PROFILE: Lucy Liu willing to take some bruises for 'Ally McBeal'

PASADENA, Calif. (April 1, 1999 12:15 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Bad bruises are an occupational hazard for Lucy Liu. The actress, who plays the cool and calculating Ling Woo on Fox's "Ally McBeal," says that keeping a straight face is something that doesn't come naturally to her.

"A lot of times I have to physically slap myself, like my thigh really hard before we start the scene just so I can get through it. And it works. But I have a lot of bruising," she says.

"The things Ling says are so absurd and the reactions from everybody that I'm playing against are always that stunned. You know, when you're playing against them, it's really difficult to keep a straight face," she says.

But Liu is more than happy to suffer for her art. When she auditioned for executive producer-writer David Kelley, it was her icy exterior that attracted him. In fact, she was trying out for another role - a part that went to the blond Portia di Rossi.

"I was in the room. There were six women there including myself. And I was the only woman there of color. And I thought, 'This is a joke. I'm just here. I don't even know WHY I'm here.' I thought in my heart, like, 'There's just no way I'm going to get this role ... Hell will freeze over before I get this job."'

They phoned her later and confirmed her suspicions: she didn't get the job. But maybe, if Kelley liked her, he might write a part especially for her, they said.

Liu, who'd been around, figured she didn't have much of a chance of ending up one of the foxes on Fox's acclaimed comedy/drama. But a few days later she got another call saying a guest-starring role had been written for her over the weekend.

"People say stuff all the time, especially in Hollywood," she said, giving a cynical sidelong glance. "You don't expect it to actually come true. You know, 'Check you later, kid. We'll do lunch.' Whatever."

She rolls her eyes. "You don't think it's actually going to happen. And it did. And it happened quickly."

Later, Kelley confided to her that when she read for the part of the blond Nell, he'd responded to a co-worker: "I really liked her. I really liked her reading a lot but, my God, is she frigid! She is so cold. There's nothing about her that's warm. And we eventually want to warm up the Nell character. So she's out."

Liu was out in the cold, but in fact, she isn't cold.

"I'm honest like Ling and I like to be as blunt as possible," she confides.

"I might be a little nicer than her. I think in some ways I'm like her, maybe sexually in terms of - I think she's a little bit shy."

Born in New York to Chinese immigrants, "I was pretty much a latch-key kid," she says. "Just come home from school and watch television all day until they got home, and basically went to bed and woke up and went to school."

Her mother, who's a biochemist, worked at a variety of jobs.

"My father was a civil engineer. And when he came over here he worked as a civil engineer for a while, then, at one point, ended up selling pen watches in Atlantic City."

Once she decided to become an actress, she was fiercely determined to see it through. "I worked seven days a week. I used to work during the weekdays as a secretary and in the mornings during the weekends I was an aerobics instructor and then in the evenings I worked this rib joint as a hostess because I knew I needed money if I was going to be an actress."

She insists on being "business-oriented," she says, because she realizes the money you earn as an actress can be spotty.

"Maybe that's the gift that my dad gave me, which was try to manage yourself because, ultimately, you're just going to be by yourself in the end."

Liu says her family stressed education when she and her brother and sister were growing up. Though she claims she doesn't use her college degree, she's found it advantageous to be educated.

"I don't think of myself in any way as a genius or that I have such a high IQ," she says. "But in Hollywood, I feel pretty special. I found my niche because you feel so intelligent because people are, like, 'Wow! We have so much to talk about.' ... So it's good."

Liu's contract with "Ally McBeal" runs through May. What will happen after that she doesn't know.