At 17 years old, Rosetta Jacobs traded in a prized possession for a chance at stardom. When Universal signed the red-headed Jewish girl from Los Angeles as a contract player, the studio gave her a Hollywood name, Piper Laurie. More than 40 years and three Academy Award nominations later, the actress still misses her real name. "Back then, everyone was Lana and Rock. No one had ethnic names. I would love to still be using my name. I've always felt robbed of something by people not knowing I was a Jew. But I was so young, and not assertive enough to say no," said Laurie, who was in the Bay Area last week for the screening of her new film, "The Grass Harp," at the Mill Valley Film Festival.

Laurie, who continues to live in Southern California, said she was "extremely shy" growing up, a condition her parents hoped to cure by sending her to weekly elocution lessions. In addition to attending Hebrew school, she spent summer mornings taking lessons at a local acting school, which eventually led to her work with Universal and her first film, "Louisa", in which she starred with Ronald Ragan in 1950. In an interview, shades of Laurie's shy beginnings are apparent. She speaks in quiet, measured and perfectly enunciated tones. Her green eyes are soft behind large black sunglasses, and her presence seems as fragile as her alabaster skin. "I'm sorry, I'm completely allergic to the sun," said the 63 year-old actress, when a film publicist suggesting conducting this interview outdoors. In her best known films, however, Laurie is more than an extrovert, she's an emotional powerhouse, playing heaty-hitting, raw characters like Paul Newman's disabled girlfriend in "The Hustler," or Sissy Spacek's fanatic mother in the 1976 thriller "Carrie."

In her most recent film, however, Laurie plays Dolly, a romantic, delicate and timid soul who listens to the wind in the reeds - what she calls the "Grass Harp" - to hear the green blades whisper lifes secrets. For this film, based on a novel by Truman Caposte and directed by co-star Walter Matthau's son, Charles, Laurie uses a high, lilting voice audiences won't recognize. Ever her breath seems hesitant, ethereal. The actress spoke about her approach to creating believable characters, which often begins with perfecting the externals, or as she says, "working from the outside in." In the British style made famous in this country by Sir Laurence Olivier, Laurie uses a character's physicality and voice as passages into their inner life. She also said that after hair, makeup and wardrobe people created Dolly's flowing gowns, cinnamon-colored ringlets and veiled hats, she felt the role seep even more deeply into her skin. "If you can see what the outside is like, it stimulates the imagination, it frees you in a way, to think and feel the way a character might," she said. "When they'd get me ready in the morning, I'd look, and there was Dolly. The crew, everyone treated me differently. I loved it. I loved playing Dolly. This will be among my most favorite roles."

In this film, Laurie gets a second opportunity to play opposite Spacek, who is Dolly's rigid, proper sister. Playing Spacek's religion-crazed mother in "Carrie" was one of her most memorable roles. "For just the joy of playing her, though I didn't admire her, the mother in "Carrie" was a favorite. She was just so outrageous." There was a time when Laurie couldn't choose her roles as carefully as she does now - or at all. As a contract player in the '50's, she relinquished more than her name. Studio executives forced her into a string of cute ingenue roles in mediocre comedies. Finally, she received a script for a Western, to play another "silly part in a silly movie." That was the end of Lauie's first career as a contract player for Universal. "I dropped the script in the fireplace, called my agent and said, they can jail me, sue me, but I'm never acting again, unless I can do something worthwhile," said Laurie. "People thought I was crazy, but the money meant nothing to me."

That was when Laurie embarked on the second of what she calls "my three careers." She moved to New York, working in live television and theater before making "The Hustler" in 1961. She followed up the huge hit and resulting Academy-Award nomination, by taking a 15 year hiatus from show business to raise her daugher, Anna.

Just when she thought returning to acting might be "fun, and not the life -and-death struggle to be perfect it had always been," Laurie was offered the role in "Carrie," and thus began the third phase of her career. The current phase, like the last, has been marked by edgy performances in challenging roles. She not only won an Academy Award nomination in 1986 for "Children of a Lesser God," but also distinguished herself on David Lynch's dark television drama "Twin Peaks," in which she played both a brassy lumber company executive and a Japanese businessman. Recently, actor Sean Pean asked her to paly a cameo in his new film, "The Crossing Guard," with Jack Nicholson.

As for playing a Jewish character, Laurie says it hasn't happened. Her Irish looks prevent directors from casting her in ethnic roles. She came close, however, when playwright Neil Simon cast her in his play "Brighton Beach Memoirs," 15 years ago. He fired her after only two weeks of rehearsals, saying he didn't think she was progressing fast enough. Laurie says she was relieved, because she sensed she "wasn't pleasing him,: but disappointed to lose a chance to act in a play about a Jewish family life. "I would love to play a Jewish role." she said. If any casting directors are on the lookout -- Rosetta Jacobs is waiting."