RUMOR IS, SHE'S HEADED FOR STARDOM.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

EVAN RACHEL WOOD doesn't play the violin, and she has no idea how a former James Bond takes his real-life martinis ... or whether he drinks them at all.

OK, so maybe these aren't little secrets or even big secrets. Just facts.

``There's this whole rumor going around that (actor) Roger Moore is my uncle,'' says Wood, the 14-year-old star of ``Little Secrets'' and ``Simone.'' ``I don't know how that got started, but everyone's always asking me. One article said that Roger Moore is very proud of his niece. I said, 'What?! That's a lie because he's not my uncle. There's no way you could have gotten that quote.' ''

As for her dexterous-sounding violin work in ``Little Secrets,'' well, the music may not come from Wood's fiddle, but the actress went through some rigorous preparation nonetheless.

``I had to memorize the songs, where the bow went on the strings and the fingers. Everything about it was difficult,'' she explains. ``They videotaped the woman who played all the songs in the movies. On the tape was a lesson on how to hold the violin, how to hold the bow, how to move it, everything. Basically I just had to play copycat.''

Wood, dressed in head-to-toe denim during a recent interview, is old enough to register amusement in spite of her insistence that she enjoys being a kid. Of course, if she keeps working at this pace, people figure to start asking Roger Moore about how Evan Rachel Wood takes her drinks.

``Simone,'' filmed when she was 12, has her sharing scenes with Al Pacino. In the family-friendly ``Little Secrets,'' she plays Emily, a young violinist who runs a secret-keeping booth for the neighborhood children, appearing in practically every scene. She played Billy Campbell's bulimic daughter, Jesse, on the popular but canceled ABC series ``Once and Again'' and has popped up as C.J. Cregg's (Allison Janney's) niece, Hogan, on ``The West Wing.''

``We were fortunate to get her,'' ``Little Secrets'' director Blair Treu says of Wood. ``When I first saw her, I thought she was a cut above most kids her age. She has that innocence, that poise and that naivete, but she also has a certain class and sophistication to her.''

Evan's father, Ira David Wood III, maintains he could retire if he had a quarter for every person who has described his daughter as possessing an ``old soul.''

``You look in her eyes and you see something wise there beyond her years. I'm amazed by it,'' says the elder Wood. ``There's a line from 'Man of La Mancha': 'I hope to add a measure of grace to the world.' Evan really wants to say things, touch people's lives and make the world better.''

Ira Wood, the founder and executive director of Theatre in the Park in Raleigh, N.C., figures to be more than a little responsible for the Wood performance gene. All three of the Wood children - Evan's older brother, Ira David IV, is also an actor - grew up around rehearsals of Shakespeare and the theater's annual production of ``A Christmas Carol.'' Evan has shared the TIP stage with future stars Frankie Muniz (``Malcolm in the Middle'') and Michael C. Hall (``Six Feet Under'').

Ira Wood has watched his share of children move on to stage and film success. He recognized the ``spark'' in his daughter practically from birth.

``When people have that spark, the fire, you can see it,'' he says. ``You can see it in a 3-year-old, and you can see it in a 6-year-old. You just have to say, 'Please, God, let us do the best we can with it before it leaves us and heads on to the next level.' ''

Evan made her stage debut as an infant, being carried on stage as a Cratchit baby in ``A Christmas Carol.'' By age 5, she had an agent. She appeared in a handful of episodes of ``American Gothic'' and as the daughter of the title character in ``Profiler.'' She nabbed a supporting role with Kevin Bacon in ``Digging to China,'' directed by actor Timothy Hutton, and later appeared with Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman in ``Practical Magic.''

Wood enjoys the bonding that takes place on film sets, frequently saying that by the time a movie wraps, she and her fellow actors are like family. She describes ``Once and Again,'' which folded despite a huge fan base, as ``a good learning experience. As an actress, I knew I grew on that show. I learned a lot about directing and writing and editing and everything.''

She is anything but star-struck. Working with Al Pacino (Wood calls him ``Al'') in ``Simone'' is a cool memory. So is going wild in the Salt Lake City Hotel and toilet papering co-star David Gallagher's room during the filming of ``Little Secrets.''

``David and (co-star) Michael (Angarano) reminded me a lot of myself. They were there to have fun, and they don't want to grow up too fast either,'' says Wood. ``And they're both hyper like me.''

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Photo:

Evan Rachel Wood is only 14, but she's starring in two new movies: ``Simone'' and ``Little Secrets.''

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer