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Yancy Butler can take a slap without flinching and a kick without crying - that's what she learned during her first few years in Hollywood, when she starred opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme in Hard Target and Wesley Snipes in Drop Zone. Why did she take the abuse? "To not take risks is death," says Butler. "As much as I might get burned, I gotta get out there and I gotta live." Forgiving the philosophical tone she gives to the activity of playing "the girl" in B action movies, one might admit this is not a bad motto for a 24-year-old who hopes to take on Tinseltown. "I want to get away from being an action woman because you can't go on kicking forever," she says, by way of explaining her new role opposite Campbell Scott and Patrick Stewart in Let It Be Me, a drama about ballroom dancing instructors. What's her dream role, career-strategizing aside? "I'd love play a wildcat, a crazy woman like Lena Olin in Romeo Is Bleeding." Would she ever worry that the audience might start associating her with her roles, a la Sean Young? "No. People think if a woman's strong, she's a little crazy. Sure, I'm a little crazy. But you can't take what people in Hollywood say too seriously."