Michael Michele

by Peter McQuaid

"I haven't moved here," says Michael Michele. "I rent a small one-bedroom apartment here. I go home every week."

"Home," insists Michele, is New York City, where she has lived since she was a teenager acting in commercials. Michele is currently operating under the delusion that she is the very first actress on the cusp of happening in a very big way who is having problems letting go of Manhattan. Never mind that it's Burbank where she works every week as Dr. Cleo Finch on "ER." And it's Hollywood where she has landed what could be the most important role of her career since she played Wesley Snipes's girlfriend a decade ago in New Jack City. That role is Veronica Porsche, third wife of boxing legend Muhammad Ali. The movie, Ali, stars Will Smith. The director is Michael Mann.

"Forget about his success in movies-I've seen all of them, including the show on A&E that he did years ago," Michele enthuses about her director. She didn't even care that he had no idea who she was, or what she had done. "I found him direct, to the point, in-your-face, slap-dead honest," she says, which may have something to do with Mann's reputation for getting surprising work out of everyone he hires.

Apparently, Michele delivered, because Mann has compliments aplenty to heap on her. "I was delighted to hire her," says Mann. "When she came in and first read for Veronica, she was able to hit that in-between 'not performance' part. She's a very authentic actress."

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Michele wants to keep doing what she's doing, only more of it. "I want to do the work that some of my peers are doing, but it hasn't come around the table yet... Jodie Foster has done amazing work. Angelina Jolie has something left-of-center, which I like. Ashley Judd is smart, intellectually she can stand there and talk with you about anything."

She knows, however, that Mann's imprimatur is no small thing in a business where everyone's gut instinct is based on everyone else's gut instinct.

"He gave me an opportunity I never thought I would have," says Michele, whose next film is 4-29-92, a gritty drama about the 1992 Los Angeles riots. "It's incredible for me as an actor and as a professional person that someone in the business who has a great deal of respect said 'yes.' He had many, many, many, many choices, and he didn't know me from Adam."

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