubled are very pure, in that their senses are very heightened to everything that's going on.''