FLOWERING AS AN ACTRESS ALISON LOHMAN BRINGS STILLNESS, INTROSPECTION TO 'WHITE OLEANDER'.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

Maybe one of these days, Alison Lohman will actually feel validated in her choice of profession. With two high-profile movies in the can and a hot West End play beckoning, that time should be now. But the fast-rising star of ``White Oleander,'' which opened Friday, comes across as anything but a queen of self-promotion.

Or even a princess.

``I don't even know why I'm an actor, seriously. I don't know how I keep getting parts,'' says Lohman with a slightly embarrassed laugh. ``I do love it. I love using my imagination and getting outside myself, because sometimes it gets boring just being you.''

Her hair cropped short and dyed brown for her role in the Ridley Scott-directed comedy ``Matchstick Men,'' Lohman bears no resemblance to the waifish blonde adorning all the ``White Oleander'' ads. She co-stars with Michelle Pfeiffer, Renee Zellweger and Robin Wright Penn. The film was made a year and a half ago, when Lohman was 21, but the actress - who ages from 15 to 18 - easily pulls off playing a high-schooler.

``White Oleander'' actually affords Lohman several transformations. After her mother Ingrid Magnusson (Pfeiffer) is jailed for poisoning a lover, Lohman's Astrid bounces around a series of L.A. foster homes, changing her demeanor and appearance with each new mother figure or family she enters. The film is based on Janet Fitch's best-selling novel - an Oprah Winfrey Book Club selection.

Lohman had read the book before seeing the script. Like the 400 actresses she eventually beat out for the role, Lohman - a Palm Springs native - recognized in Astrid a plum part when she saw one.

But there was a barrier. Lohman had shaved her head for a part in the film ``Dragonfly'' and had to audition with a wig. The film's casting director initially dismissed Lohman, claiming she had the wrong face for the assignment.

In fact, she did. ``My manager was like, 'Wear your wig. You can pull it off,' '' recalls Lohman. ``Unfortunately, I didn't. I put the wig on too low, and the casting director told my manager that I had too low of a forehead.''

The producers and director Peter Kosminsky circled back to Lohman, who had previously starred in the series ``Pasadena'' and the TV film ``Sharing the Secret.'' Six auditions later, she won the part.

``It was her stillness,'' recalls Kosminsky. ``Alison is so still and such a great watcher. She understands that less is more in movies. I had said to myself very early on that unless I could find someone I thought could really carry this movie alongside some really high-voltage actors, I couldn't do this movie.''

``I was liberated very early on from the attitude at Warner Bros.,'' he continues. ``They were happy to go with an unknown.''

Lohman doesn't figure to be unknown much longer. ``Matchstick Men'' casts her as the daughter of nervous con man Nicolas Cage. For the next three months, she'll join Kieran Culkin and Colin Hanks as the next cast of Kenneth Lonergan's play ``This Is Our Youth'' in London.

The experience will mark Lohman's return to the stage for the first time in five years. A regular player in community theater in the Palm Springs area during her teen years, Lohman won a Desert Theater League Award playing the title role in the musical ``Annie'' at College of the Desert. She was 11 years old.

And she had that stillness even then, says Michele Gaines, the production's choreographer and a professor of theater and dance at the College of the Desert. It's been more than a decade, but Gaines still speaks fondly of ``our Alison,'' the daughter of a nurturing, nonshow-business family that bought her the dog that played Annie's pal Sandy in the production.

``The word that describes Alison is 'honest.' There was no work to be done to get her to be sincere. She just was,'' says Gaines. ``She's a sweet child who does not forget her roots.''

Perhaps it's a function of the quietness and insecurity that Lohman insists she possesses, but the actress - who lives in Santa Monica - seems older than her 23 years and looks younger. Introspective and unfailingly polite, she'll let her room-service meal get cold rather than be the only one eating during an interview.

``I think I filter my thoughts more than I would like to,'' she says. ``I'd like to be a little more spontaneous, to be the funny one, but I get really shy. Anyway, it's more fun to watch people than to be actually involved with them.''

Her own ``watcher'' tendencies made Lohman identify particularly strongly with Astrid, a character Lohman calls ``a survivor, so brave and fearless.'' To prepare for the role, Lohman visited MacLaren's Children Center in L.A. and did a lot of reading. Mostly, she relied on Fitch's book, director Kosminsky, Astrid's ever-changing wardrobe and her own subconscious.

``I think what really helps me is just dreaming about the character,'' she says. ``Maybe just kind of dreaming about the way she walks, the way she carries herself. Sometimes I'd be driving or walking around, doing whatever, and I'd see a girl who would remind me of Astrid at a different age.''

Since Astrid was the last of the four principal roles cast, Lohman had to get over any potential intimidation. She had been a fan of Robin Wright Penn's since watching ``The Princess Bride'' as a child. ``And then you're going to act with Robin Wright Penn? You can't really wrap your head around that,'' she says.

Lohman shares a handful of scenes with Pfeiffer, whose character winds up in jail barely half an hour into the movie. The bond between Ingrid and Astrid is intensely close, but also ultimately destructive.

Lohman understands. To a certain extent.

``I think with every mother/daughter relationship, there's love and hate,'' she says. ``I'm really close with my mother, so I can really relate with Astrid about just thinking her mother is the world.''

``But my mom's nothing like Ingrid at all,'' Lohman adds, laughing. ``She's not selfish.''

From picks to flicks

Oprah Book Club selections made into movies or TV films:

``The Deep End of the Ocean,'' Jacquelyn Mitchard

``Ellen Foster,'' Kaye Gibbons (TV)

``House of Sand and Fog,'' Andre Dubus III (in development)

``A Lesson Before Dying,'' Ernest Gaines (TV)

``A Map of the World,'' Jane Hamilton 

``Midwives,'' Chris Bohjalian (TV)

``The Pilot's Wife,'' Anita Shreve (TV)

``Songs in Ordinary Time,'' Mary McGarry Morris (TV)

``We Were the Mulvaneys,'' Joyce Carol Oates (TV)

``Where the Heart Is,'' Billie Letts 

``White Oleander,'' Janet Fitch

CAPTION(S):

5 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) budding star

`White Oleander's' Alison Lohman found desert upbringing fertile ground

(2) no caption (Alison Lohman)

John McCoy/Staff Photographer

(3) Michelle Pfeiffer, left, and Alison Lohman share a strong mother- daughter bond in ``White Oleander.''

(4) no caption (Book: ``White Oleander'')

(5) no caption (Book: ``The Deep End of the Ocean'')

Box:

From picks to flicks (see text)