STAR TREK: A NEW GENERATION EMERGES : FOLLOWING AMBIVALENTLY IN MOM OR DAD'S FOOTSTEPS.

Byline: Alexander Bandon The New York Times

She would like to make one thing clear: Angelina Jolie is not Jon Voight's daughter. OK, technically she is, but that's not her identity. (Once, on Spanish television, she denied she was even related.)

How Jolie perceives herself is still difficult to say, a problem that plagues many second-generation actors. As they gain prominence, so do their family ties, and that leaves many of them feeling as if they are taken less seriously.

Jolie, 21, for example, has played many strong, intelligent women, from a smart and sexy computer whiz in last year's ``Hackers'' to a tough but ultra-feminine criminal in the forthcoming ``Playing God.'' In ``Foxfire,'' she plays Legs Sadovsky, a drifter who captures the attention of four high school girls.

Yet no matter how strong the characters or her performance, Jolie keeps being introduced as Jon Voight's daughter. She doesn't go by her full name, Angelina Jolie Voight, she says, ``because I'm not my dad, and I think people might have expected me to be him.

``I might never have known if I was being treated a certain way because it was me or because as soon as they were introduced to me they connected me with my dad.''

Jolie is just one of many new actors and directors who are the progeny of successful Hollywood players, a group that includes Mira Sorvino (daughter of Paul Sorvino), Fraser C. Heston (son of Charlton Heston), Jared Harris (son of Richard Harris), Liv Tyler (daughter of rock singer Steven Tyler), Toby Stephens (son of Maggie Smith) and the ubiquitous Gwyneth Paltrow (daughter of Blythe Danner).

Following not only in their parents' footsteps but in the wake of earlier star offspring like Bridget Fonda (granddaughter of Henry Fonda, daughter of Peter Fonda), Campbell Scott (son of George G. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst) and Laura Dern (daughter of Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd), these newcomers are finding that having a famous name can be a mixed blessing.

They might get auditions based on their parents' reputations, and sometimes with the help of their parents' agents, but they can also be referred to as ``members of the Lucky Sperm Club,'' as the executive producer of ``Foxfire,'' Paige Simpson, puts it.

The children of stars are constantly expressing frustration that as much attention is paid to their parentage as to their talent. Nick Cassavetes, the son of John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands, prefers not to talk to the press about his family, even though he just finished directing his mother in ``Unhook the Stars.''

Most second-generation actors (just as most second-generation business executives) share his sentiment. ``They don't want to think they get work just because their parents are famous,'' says Marcia Ross, vice president of talent for Disney and Touchstone feature films. ``They want to be cast on their own talent.''

Voight and Angelina's mother, Marcheline Bertrand, deliberately gave their two children middle names that would work as last names so they could choose anonymity. ``It's kind of hard for the children of leading actors,'' Voight says. ``If they say, `Oh, you're Jon Voight's daughter,' then there are some expectations.''

Ross agrees. ``I think you are scrutinized a lot more if you have talented parents,'' she says. Your bloodline may get you in, ``but if it turns out you're not good, you are out the door a lot faster.''

She adds, ``You get held up to the standard of your parent.''

That's what Chiara Mastroianni, the daughter of Marcello Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve, found when she began. ``It's true that in the beginning somehow you haven't worked yet, but people know who you are because of your parents,'' Mastroianni says, ``and they expect more of you. It's understandable, because if I went to a doctor who is the son of a famous doctor, I would expect him to be good, too.''

(Mastroianni appears with her father in the French film ``Three Lives and Only One Death,'' which will be shown as part of the New York Film Festival in October.)

Such comparisons can be harmful for actors just starting out. Their first performance is often compared to one by a parent who has practiced the craft for years. Ross points to the example of Sofia Coppola, who had a supporting role in her father's ``Godfather, Part III.'' Coppola's performance was savaged by critics.

``I bet if she hadn't been his daughter, the reviews would have been bad, but they wouldn't have been that bad,'' Ross says. Coppola has since given up acting to become a fashion designer.

Some parents, Voight included, discourage their children from following in their footsteps. Paul Sorvino, father of Mira, tried to persuade his daughter not to become an actress. ``I didn't want her to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous rejection,'' he says. ``But she persevered.'' (That's an understatement. She won an Oscar for her performance in ``Mighty Aphrodite.'')

