‘Timecop’ Actress Scaling New Heights

In “Timecop,� the latest Jean-Claude Van Damme action thriller, actress Mia Sara hangs off an icy roof in her bathrobe, clinging only to a bent TV antenna. While terrifying, Sara admits this stunt was nothing compared to filming a love scene with Van Damme . . . without the bathrobe.

“I was nervous,� Sara says, when asked about her on-screen romantic pairing with the action star. “Wouldn’t you be with Captain Physique, Mr. Body himself? I just kept saying, ‘Keep the camera on Jean-Claude, keep it away from me, just show my foot! Show my foot and his butt and nothing else!�’

You’d think a beauty like Mia Sara would have nothing to be nervous about, especially when you consider that she has been in this business for more than half of her 27 years.

Sara, a Brooklyn native whose father is a photographer and her mother a stylist (and yes, that is their real surname), began appearing in commercials by the time she was 13. At 16, she played the princess who enchants Tom Cruise in “Legend,� and at 17 she was Ferris Bueller’s game-for-adventure girlfriend in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.�

By the venerable age of 19, Sara found herself a leading lady in the ABC miniseries “Queenie,� which was loosely based on movie actress Merle Oberon’s life. Queenie is the sort of role Sara would love to sink her teeth into now.

“I’m older and I know more,� Sara says from the back yard of her Los Angeles home. “I’ve been really studying hard these past few years, trying to learn more about acting, and I’ve been getting better, I’ve been getting looser.�

Sidney Lumet had enough confidence in her to cast her as a young Hasidic woman in “Stranger Among Us,� a role for which Sara says she “worked really hard to get.� “It was a character role,� she continues, “and I don’t ever get to audition for character roles. People just don’t see me that way--I usually play the ingenue, the leading lady, and so often the second-banana role is really great.�

Despite the fact that Sara has been steadily busy over the years, she confesses that the elusiveness of stardom has been frustrating. “Thank God for ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,’ for if it weren’t for that no one would remember me!,� Sara says with a laugh, before pausing and adding, “But I think I haven’t been ready (for stardom), I think I’m much more equipped to handle it now than I was a few years ago.�

Interviewed just after completing a fashion shoot for British Esquire and mere hours before she hopping on a plane to St. Petersburg, Russia, to begin filming “Bullet to Beijing� with Michael Caine, Sara finally seems poised for the spotlight. Gracious despite the fact she’s not done packing, Sara sees both “Timecop� and the recently finished “The Maddening� as welcome departures from her usual roles.

For “Timecop,� which has been No. 1 at the box office for the two weeks of its release, she got a chance to test her courage, which inspired her to get her pilot’s license. “I loved doing the action . . . though I don’t think I’m going to become a Lady Van Damme,� Sara says glancing down at her delicate frame. “But I did climb up that roof and hang off that antenna--that was me!�

“Timecop� director Peter Hyams cast Sara as Van Damme’s damsel in distress after meeting with her a few times. “I knew she was a terrific actress, except that’s all I knew,� Hyams says by phone from Pittsburgh, where he’s completing pre-production on another Van Damme movie, “Sudden Death.�

Sara’s performance went beyond Hyams’ expectations. “Oddly enough, it’s a difficult part to play,� he says. “There she was in the freezing weather with tons of water being poured on her, and she kept acting the whole time. It’s so easy to feel self-conscious and hold back, but she sold the danger, the plight she was in.�

Cast again as a woman in danger, Sara will play a young mother held hostage by Burt Reynolds and Angie Dickinson in “The Maddening,� which is set for release next February. Sara describes the film as “sort of like ‘Whatever Happened to Baby Jane’ plus ‘Misery.’ I’m chained to the bed for over half the film.�

And in “Bullet to Beijing,� which will debut on Showtime, Sara plays a Russian spy who finds herself involved with the Russian Mafia after the Cold War is over.

While Sara may be on the brink of receiving the attention she has been working so hard for, she maintains a very un-Hollywood lifestyle, living with her fiance, actor-producer Clayton Rohner, and two Wheaton terriers in a comfortable fixer-upper in Hancock Park, which the couple is remodeling themselves.

“Let’s face it, it’s a silly job sometimes,� Sara says of being an actress. “I mean, you’re an adult and they dump water on you and tell you to climb up the roof in the freezing cold rain wearing a bathrobe. And you do it! “