Ellen Barkin Gets Down 'N' Dirty As Calamity Jane

NEW YORK - She's a pistol-packing woman with a smokin' barrel.

And just to make sure you stay in line, she also can crack a bullwhip.

Ellen Barkin, up until now a particularly mod screen woman, is playing Calamity Jane in the current Western "Wild Bill." It's the first time she's done a period film.

"The best thing about the role?" Barkin pondered. "The best thing was that I didn't have to wear a corset. Jane was a real rowdy and a drunk. She wore leather chaps and an old shirt. The women of that period, generally, were tortured with their clothes."

Clad in skintight capri pants of simulated leopard skin for the interview, Ellen Barkin was clearly back into the 1990s.

"Getting into those clothes was halfway to getting the character of Calamity Jane," she said. "The worst thing was the dirt. They hauled in tons of dirt to cover the pavement, and I think most of it got on me.

"I had to go brunette for the part - a mousy color. Brunettes do not have more fun."

She is most decidedly now a blonde again. Not only because she prefers it, but because it looks good.

"Hollywood is a vanity business. Women are the primary target in a business run by men. Females, according to their thinking, are just concerned with their looks - and men are actors. It's amazing how long they're willing for me to sit in the beauty chair, but if I ask for a few minutes to prepare a line, they say I'm acting tough. Al Pacino asked for more time, and they say he's a great actor. I ask for time, and they say I'm a bitch."

The ultra-slim and sleek Barkin was clearly eager to speak on the subject of Hollywood inequities.

"Making a movie," she said, "is serious business. It costs a lot of money. You're responsible to a lot of people and it's important that I bring skill and craft to my job. But I'm not going home at night knowing I didn't do my best because some jerk didn't give me the time I needed."

Barkin is separated from Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, whom she met on the set of "Siesta," but they live on the same block in Los Angeles.

"We remember why we fell in love in the first place and we're good friends now," she said. "It's important that the children (Jack, 6, and Romy, 3) know that we like each other.

"People often say I'm unconventional, but here I am, a grown woman with two children," Barkin said. "That's pretty conventional.

"Having children changes you completely. I care more about them than I do my career. From my choices of roles, it's obvious, anyway, that I never was most concerned with being a movie star. I don't often choose things that are likely to be big commercial hits.

"If the pace of my career was any slower, I'd be dead."

To play Calamity Jane, she had 2 1/2 months of bullwhip training.

"I was a tomboy when I was a kid," Barkin said. "I used to play cowboy with my brother. It took me a month, though, before I could even get a pop out of the whip. Eventually, I got it. I was so good that the trainer showed off by having me snap a cigar out of his mouth."