RHEA'S ON THE BALL : THE ACTRESS COACHES BASKETBALL ON SCREEN, HUBBY DANNY AND HER CHILDREN IN REAL LIFE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Writer

Rhea Perlman has major roles in three big films this year. But unlike most actors who make the tough transition from television success to movie stardom, the multi-Emmy winning ``Cheers'' veteran is really, really charged up about ... her new sitcom pilot.

``I like it all,'' said Perlman, whose feature-headlining debut, ``Sunset Park,'' opened Friday. ``Doing good parts and working with good people in anything is great. Of course, I had the best experience, ever, doing `Cheers'; I don't think you can compare that to any other job in history.

``But working on any TV show is a great way of life for an actress who has a family,'' added Perlman, who has three children with her husband of 14 years, producer-director-actor Danny DeVito. ``I like to spend a lot of time with my kids, and the schedule is pretty much normal on a weekly show. It's not a 15-hour day every day.''

Movies, of course, can be much more time-consuming. Especially when they're about utterly unfamiliar subjects. Like, in the diminutive Perlman's case, basketball.

Loosely based on a true story, ``Sunset Park'' tells the tale of a woebegone Brooklyn high school hoops team that, improbably, makes it to the New York City finals under the coaching of a little white woman who starts out knowing nothing about the game.

Perlman could relate.

``Luckily, this character has no experience doing it, so I just went with what was natural to me,'' cracked Perlman, who could at least relate to the film's setting - one of the Brooklyn campuses used for a background location turned out, coincidentally, to have been her actual alma mater. ``I watched a lot of games, I have a couple of friends who are fanatics and a daughter who plays a lot of basketball. I still didn't learn much, but enough to fake it once I had the right lines.

``In the film, though, what the character is good at is knowing people,'' Perlman added. ``She figures out what each kid on the team has got, what their personalities are like and how to use them. They're really the ones that know basketball; they show her the game, and she shows them how to be a team.''

Perlman wasn't the only one in unfamiliar territory. Most of the young men who portray the Sunset Park players were new to either basketball or acting. The two-week rehearsal period prior to filming included a lot of courtside training. A related benefit was the instant camaraderie between Perlman and the young performers, most of whom took to calling her coach instead of Rhea.

``Rhea's very cool,'' said Fredro Starr, a rapper with the group Onyx who plays Sunset's star scorer, Shorty. ``She's very down-to-earth, not like a big star. She would always reassure me and make me think I was accomplishing something, put me in the right state of mind.

``I told her that she reminds me of my outspoken mother: little, but she has a big mouth. I can relate to that.''

Some critics have complained that enough films have been made about white instructors who turn disadvantaged minority youths' lives around. As Starr has indicated, it wasn't a problem for him.

``I don't see this movie as white lady straightens out wild black kids,'' he said. ``The Sunset Park kids show her something, bring something out in her. She was chasing a dream of something she wanted to be great at. She didn't just take these black kids; they took each other on these journeys of self-discovery.''

Added Perlman: ``It was specifically not for a black actress because the story was about a team that was dumped on. The team was 2 and 17 last year, the school has no money; it's a losing proposition all the way, to the extent that they'll give someone like me this job. It was a total insult that this white woman who knows nothing about it becomes the coach of this varsity basketball team, y'know? They should all quit.''

DeVito's ultra-hot Jersey Films outfit (``Pulp Fiction,'' ``Get Shorty'') produced ``Sunset Park,'' as well as ``Matilda,'' the summer release based on a Roald Dahl (``James and the Giant Peach'') children's book, which DeVito also directed. He and Perlman star as the neglectful, clueless parents of a little girl (Mara Wilson) whose genius they fail to recognize.

Perlman loves working with DeVito, who has directed her in the cable TV movie ``The Ratings Game,'' a segment of ``Amazing Stories'' and several episodes of his former sitcom, ``Taxi.''

Actually, though, even when they're not directly collaborating on a project, Perlman and DeVito always seem to be working together.

``When Danny's doing something, there's no separation between life and art; it's all one,'' she said with a laugh. ``We're used to that, we're used to being in that relationship, whether he's directing me or somebody else. If I wasn't involved in his projects and he wasn't involved in mine, I don't think we could be together. It works good!''

Later this year, Perlman will be seen in the Warner Bros. comedy ``Carpool,'' as a determined meter maid hot on the trail of carjacker Tom Arnold. Right now, though, her focus is on ``Pearl,'' a prospective sitcom the Witt-Thomas company (``Golden Girls,'' ``Empty Nest'') is developing from Perlman's idea.

``I play a blue-collar woman who works at a loading dock,'' she explained. ``There's a major university on the other side of the tracks, and I decide to go to school. It's the two-worlds-colliding kind of a thing. It's a cool project.''

Hey, if the show gets picked up, maybe there could be an episode where Pearl coaches the woebegone university basketball team to unlikely victory.

``Hard job,'' Perlman said, rolling her eyes. ``I dunno, it's like a lot of strategy, and you've got to see the whole court and know all that stuff. It's tough.''

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: ``It works good,'' Rhea Perlman enthuses of collabor ating with her husband, Danny DeVito, whose ultra-hot Jersey Films produced her new movie, ``Sunset Park.''