Dec. 15, 1999, 4:08PM

Shooting Stars

'Ripley' actors know fame can easily pass them by

By BRUCE WESTBROOK
Copyright 1999 Houston Chronicle

LOS ANGELES -- Even with his sharp mind, Matt Damon hasn't had time yet to process his new star status. But he knows that -- for now -- he's among Hollywood's "beautiful people."
After all, he won an Oscar for co-writing 1997's Good Will Hunting, for which he also received a best actor nomination, and he played the title role in an even bigger hit, last year's Saving Private Ryan. He's also currently performing for director Robert Redford in the golf film The Legend of Bagger Vance, and Saturday brings the release of his The Talented Mr. Ripley, picturesque, star-driven Oscar bait which seems certain to rake in riches.

Clearly, Damon has arrived. But like his lonely character in Ripley -- a poor boy who longs for the wealthy lifestyle of new friends -- Damon has spent years as an outsider.
"That time I spent waiting to succeed helped me to play Ripley," Damon said here last weekend while finishing his lunch in a suite at the Four Seasons Hotel.
"I connected to Ripley in a lot of ways -- to having your nose pressed against the window for so long."

Poised, polite, soft-spoken and a good listener, Damon seemed to sense he was skirting maudlin ground. He flashed a quick smile, adjusting the baseball cap he wore with a T-shirt and jeans.
"Hey, I have no complaints -- now," he said. "I'm working, and the last thing I want to do is complain.
"But I do know what the tough times are about -- the times that thousands of people in this town are still going through, feeling they have worth and not being recognized -- having creative energy but no outlet."

His new film, if not his character, certainly has a pedigree. Based on an acclaimed 1955 novel by Texas-born Patricia Highsmith, Ripley was adapted for the screen by writer-director Anthony Minghella, whose last film, The English Patient, won the Oscar as 1996's best picture.
Set in romantic, sun-kissed Italy of 1958, it stars Damon as the sadly grasping Tom Ripley, a naive, virginal, sexually ambiguous lad who ingratiates himself into a circle of wealthy American youths, including engaged couple Dickie (Jude Law) and Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow). Tom desperately wants to love and be loved. Sacrificing a sense of self, he adoringly emulates Dickie's tastes and styles, with dark, tragic results.

Though Damon's life has had a far different turn than this glossy, disturbing thriller, he still understands its aching sense of longing.
For years, when peers such as Chris O'Donnell got breaks, Damon admits being "inspired and envious at the same time."
With no decent job offers coming their way, Damon and boyhood pal Ben Affleck wrote parts for themselves. Their script, Good Will Hunting, was inspired by low-budget, breakout hits such as Rocky and Reservoir Dogs.

"We'd say to each other, `They offered (Sylvester) Stallone $35,000 (for Rocky's script), and he had $104 in the bank and a pregnant wife.'
"We were around the $104 mark, too," Damon said with a laugh. "I had a lease on an apartment, with Ben staying on the couch, and we couldn't make the rent." Now the Boston-raised buddies are making millions and getting top billing.

"I have the outlets that I wanted, and I feel great," Damon said. "No complaints -- none. I'm doing the movies I want, and I don't feel complacent. I'm working harder, and it feels healthy. I have the energy." But with constant work and travel, he's had little time for reflection -- "or purchasing," he said wryly. "It still seems so surreal. There's so much that I haven't processed yet. The weirdest things seem to happen."

As an example, he cites his big Oscar night when he went to a men's room "and was next to Charlton Heston. I was at a bank of urinals standing next to Moses. "Did I look? No. Chances are he was packing heat."
Since then Damon, 29, has led a nomadic life, making his first European trips to shoot Ryan in England, then Ripley in Italy, while also joining Affleck in New Jersey for Dogma, their fifth film together.

After the Redford film wraps soon in South Carolina, Damon -- who dates actress Winona Ryder -- plans to spend time at his new home in New York. He then hopes to hook up with Affleck there or in Boston to write their follow-up script, a romantic comedy. ("I'm no genre snob," Damon vows.) Friends have teased him that it's all downhill now, and Damon is braced for it. "I'm sure we'll get killed, even if our new script is as good as Hunting," he said. "These days, people are built up really fast, then knocked down fast. "Hopefully it won't be that predictable for us. But we're prepared for it."

