Lori Singer takes risks; the cancelled series, VR5, is among her experiments.

She's one of the rare breed of film actresses - not unlike Theresa Russell, Jennifer Rubin or Emma Thompson - whose choice of scripts is not determined by commercial goals. Sure, Lori Singer has made concessions to the box-office, what with FOOTLOOSE, a 1985 Tom Hanks comedy called THE MAN WITH ONE RED SHOE and her only genre film, WARLOCK, but most of her work is detached from the mainstream. Singer's films are not "user friendly," formulaic fare - a la DUMB AND DUMBER, WATERWORLD, NINE MONTHS - but dark, brooding and appealing only to a small core of the public who correlate the mainstream medium with a pimp who survives on the sale of "entertainment." Few moviegoers could acknowledge the existence of SUMMER HEAT, SUNSET GRILL, MADE IN U.S.A, EQUINOX or even Singer's Robert Altman film, SHORT CUTS; but regardless of whether or not these files are esthetically successful, Singer's denial of generic filmmaking is a courageous risk; hence, it's less than surprising that Singer approved a weekly role in Fox's VR5, her first TV series since FAME (1982-83). The show was no less experimental than Singer's movies, forfeiting the linear narrative of THE X-FILES and other s-f series. Equally unsurprisingly, VR5 was short-lived.

"I was offered the pilot script and I thought it really looked interesting," recounts Singer. "It was a wonderful inspiration and something that hadn't been done yet. That's what made me look twice. I had some basic computer literacy. I've actually tried what they call Virtual Reality, but I've never actually been in a flight simulator yet, so that was what I was really looking forward to.

"This, of course, is completely fantastic where you can actually go into your computer and explore your subconscious, along with someone else's, and change persona and get a whole mind expanding view of the world."

One of the fantasy aspects of the series was Singer's accessability to a realm of Virtual Reality; but why was her character, named Sydney, singularly "blessed" with this aptitude? "That wasn't really explored, but the concept was actually imprinted on Sydney's retina," replies Singer. "But it's supposed to be able to work just by virtue of the fact that you literally have the ear of the person for a moment; then the wave will be able to hook in, that your voice can carry your thoughts and the idea is that I can actually hold on to your thoughts for a couple of seconds, which in Virtual time is longer."

Even in its embryonic stage, VR5 was developed to texturally subvert the conventions of TV storytelling. "This was an amazingly collaborative process in terms of every aspect of it," relates Singer. "As it turned out, it turned into lots of things. This wasn't really just one story. There was the mystery of Sydney's family, the mystery of the Committee... then there was the mystery of Sydney's powers and how they can be used both by the Committee, and by her, and other people. Then there was that which is a whole world unto itself, which is Sydney running around and what she might do. There then was the exploration of Sydney's growth as a person, and where that might have taken her and affect her virtual life. There was just many ways of exploration, and so part of the mysteries would have been uncovered, though you wouldn't have had a great understanding of the Committee or anything like that. But more pieces of the puzzle are fitted. I think they all had certains aspects of them that are an interesting part of Sydney's journey. They're all very different."

Singer boarded the series in 1994. "We started shooting VR5 in September and we ended in late March. We shot 12 episodes in that time." Hollywood locations, utilized for various episodes, included an old L.A. county jail down by the train tracks. Downtown, alleyways. The [Ambassador] hotel where Robert Kennedy was shot. The old City of Angels hospital, which is also now closed. We also shot at Leo Carrillo beach."

And then there were the underwater scenes; no shortcuts or optical effects, the actors - who made their descent within a car - performed their own stunts. "That was so wild, so wild," giggles Singer. We went to Universal. They have a big water tank, and they sink the car down into it. They heat the water up to 98 degrees and they have all these lights around. It's actually submerged. Then they had a lot of the gaffers and camera people, in wet suits and goggles, with a special camera down there shooting as we sank in the car... which is really scary!

