NORTON'S YEAR ACTOR STEPS BACK INTO THE SPOTLIGHT WITH THREE NEW FILMS.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

You want to congratulate Edward Norton on a pretty good comeback year: The surprise hit ``The Illusionist,'' the festival standout ``Down in the Valley'' and the recently released, critically acclaimed Somerset Maugham adaptation ``The Painted Veil.''

It's the most we've seen of him since 2003, when the Yale-educated actor made a rare appearance in a mindless entertainment, ``The Italian Job.'' Between then and 2006, his only other film role was an extended cameo in ``Kingdom of Heaven,'' and his face was covered by a golden mask through that one.

But as is somewhat typical for the polite but strong-willed actor, he takes issue with the whole notion of ``comeback,'' no matter how admiringly offered.

``Work I'd been doing across 2004 and 2005 all came out last year, that's all,'' Norton, 37, explains. ``People said, `Why'd you go away for so long?' I just didn't work for a year; what's the big deal?

``If you think about it, that question flows out of a strange place, which is the assumption that an actor should be appearing at regular intervals.

``To be honest with you, I think it's a function of celebrity culture. All this absurdity of what's this person doing, and is this person over, and is this the right thing ...

``It's all this chat that has nothing to do with work or creativity or any of those things. And if you get yourself sucked into that conversation, you can get spun into a place where you're working for reasons that have nothing to do with what your real interest in this whole thing is.''

A generation or so ago, this attitude was common among actors who considered themselves artisans first and career-obsessed commodities, well, somewhere lower down their priority lists. But in our modern movie world, it makes Norton a contrarian.

Contrary ... or determined?

But that seems to be OK with him. For one thing, he's been called worse. And he genuinely seems thrilled whenever he talks about creativity for its own sake.

Besides, contrariness is just a function of determination, a quality Norton has in abundance. ``Painted Veil'' is a prime example. He's been attached to the piece for seven years, developing it with screenwriter Ron Nyswaner (``Philadelphia'') and then director John Curran (``We Don't Live Here Anymore''). Norton and co-star Naomi Watts both have producing credits. And when the Chinese government -- which was given final cut of the film in exchange for permission to shoot it in the scenic mountain region of Guangxi Province -- requested some major changes, Norton led the effort that kept footage trims to under a minute.

Norton admits that he had a natural passion for the material, in which he plays a nerdish, 1920s English bacteriologist who forces his cheating wife (Watts) to accompany him to a remote, cholera-plagued village. The actor's Ivy League degree is in Asian history. He once worked in Japan for his architect grandfather's firm, and his father lived in China for six years, where Edward often visited him.

Understanding the attraction

``But that wasn't the impetus for it, I didn't go out looking for a movie about China borne of my own interest,'' he clarifies. ``When you ask, why stick with this for seven years? We all grow up on David Lean and `Out of Africa,' and actors selfishly watch those movies and go, ``That must have been a really great experience to make.' So when I ran into this, I wondered if this could be one of those type of movies that hadn't been done.''

But, while Norton, Nyswaner and Curran worked to expand the scope and sociopolitical context of Maugham's relationship-centered novel, it was indeed his bottled-up character's coming to terms with his deep rage and passions that, the actor says, was ``Painted Veil's'' greatest attraction.

And its biggest challenge.

``It was by far the most intimate relationship portrayal that I've ever tried to do,'' he admits. ``It's a very, very tight little dance that me and Naomi had to do, and it was quite intimidating. But a lot of it had to do with recognizing it as modern, as not different from your own, even despite the Britishness of it.

``And as a method of work, I don't usually find myself referencing my own personal experiences,'' Norton continues. ``I find that I get drawn to the exotic, and I like the process of study, absorption or imagination.

``But for both of us, I think, for this there was more of that classic investigation of our own experiences, sharing them with each other and mining feelings we've actually had ourselves -- which was really interesting for me, I have to say. It was a different way of working. It was a little bit more self-exposing.''

