MOVIE STUDIOS BETTING ON PACK OF UNKNOWNS : HIGH COST OF HOLLYWOOD STARS PUTS SPOTLIGHT ON NEWCOMERS.

Byline: Jill Gerston The New York Times

Their faces evoke no spark of recognition, and their names - Billy Crudup, Anne Heche, Liev Schreiber, Skeet Ulrich, Rachel Weisz, Renee Zellweger - sound like roll call in your high school algebra class.

They're at an age where some are still paying off their college loans, more are accustomed to Starbucks counters than the banquettes at Drai's, and most are nervous about being interviewed. They're brimming with eagerness and use the word ``lucky'' a lot when describing their careers.

In the next few months their lives are in for seismic jolts, as Hollywood unleashes a wave of major movies featuring them and other unknown young actors in leading roles.

The film industry is crossing its fingers that one or two of these tyros will dazzle audiences and become, as one casting director put it, the ``next new thing.''

``The whole machinery of Hollywood is based on finding people on the way up,'' said Peter Chernin, chairman of 20th Century Fox. ``It's more exciting to go with them than with middle-of-the-road talent. But it's risky. You bet on the thrill of discovery and hope you're going to be right, at least occasionally.''

With studios turning out more movies, stars demanding astronomical salaries and fickle audiences tiring of the same old perfect teeth and chiseled cheekbones, the film industry is more willing than ever to showcase a bevy of beginners.

``I don't remember when there were as many new faces being so prominently exposed,'' said Donna Isaacson, vice president for feature talent at 20th Century Fox, whose divisions are using many of these actors. ``There are many more movies being made, and lots have roles for younger people. Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt are in their 30s. The time is right for a new group.''

Already, the newcomer Matthew McConaughey (pronounced ma-CON-a-hay) is generating feverish buzz (including a two-page spread in Newsweek ABOUT the buzz) - and yet his first big film, ``A Time to Kill,'' based on the John Grisham best seller, will not be released until later this month.

Never mind that few moviegoers can identify this 26-year-old actor, whose has a handful of earlier credits, including small parts in the films ``Dazed and Confused'' and ``Boys on the Side'' and a pivotal role in the new John Sayles drama, ``Lone Star.''

As the centerpiece of a calculated media frenzy that might have daunted Clark Gable, McConaughey won't be bothered by anonymity much longer. (Next, he will film ``Contact'' with Jodie Foster.)

Big things are also expected of Liv Tyler, the lissome 19-year-old beauty starring in Bernardo Bertolucci's Tuscan idyll, ``Stealing Beauty,'' and the quirky, independent film ``Heavy.'' Tyler seems to be everywhere except on the cover of Organic Gardening.

``Whenever I see her, I think, `Just keep your head on,' '' Isaacson said. ``You hope she'll surround herself with smart people, challenge herself artistically and take some time to catch her breath.''

Not likely. The actress has been working nonstop, recently completing ``Inventing the Abbotts,'' based on a short story about sibling rivalry by Sue Miller, and ``That Thing You Do,'' a '60s rock 'n' roll romance that marks Tom Hanks' directorial debut.

Casting agents, directors and studio executives - ever on the prowl for bright young things no one has heard of - traipse to film festivals, acting workshops, London theater productions, off-off Broadway and even college drama departments. Hollywood's latest crop boasts a varied background: from Schreiber, who trained at the Yale School of Drama, to Heche, who got her start playing twins on the soap opera ``Another World.''

``To the general public, these kids are total unknowns, but to people in the industry, they have track records,'' said Marcia Ross, vice president of casting for Walt Disney and Touchstone Pictures, which is releasing ``Ransom,'' with Schreibera. ``We've had them in to read, we've seen their work - in low-budget films, in the theater - before they've gotten to a point where they're getting leads.''

In fact, Marion Dougherty, senior vice president for talent at Warner Bros., recalled testing McConaughey for the role of Julia Roberts' husband in ``Something to Talk About.'' ``He didn't get it because he was too young, but I wrote a letter, which I never do, to our CEOs recommending they get a contract on this kid,'' she said. ``He was that good.''

Acting ability notwithstanding, McConaughey and his young colleagues offer Hollywood an irresistible attraction: cheap talent.

McConaughey received $250,000 for ``A Time to Kill.'' (His asking price has skyrocketed since then.) Weisz described her salary to appear opposite Keanu Reeves in ``Chain Reaction'' as ``a very small fee that is nowhere near a million dollars - not even close.''

Fox's Chernin said: ``If you're casting a big star, you figure you've paid your money for marquee value, and usually one top star is all you can afford. So you cast the rest of the film with the most exciting talent you can find, which is often new talent.''

If a top young star like Chris O'Donnell is not available, Ross observed, ``that doesn't mean you don't make the movie. You look around for someone else.''

To directors, working with unknowns often infuses a film with a raw energy and an element of surprise. Moreover, there are no entourages, bratty behavior or demands for creative control - at least not yet.

``It's exciting to work with people whose whole career is in front of them,'' said Joel Schumacher, the director of ``A Time to Kill.'' ``They inspire me. They don't just give you Emotion 26B or Smile 11A. Sometimes when stars have been told how much we love certain things they do, they start phoning it in.''

``Most of the new crop of young actors and actresses are very professional,'' added Schumacher, who also handled newcomers in ``St. Elmo's Fire'' in 1985 and ``Flatlinears'' in 1990.

``They are committed to being really fine at their craft. We went through an era where it was very popular to be late, lazy, arrogant, not know your lines and smash up hotel rooms. I see that changing. The people coming up now are not poseurs.''

Nor do they seem fearful about plunging into the deep end of the Hollywood pool.

``No way I'm overwhelmed,'' said Zellweger when asked if she was intimidated about working with Tom Cruise in ``Jerry Maguire.'' ``Sure, you're being scrutinized more. But even though you're in a bigger film with bigger stars, when you come down to it, it's the same process.''

If most of the newcomers don't seem fazed by their leap to large roles in big-budget films, some appear apprehensive at suddenly finding themselves swept up in the hype that engulfs a newcomer deemed hot.

``I would like to avoid being the next hot thing and all the hype that goes with it,'' said Weisz. ``I met a producer who said to me about Julia Ormond that after `Sabrina' came out, `The bloom is really off her rose.' It's petrifying that someone would say that.''

(Ormond was 30 when she played the Audrey Hepburn role in the remake of ``Sabrina,'' released last year amid a maelstrom of publicity to disappointing reviews.)

Schreiber, who just finished a workshop production in Seattle of Wendy Wasserstein's new play, ``An American Daughter,'' with Meryl Streep, has similar fears.

``Chasing the buzz distracts you,'' he said. It's why a lot of people burn out in this business. In order to stay sane, you have to just think about doing the job.''

Simon Halls, a publicist with Huvane Baum Halls, who represents several newcomers, including Weisz and Billy Crudup, said that the actors, once discovered, must then deliver.

``When the hype goes away, they have to have the acting chops,'' he said. ``They have to prove they can do the work.'' Several of his young clients, he said, are less interested in seeking the stardom of Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise than ina patterning their careers after those of actors like Ralph Fiennes and Frances McDormand, performers who alternate films with plays and will accept character parts.

``Stardom and lots of money isn't the ultimate goal of these people,'' he said.

Oh, really? That's not a line from Hollywood's script.

``Talk to me a year from now about these kids,'' Isaacson countered. ``Fame is a very powerful aphrodisiac. One thing is definite: When the hype gets overblown, people change. More change than don't.''

And what happens if the movie tanks?

``If the movie is not successful, but you're good in it and you haven't been paid millions of dollars, you keep working,'' said Disney's Ross.

``New talent is judged by the kind of acting they're doing, not the box office they're bringing in. They aren't carrying the movie. What you want people to say is, `Who's that wonderful actress who was so great with Tom Cruise?' ''

Although McConaughey and Tyler appear early favorites on the track to stardom, no one's betting a Malibu beach house on it.

``When there is a magical meeting of the material, the actor and the timing, that's when someone becomes a star,'' said Ross.

And if this year's newcomers never break from the pack of the merely ``promising,'' there are many more - Edward Norton, who got rave reviews for his portrayal of a psychopath in ``Primal Fear'' this spring; Jeffrey Wright in ``Basquiat,'' opening next month, just for starters - ready to supplant them.

``Billy Crudup isn't even Billy Crudup yet, and already people are looking for the next Billy Crudup,'' Ross said, ``just in case his price gets too high.''

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Photo

Photo: The buzz is already fierce on Matthew McConaughey, w ho's set to portray an eager young lawyer in ``A Time to Kill.''