Co-star Law hasn't reached such heights to worry about a downhill side. But Ripley should be a popular breakthrough for the Englishman, whose small sci-fi movies Gattaca and eXistenZ were respected, yet little-seen.

Law, 26, is married to actress Sadie Frost (Bram Stoker's Dracula), with whom he has a 3-year-old son. They plan to remain residents of their native London, regardless of Hollywood offers. "I'm thrilled by this film's higher profile," Law said in a separate interview, stretching out in baggy black trousers and an oversized turtleneck sweater. "But I won't `go Hollywood.´ " A "terribly middle of the road, middle class, south London gent," Law says he likes to "escape from the loony bin when I'm not making films and take months off to be with my family." (He and Frost take turns accepting jobs and join each other on locations.)

Similarly, Ripley's Cate Blanchett, who plays a trusting American heiress, sticks close to her roots in Sydney, Australia. She's also willing to take smaller parts, even after earning an Oscar nomination for Elizabeth.
"I just want a good script," said Blanchett, 30, wearing an olive pantsuit. "It doesn't matter how many lines you have, and I don't measure my success like stocks. People judge a film by its box office, but Citizen Kane was a flop." Blanchett had already traveled in Italy, "and, as with Meredith (her character), I fell in love there and had my heart broken. "But the guy had very little to do with it," she said with an amazed self-amusement. "I think I just wanted to throw myself on my bed in my hotel and scream, `I can´t believe it!´ "

She threw back her head and arms with a melodramatic flourish, then laughed. "There's something incredibly romantic about that." Blanchett didn't know any of her Ripley co-stars, but she and Paltrow became friends. Shortly after the shoot, Paltrow won the best actress Oscar for Shakespeare in Love. Upon hearing that Paltrow said she almost hoped her friend Blanchett would win, Blanchett laughed. "I don't think anyone truly hopes someone else will win," she said. "Those scratch marks on the back of her neck? Nothing to do with me." As Affleck once asserted, "Anyone who says there's no such thing as professional jealousy is either a liar or a fool."

Of this group, only Paltrow is "to the manner born." Her parents are director Bruce Paltrow and Tony-winning actress Blythe Danner. But she's quick to point out things are tough all over. "While making Ripley in Italy -- in this beautiful country with incredible food and great friends -- it was the saddest I've ever been in my life," Paltrow said later this day. Her grandfather was very ill at the time (he's since died), and her father also was sick.

"It was a very difficult time for me personally, too," said Paltrow, wearing a long black-leather skirt and a pale green tank top, her normally blond hair now dyed dark brown. She's currently dating a record company executive but has been involved with several actors, including Brad Pitt and Affleck. Thanks to the latter link, Damon has long been a close friend of hers. Paltrow, 26, blames her tearful Oscar acceptance speech on her emotional roller coaster.

"It was a year with such lows and such highs, but even the highs were traumatic for me," she said. "I should get an award for Best Wimp." Upon mentioning her granddad, she had to stop, fighting tears. "I can't do this," Paltrow said, then added with a soft laugh, "We have a crying problem in my family. It started with my grandfather, who'd cry at the drop of a hat."

Now, like Damon, she seems content. Yet that's not due to fame, fortune or an Oscar. More important, she's learned to draw her happiness from within. "Unlike Tom Ripley, you should look inside yourself and be content with who you are," Paltrow said. For her, this process involves daily meditation and yoga -- sometimes even acupuncture.

"I may still feel tired, but at least I feel centered. If I make time for myself, I can accept anything that comes my way," Paltrow said. "That's not always easy for me. I've fallen into traps, feeling if I could just get to this level or earn this money, I'd be happy. "But no boy, no painting, nothing I can buy, fulfills me. Happiness is all from within you. So many people are looking in the wrong direction." Such thoughts seem to suit Damon, too, even with so much fresh success to savor.

"I've enjoyed my success, but mostly in the sense that I'm working," he said. "And I really don't view myself any differently than before. I know who I am." During his struggles, Damon saw many actors come and go, "and I know how it works. Your time on the short-list is short-lived -- or can be. "So you approach it with the understanding that it's fleeting, it's cyclical, and at the end of the day you're going to be alone with yourself and responsible for the decisions you've made. The worst thing would be to have any regrets. "I just hope when I look back I'll feel, `Well, I´m not the guy anymore, but I made that choice with my one little Get Out of Jail Free card, and I'm happy, and I can live with that.' "

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