Private life stays that way

That's something which, as his earlier dismissal of celebrity culture indicates, Norton abhors. He's been militantly private even for an age when many actors have learned the hard way not to discuss their personal relationships in public -- and Norton has dated such very public figures as Courtney Love and Salma Hayek.

One touchy subject Norton doesn't mind addressing, though, is his confrontational reputation. Since his Academy Award-nominated movie debut in the 1996 ``Primal Fear,'' he's been associated with a high percentage of productions considered controversial (``The People vs. Larry Flynt,'' ``Fight Club,'' ``25th Hour''), contentious (``The Score,'' ``Frida,'' ``Italian Job'') or both (``American History X''). Norton earned his second acting Oscar nomination for that last one, but ``X'' director Tony Kaye fought to have his name removed from the film's credits -- partially because, Kaye claimed, Norton re-edited it against his wishes.

Norton admits that he's contributed more than his on-

screen performance to ``Frida,'' ``Down in the Valley,'' ``Veil'' and others, and that he can be a tough collaborator.

``He takes that out on the screenwriter every now and then,'' Nyswaner cracks when the question is raised about how much the cussedness displayed in ``Veil'' is a reflection of Norton's actual personality.

It's a joke, but if the actor has overstepped boundaries in the past, he appears to have learned from it.

Gravitational pull

``I'm starting to leave the middle out and gravitate totally to one or the other,'' explains Norton, who has directed one film he's starred in, ``Keeping the Faith,'' and is preparing to do so again with an adaptation of the novel ``Motherless Brooklyn.''

``It's either a script that I love with a director whose work I love, and I literally just want to do nothing with anything but my play as an actor -- or I want to just build it up with my company and partners from the start.

``I think I'm learning to be a little more discerning about who I'll mix the roles up with. You want to be sure, when you're doing that, that you're with people who are completely celebratory of it. They trust you, you trust them, your wavelengths are in sync, so nothing other than genuine, good collaboration comes of it.''

That discernment, obviously, extends to material. Which is partially why Norton seems to disappear for years at a time, then inevitably resurfaces in something, or a bunch of things, that a lot of thought has gone into.

Just don't ever call that process a comeback.

``I feel incredibly lucky,'' he says. ``At the moment, I get to see an enormous range of types of material. The bulk of it isn't stuff that interests me, but there's always something that does.''

Bob Strauss [phone]

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Bagging on Oscar gifts

Edward Norton is active in many political, environmental and charitable causes, ranging from Nature Conservancy projects in China to the Middle East Peacemaker's Fund at his alma mater, Yale University.

But one cause he doesn't want to take too much credit for is a recently successful, ethical one: convincing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to end the practice of handing Oscar presenters and winners gift baskets full of goodies worth around $100,000 per basket.

Officially, of course, the swag windfall will be discontinued -- starting with this year's ceremony -- because the IRS began demanding that recipients pay taxes on the stuff, which typically includes pricey electronics, jewelry, clothing, services and trips.

Norton points out, however, that he wasn't the only academy member who found the notion of rewarding the already-rich with even more rewards unseemly.

``It hasn't been some great banner-waving type of thing,'' he shrugs.

``I think a number of us have just called at different times and said, listen, our two cents is that this is not what we connect with. And to the degree that any of us participate in a feeling of community within the industry, if you want us -- as members of the academy -- to participate, you've gotta get rid of this stuff because it's out of step with what's going on in the world.

``If we're coming to celebrate the spirit of our industry, its engagement in the world at large, then let's have it reflect what we do, not what we take out of this.''

-- B.S.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Unveiled

Edward Norton on his reputation, passion for acting

(2) no caption (Edward Norton)

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer

(3) Edward Norton plays a bacteriologist -- and vindictive husband -- whose work takes him and his wife to 1920s China in ``The Painted Veil.'' ``It was by far the most intimate relationship portrayal that I've ever tried to do ... and it was quite intimidating,'' he says.