SEA WOLF\A level-headed young actor copes with teen-idol status, storm-tossed\TV and film roles.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Writer

Scott Wolf has weathered many a storm in his brief but eventful acting career.

There were the sea-sickening ups and downs of the fate of his television series, "Party of Five" - which have considerably calmed since the Fox network show's ratings stabilized and it won this year's Golden Globe award for Best Television Drama.

Then there's the teen-idol business that playing "Party's" 17-year-old Bailey foisted on the serious, 27-year-old actor. And even those who don't view Wolf as a bopper babe-object often view him as, well, a guy who looks an awful lot like he could be Tom Cruise's little brother.

Certainly, looming cancellation, panting adolescents and constant comparisons with a big star stir up inner turmoil. But setting out to make "White Squall" - a movie based on a true sea disaster - triggered a burst of trepidation like nothing else.

"My family had a boat when I was younger, and we had a bad accident in it," Wolf explained. "It ran aground, my mom was thrown through the cabin and broke several ribs. It was kind of traumatic; it made me afraid of the water and the sea. So it was kind of daunting for me to head out there for a few months.

"But the beauty of it was that I really had no choice but to be out there," he noted - a good half of the movie takes place shipboard. "And being on the ocean with some people who had a good, strong appreciation of what it is really bled into my own system. My fear turned into a healthy respect for the sea. Surrendering to your powerlessness in the face of it is something that I needed to do."

Indeed, Wolf could not have picked a saltier script, nor a better-seasoned crew, with which to plunge back into the water. Directed by Ridley Scott, who'd just come off the Christopher Columbus epic "1492: Conquest of Paradise," "Squall" was a marvel of trouble-free seagoing cinema in an era marked by such leak-springing vessels as "Cutthroat Island" and "Waterworld."

Still, the efficient but arduous "Squall" shoot was as grueling as it was exciting, ranging over 10,000 miles of ocean from the eastern Caribbean to South Africa's Cape of Good Hope to the Mediterranean island of Malta.

The young cast's experience inevitably paralleled that of the real crew of the Albatross 35 years ago - with one merciful exception. A floating prep school that taught a specially selected crew of teen-agers both sailing and innumerable rites of manhood, the brigantine was skippered by the tough-but-caring Capt. Christopher Sheldon (played in the movie by Jeff Bridges).

Toward the end of a months-long cruise of the Caribbean and South Pacific, the Albatross was struck by the freak squall of the title - a sudden, localized microburst of hurricane-force proportions - that capsized the craft in 90 seconds. Sheldon lost two staffers (including the ship's doctor, his wife, Alice) and four of the student crewmen.

One of the youthful survivors, Chuck Gieg, had kept a log of the fateful voyage. That material was the basis for Todd Robinson's screenplay. Despite his hydrophobia, the script and the chance to play Gieg were too compelling for Wolf to decline.

"The script was really moving and powerful and about something," said Wolf, whose big-screen work previously had been confined to the likes of "Double Dragon" and "Teenage Bonnie and Klepto Clyde." "So many scripts that you come across, they just aren't about anything. And scripts can be tricky and manipulative, but this wasn't. It was just honest."

Wolf's own acting honesty was tested by the real Gieg's appearance at several of the movie's far-flung locations.

"Having him around was invaluable, though I was intimidated by meeting him at first," Wolf admitted. "I felt it would be impossible not to feel some sense of obligation to him as a person. But I knew my job wasn't to mimic him, and to use who he actually was in the creation of the character.

"Luckily, he's just a really kind, good person, and right off the bat he instilled a trust in me," Wolf was relieved to discover. "Anything he could give me, he would and did. And firsthand talking to the person who actually lived through this experience was just the kind of information you try to find so often as an actor but is rarely available to you."

It's the H words - honesty and humanity - that Wolf says he cherishes most in a role. According to "Squall" director Scott, he brings the same virtues to his work.

"Scott's got a very honest, open quality," the filmmaker said. "He's like an open book, in a way, which I felt Gieg had to be. It's a plus in any actor."

And, conversely, in any story. That's not only what sent Wolf out to sea; it's also what has kept him going through all the "Party of Five" cancellation rumors and pressures to increase ratings.

"It's a nice show - honest, moving and funny," Wolf said of the series, in which five orphaned siblings struggle to stay together as a family while facing the myriad mysteries of growing up. "It's human, and I'm proud of that. Hopefully, that will be what continues to draw me to work.

"There is pressure to find an audience," Wolf conceded. "As much as we'd all like to cocoon ourselves, do what we feel is fulfilling and worthwhile, if we want to keep doing it, people have to watch. There is a really strong following for the show, and I think that its appeal has broadened a bit in this past year. As we move further away from the parents' deaths, chronologically, it means the characters move further away from that emotionally. It's now about their lives, and that is watchable."

Playing the confused Bailey has made Wolf more of a fan magazine heartthrob than the conventionally cuddlier Matthew Fox who, as the eldest "Party"-er, is stuck with the surrogate dad role.

"To me, he's a tragic character," Wolf said, trying to explain Bailey's appeal. "He's got such a strong, good heart, but he always trips himself up into a place where he's in a bad way. I think people are attracted to his compassion for others. And the good thing is that he's at an age when he's constantly changing and being hit with new information. That keeps it fresh from an actor's standpoint."

What isn't so great from an actor's standpoint is the specter of transient teen idolhood. It's especially disorienting for a guy who grew up in New Jersey, and didn't even consider acting professionally until after he graduated from George Washington University. Yet Wolf seems to reserve the same kind of thoughtful respect for his young female fans that he holds for filmmakers, fellow actors, sailors ... indeed, it appears, for everybody.

"Most of my days are spent working on the set, so I don't really see it a lot," he said. "Every once in a while, I'll forget about it and go to the mall to pick up a disc and a bite to eat. I'll remember then that people know who I am.

"But that audience is as important as any other," he said. "The fact that young people are interested is a positive, good thing. As far as teen idol, I just try to laugh that off - 'cause I don't know how else to deal with that. When I grew up, there were people like Leif Garrett and Shaun Cassidy. Do I see myself as someone like that? No, I don't."

Egregious as any comparison is, the Tom Cruise thing is easier to live with.

"It can get oppressive," Wolf said of the remarkable resemblance. "But when you're starting out, it's expected to be compared to someone else. And I'm flattered by the comparison; I'm a fan of his work and, let's face it, I could do a lot worse."

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Photo (1--Cover--Color) His ship's come in Scott Wolf ('Party of Five') heads to the high seas for his big-screen debut in 'White Squall' Tom Mendoza/Daily News (2) "He's just a really kind, good person, and right off the bat he instilled a trust in me," actor Scott Wolf says of Chuck Gieg, the real-life shipwreck survivor he portrays in "White Squall." (3) In "White Squall," Scott Wolf, left, plays a student aboard a floating school, skippered by Jeff Bridges and Caroline Goodall as the captain's wife. (4) "As far as (being a) teen idol, I just try to laugh that off - 'cause I don't know how else to deal with that," Wolf says.