LILI TAYLOR is te type of actress whose fans feel almost proprietary toward her, as if they had discoverd her personally. Though she and Julia Roberts got noticed in the same film ("Mystic Pizza", 1988), Ms. Taylor quickly slipped into the lower-profile world of independent film, where her career arc soon became the left-handed image of her co-star's. She played the title dog in "Dogfight" and the "I" in "I Shot Andy Warhol", Ael Ferrara gave her the role of a vampire in "The Addiction," Robert Altman recruited her for "Short Cuts" and "Pret Porter," and most recently the creators of "Six Feet Under" cast her as Lisa in their HBO series. Throughout her 15 years in film, however, Ms. Taylor never lost touch with the theater, and she is currently appearing in a revival by the New Group of Wallace Shawn's 1985 play "Aunt Dan and Lemon" at the Clurman Theater on Theater Row. Her serene performance as an impressionable- and ulitimately corrupted- shut-in is winning her the stage notices of her career. On a recent Saturday at the West Bank Cafe near the theater, Ms. Taylor sat down with the writer Jennifer Senior to discuss her latest role, the state of independent film and how impossibleit is to find affordable housing in New York.

JENNIFER SENIOR- Scott Elliott, your director, has opted to put you onstage as the audience is filing into the theater. Is that difficult?
LILI TAYLOR- Well, a woman recently screamed "Hi, Lili!" in the back of the theater. Sca-reamed it. That was a little awkward. And another guy said, "Saw ya on Chambers Street four months ago." Once someone started eating M&M's and left them on the stage.

SENIOR- What?

TAYLOR- And then curled up to take a nap.

SENIOR- How remarkable.

TAYLOR- I think they had a chocolate low.

SENIOR- Did you lose weight for this role? Your character, Lemon, is written as emaciated.

TAYLOR- That was obviously a concern of mine. I consulted the D.S.M. (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) for this character, and I discovered I couldn't be anorexic, because you have to be 30 percent under your weight to qualify. but I also discovered there are so many different diagnoses for eating disorders, so I just came up with a few general ones for her. Because actually I'mnot skinny. I have some muscles in my arm. So the T-shirt hangs loose over them. And my pants hang a little loose.

SENIOR- So you didn't change your eating habits?

TAYLOR- Oh no, I'm not good at that stuff. I'm 115 and 5 foot 2. I may even be above average.

SENIOR- Hardly. What else did you conclude about Lemon?

TAYLOR- She's agoraphobic. And she has E.S.D., or E.D.M., or something- I can't remember the precise letter- but it's a compilation of different eating disorders. She's a xenophobe. And maybe borderline-

SENIOR- Do you always do this dind of research?

TAYLOR- I love psychology. I got a lot of books on anoxeria, a lot of books on psycosomatic illness, on hypochondria. And I usually find one book during the prep that's my key. This time it was "Lost for Words." Very, very academic. Had all the things I needed. Great descriptions of the anorexic: "Insouciant." "Supercilious." "Confident." They're tough.

SENIOR- It's interesting that you ventured into this terrain, because I read somewhere you were diagnosed with manic depression as a kid.

TAYLOR- High school was not my time.

SENIOR- Do you know anyone whose time it was?

TAYLOR- No, I was in Glencoe, Ill.- "Ordinary People"- land. I don't think I had anywhere to put my energy. So I went to see a psychiatrist. And my dad was a manic depressive-

SENIOR- and treated for it?

TAYLOR- Oh, yeah, yeah. And this woman said, "I tink that you might be, but I don't want to give you anyting because lithium might dampen your spirit, and you're someone who could channel that stuff and sublimate it." And thank God

SENIOR- Well you've channeled it into some very psychologically complex characters. Everyone makes abig deal about Hollywood people coming to tiny theaters off-Broadway, but I've never understood why. After all, Hollywood people can afford it. How do independent film actresses do it?

TAYLOR- Honey, I need a damn movie. I've done three plays in a row, and I'm broke.

