DERMOT MULRONEY

Maybe the fact that Dermot Mulroney's birthday falls on Halloween has something to do with his becoming an actor - you know, born to dress up and pretend you're someone else. He certainly was into it as a child. "I remember what I wore every year," says the Alexandria, Virginia native. His favorite costume? "Boy, was I ever a robot one time," he grins.

Actually, it was a radio/television/film major at Northwestern University that the ruggedly handsome Mulroney became interested in an acting career, and so far it seems he made the right choice. In the two and a half years since he graduated, Mulroney, 24, has landed the lead in three television movies, an HBO feature and two as yet unreleased films. It's not hard to see why. His appeal both on and off screen is a blend of mature intelligence and boy-next-door sweetness. summed up somehow in that scar-lipped smile of his.

In the upcoming Blake Edwards film Sunset, however, Mulroney gets to go a step beyond his usual wholesomeness in a not-so-flattering but funny supporting role (the film stars Bruce Willis and James Garner). "Somebody actually let me do a comic character instead of the starry-eyed young romanatic," he says. In fact, he plays a "stumbling, blind, drunk idiot," as he puts it, the rich son of a studio head in the late '20s.

"Blake Edwards was great to work with," says Mulroney of the experience. "At first it was weird because it was kind of touch and go. He just said do this and I did it." But gradually, as he inclined to do, Mulroney made more and more good suggestions, until eventually Edwards was asking his opinion about shooting his scenes beforehand.

"He started out looking at me as just a little character player," says Mulroney in retrospect, "and I think ultimately he realized I had..." Something more to offer? "Yeah, some ideas... Imagine that."

Film credits upcoming: Sunset; Survival Quest, Boys' Life.
Television: Sin of Innocence; Toma-the Drug Knot; Daddy; Long Gone (HBO).