Jolie, like Sorvino and Paltrow, is proving that her talent can stand on its own. She will be in several movies opening this year and next. Until recently, she belonged to the Met Theatre group in Los Angeles, working on her skills alongside veteran actors Holly Hunter, Ed Harris and Amy Madigan.

From them, as well as from her parents - her mother, Bertrand, studied with Lee Strasberg before quitting to raise her children - she learned some valuable techniques.

With sleepy blue eyes that are clearly her father's and full lips that would rival Liv Tyler's, Jolie exudes intensity. One moment she can be sultry, the next she can charm you with mischevious eyes. Her presence - and perhaps her tattoos, which are visible in the movie - is what landed her the role of Legs.

``She was introduced to me as Jon Voight's daughter,'' Simpson says. ``But she comes in and you can't not look at her.''

Renee Taylor, who cast Jolie in ``Love Is All There Is,'' which Taylor is directing with her husband, Joe Bologna, says: ``I gasped when I met her. She was the first person who read and the last person who read. I just thought she was breathtakingly beautiful.'' Taylor says she didn't know until later that Jolie was Voight's daughter.

Of course there are advantages to having a working actor as a father. For one, you get to play together. ``Before I was about to do `Foxfire,' he was going to do `Heat,' '' Jolie says of Voight. ``And I remember meeting him in his bedroom and showing him my butterfly knife and saying'' - her voice turns to mock excitement - `` `So this is what I'll carry and these are the pants I'm wearing!' And he came out with his bracelets and his necklace and his pinky ring and said, `So I've got this and I think I'm going to have this on my face and I've got hair extensions ... ' And it was just like two kids playing dress-up.''

Besides, as Mastroianni says, ``I know I'm lucky, because so many people want this job. I would find it very obscene to be complaining about my name. When people change their name, you always find out'' their identity anyway.

Emerging from her father's shadow is only half the battle for Jolie. Like Paltrow, who is dating Brad Pitt, she's doing double duty as both a famous daughter and half of a famous couple.

In March, Jolie married English actor Jonny Lee Miller (``Trainspotting''), whom she met on the set of ``Hackers.'' The wedding, a small civil ceremony attended only by her mother and Miller's best friend, was a testament to Jolie's offbeat approach to life.

Miller wore black leather, while the bride donned black rubber pants and a white shirt with the groom's name written in her blood across the back. Why, you ask? ``It's your husband,'' she answers with a sly grin. ``You're about to marry him. You can sacrifice a little to make it really special.'' (She drew the blood herself, ``very carefully,'' she says, ``with a clean surgical needle.'')

Soon after, on a European junket for ``Hackers,'' she found people caring more about her father and husband than about her. ``It was weird to immediately be married, and then you kind of lose your identity,'' Jolie laments. ``You're suddenly somebody's wife. And you're like, `Oh, I'm half of a couple now. I've lost me.' We went on some morning show, and they threw rice on us and they gave us toasters. I was thinking, `I need to get myself back.' ''

The search for self led her to take the part in ``Playing God,'' which will be released in the spring. In it, she plays opposite two experienced actors, David Duchovny (of ``The X-Files'') and Timothy Hutton (also the son of a famous actor, Jim Hutton), and she found that she could play characters who have a strength matching her own and the clear sense of identity she once worried about losing.

``She's not a married woman,'' Jolie says of her character. ``She's strong and independent, and I realized I could get it back.''

CAPTION(S):

6 Photos

Photo: (1) Angelina Jolie (``Hackers,'' ``Foxfire'') istrying to step out from the shadow of famous father Jon Voight. She's also married to up-and-coming actor Jonny Lee Miller (``Trainspotting'').

The New York Times

(2--4) Campbell Scott (son of George G. Scott and Colleen Dewhurst), left, Mira Sorvino (daughter of Paul Sorvino) and Gwyneth Paltrow (daughter of Blythe Danner) are emerging as stars in their own right.

(5--6) Today's celebrity offspring can find inspiration in the careers of Bridget Fonda, left (granddaughter of Henry Fonda, daughter of Peter Fonda), and Laura Dern (daughter of Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd).