Mademoiselle April 1980

You probably don't know Karen Allen's name yet, but you may remember her face: she was the radical who smoked pot in Animal House and the offbeat, sensitive Nina who lit up The Wanderers. Her work is direct, but oddly haunting -- she suggests characters rather than acts them. In person and on screen, Allen too has a fresh prettiness -- luminescent skin awash with freckles; a sunny, unaffected smile -- that commands attention. And with a role in Cruising and her first starring part in the just-out A Small Circle of Friends, that attention should be just around the corner.
It's not a bad prognosis for someone who wanted to be a writer until she saw a performance by Grotowski's Polish Theatre Lab seven years ago when she was twenty. "I didn't understand a word they said, but there was something in their acting that went beyond understanding. I was transfixed." Allen studied with the troope for a while and then lived in Washington, D.C. where she did all her early stage work, including actually living in the back of a theatre. "I loved living and breathing theatre so much that I decided I had to find a way to bring my desire to act and my ability to support myself together. I'd run through the possibilites in Washington, so that meant moving to New York." It was there that, a few months later, she happened to send a resume to the people casting Animal House and was on her way.
If luck played a part in getting Allen her first break, it's been work and skill that have kept her going. She uses both intellect and instinct to prepare for each role, and works on her own until she feels comfortable enough to improvise and still remain true to her concept of the character. In Cruising, Allen shot her part as Pacino's girlfirend in 4 days, but A Small Circle of Friends provided the opposite opportunity: she was "part of the process, suggesting, making changes, developing the characters." In the movie, Allen, Brad Davis and Jameson Parker play a trio of Harvard students in 1967 and "although it touches on the Vietnam war, women's lib and the upheavals of that time, it's really a story about our shifting relationships, using the '60's as a backdrop." For her, the excitement of creating a character who changes significantly was increased by her direct involvement in creating those changes.
The flexibility that allows Allen to move from the diverse demands of Cruising to Small Circle, and the courage she shows in trying different ways to work, may lead Allen's career into interesting turns. She's optioned a new play, with an eye toward moving back and forth from films to theatre, and is taking her time about committing herself to new projects. "Idleness does drive me crazy," she concludes. "But I'd rather read or write than do anything just to work. A kind of respect has been instilled in me for acting: I love it too much to ever have a bad relationship with it."

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