SENIOR- Do you keep your monthly nut low in order to do this sort of thing?

TAYLOR- Yes. I always have. Because I always knew that what I liked probably wouldn't pay a lot.

SENIOR- So you don't have an extensive personal staff?

TAYLOR- No. I have two people: A manager and an agent. I think other people have lawyers, and - um- what else do people have? I guess sometime people have a fancy company that, you know, package things. And publicists. I have a publicist at times, but not now.

SENIOR- Where do you live?

TAYLOR- The West Village. One bedroom. Renting. I'm investigating buying, but the market is - I mean, when is it going to come down? I need to do a movie. I feel so bad for theater actors. How can they do it?

SENIOR- Have you ever thought, even for five seconds, about trying to mainstream yourself?

TAYLOR- I don't think that works for me.

SENIOR- Well, you've done it before. You did the movie "The Haunting."

TAYLOR- I did, and I would do it again because of how it was described to me. But that fell out of the sky. If I try to plan things, it backfires. I bet if I tried to plan going off to Hollywood, I'd wind up losing my profession.

SENIOR- But doesn't the independence of independent films seem less relevent these days?

TAYLOR- I think they've come above ground and lost that spirit. It's about commerce now. When I first got her in '88, everyone had left for Los Angeles to make money. And I thought, Jesus, I came at a bad time. But those of us who stayed found something. But then, after "I Shot Andy Warhol," it started to change.

SENIOR- Do you get fewer phone calls than you used to?

TAYLOR- Well, yeah, because I feel like the phone calls were from, really, friends. And I feel like now my friends would say, "I want to call you, but I'm being pressed to do this or that." Or, "I can't make the movie I want to make." I mean, for "Warhol," it wasn't even a question. Mary [Harron, the director] wanted me: Christine Vachon, one of the producers, was this bulldozer in New York, and got things done. But today I feel like the rules of the game would be different. If there was a kind of campaign financing for movies - if we were all given the same amount of money for our P.R.- I'd like to see which movies did well.

SENIOR- Have you done anything recently that's breaking your heart because you can't get it distributed?

TAYLOR- This movie called "A Slipping-Down Life." We hasd a difficult producer who literally held on to the canisters of the film. Wouldn't let them go. Finally the director wrestled them away, and the bank bought the film. Now, Lions Gate is going to distribute it, thank you very much.

SENIOR- Do you think the roles for women are better in the theater?

TAYLOR- Yeah, probably. Though this Diane Keaton movie ["Something's Gotta Give"] is very exciting. I love that it did well.

SENIOR- She's the only Hollywood actress I can think of who has allowed her face to capitulate to age. Everyone else has capitulated to the needle and the knife.

TAYLOR- It's really gotten bad. We're seeing it now with actresses who are young and attractive. And it's interesting we haven't seen what these people are going to become.

SENIOR- Say, speaking of embalming: your character on "Six Feet Under" was quite a piece of work. Was it hard playing someone so dislikable?

TAYLOR- It's interesting. A friend of mine said to me once to carry everyone's projections with grace. And that's helped me through the years. I like to walk around the city and take the subway and go to Starbucks, and people want to talk about that show on Monday morning.

SENIOR- Think you'll miss it?

TAYLOR- I don't know if it's over just yet.

SENIOR- What? Doesn't your character die?

TAYLOR- Well, yes. But come on. If you're going to die on a show, that's the one to die on.

The orginal article is accompanied by a photo of Lili Taylor in "Aunt Dan and Lemon" at top, and from left, with Frances Conroy in "Six Feet Under", in "I Shot Andy Warhol", with Vincent D'Onofrio in "Mystic Pizza" (Photo by MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection); (Photo by Bill Foley/Associated Press)' (Photo by John P. Johnson/HBO); (Photo by Sara Krulwick/The New York Times)(pg. 5); a mainstram moment: Lili in "The Haunting." (Photo by Everett Collection) (pg. 13)