"We did it many times. The original take was many times over the course of a few days. They hired a safety diver, and we had the regulators in our mouth so we could breathe. But then we'd take the mouthpiece out, and hook it under something, and if we really run out of air and we're in trouble or something, we make the cut-off sign. If you couldn't find the regulator at the precise moment - because it slipped out or something and was floating away, and you couldn't see it because of the murky water - the you're supposed to make a sign, and the diver would open the car door and get it to you. It made for a couple of amazing days."

One ot the show's more baroque distractions was a guest appearance, in the pilot episode, by Penn Jillette, better known as the corpulent half of sado-masochist magicians Penn & Teller. "He has not left Sydney's consciousness," laughs Singer. "- he's definitely made an effect. He was wild. He's amazing. I ran into him at Coliseum Books on Broadway at 57th street."

I asked Singer to estimate VR5's impact on prime time, had the series had been afforded some longevity: "It had that idea of exploring the subconscious, which is a really wild inspiration. Just in terms of actuality, and the fact that we were taking 10 days to shoot each episode, shows made with a great deal of care... and they were tremendously long days, so that it seemed like it's a small independent schedule for each show, which was spectacular. The crew are great people. The concept and crew made it special and unique."

Naturally, the show's s-f premise prompted a profusion of special effects; in fact, Singer often interacted with the illusionary props. "A lot of the action would happen before you as you see it," she explains, "and then it would be somewhat toyed with in post-production. But the bare bones of it were there, and were evident, so you would have something to react to. Janet Masques oversees all the special effects, so that much of the time you would have something to react to. Then she would enhance it or change it somewhat. Janet would be there, so you could speak to her about her concept of what it might be after she toyed with it; hence, you could visualize it and have a skeleton of what it might be. Then you could visualize the rest and react to it so that it was really fun. She helped make it present so that it wasn't completely reacting to something which did not exist... which did happen sometimes, but that was rare."

As an example, see the episode where Singer climbed into a surreal tree overlooking a virtual reality abyss: "I was actually in a tree. They had this amazing tree on the set and Janet would describe to me how she saw the abyss, and how she felt that the man falling into the abyss would be reflected. That was all discussed; therefore, it was not a complete mystery."

But the real mystery is the fate of Sydney Bloom; Singer's character was trapped in level VR7 on what turned out to be - courtesy of Fox's pink slip - the final episode of the series. "It ended on a cliff-hanger," shrugs Singer. "There are still many secrets to be explored, both in real life and virtual life."

But Lori Singer isn't shedding any tears. She just wrapped FTW: THE LAST RIDE, a film about a couple of drifters who fall in love. The FTW stands for Frank T. Wells," relates Singer, "which is the character that Mickey Rourke plays. He's actually an old rodeo star who's just getting out of jail. I'm being chased. The producers are replicating the marketing plan used by THE LAST SEDUCTION; they'll show it on HBO, then they'll release it to theatres."

Singer describes her own film character is "troubled yet wild in spirit. High spirited. She comes from a troubled family and she didn't have parents there to guide her, and she was out on her own with just a brother to watch out for her. So she's a wild character who's developed in her own private way."

Mickey Rourke, whose provocative lifestyle and fading film career is the stuff that scandal sheets are made of, has earned the respect of his co-star. "I think that when you see THE LAST RIDE you'll see that Mickey worked very hard," assures Singer. "A lot of what we did is on screen. There's a lot of heart and I think it shows up. I'm very proud of it."

Asked to cite the best film of her career, the actress notes, "I've been really lucky, such as in SHORT CUTS. It's an amazing film and Robert Altman is brilliant. I loved being a part of that. The character I played was very troubled and yet special." She also singles out the talent linked to her movies, including director Herbert Ross (FOOTLOOSE), John Schlesinger (THE FALCON AND THE SNOWMAN), and Alan Rudolph (TROUBLE IN MIND); "I've just worked with really great artists, so it would be very hard to pick and choose. I've been very lucky and I've loved every second and I look forward to the next."