CYNDI LAUPER FEELS THE ‘VIBES’ IN HER FILM DEBUT

For a visitor to Cyndi Lauper on the set of her debut film, things get off to a confusing start. The loopy pop star clip-clops over, decked out in a flamboyant get-up that begins with a mop of platinum hair and ends with a pair of tacky disco boots. In between: a snug T-shirt that laces up the front, black tights, a pair of cut-off denim shorts that ride halfway up her derriere and a Levi’s jacket embellished with patches of leopard skin. Introductions are made and the reporter just has to ask, “Uh, Miss Lauper . . . are you in costume?”

“I’d never wear clothes like this,” she protests indignantly. “This stuff is way too subdued for me!”

She’s got a point there. This is, after all, the woman who once gave a concert clad in a plastic Hefty bag. In fact, in light of her colorful image, Lauper’s film debut in “Vibes” is a lot less eccentric than it might have been.

Written by Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz, the hot writing team who brought you “Gung Ho” and “Splash,” “Vibes” could be described as “Romancing the Ghostbusters in the Temple of Doom.”

The cockeyed love story of a beautician with psychic powers (played by Lauper) and a scholarly museum man (Jeff Goldblum), the film tracks this ill-matched pair to the mountains of Ecuador after a mysterious stranger played by Peter Falk recruits them to help locate his missing son.

Falk is in fact on a quest for gold that finds the trio matching wits with the villainous Dr. Steele, played by British heartthrob Julian Sands.

Obviously, “Vibes” is a high-calorie recipe, combining a writing team on a roll, four major stars and a budget able to accommodate three weeks on location in Ecuador and a simulated Incan ruin that swallows three Burbank sound stages. (But in these post-”Ishtar” days, Columbia declines to disclose exactly what the film’s budget is.) Though nothing is sure-fire in Hollywood--until a sequel’s in the works--this blueprint sounds as foolproof as it gets. But, as always, there’s an X factor to consider and in this case it could be director Ken Kwapis, a fledgling film maker from Illinois who’s never made a major motion picture before.

Winner of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science’s 1982 student film award for his film “For Heaven’s Sake,” Kwapis has directed a handful of television projects and is by all accounts some kind of charmer.

Declining to be interviewed, the lanky, long-haired 29-year-old, partial to jeans and nondescript shirts, looks as though he might be shifting sets on the Burbank sound stage rather than running the show. He comes across during a brief introduction as a rather shy chap completely consumed by the job at hand. Cast and crew speak of him in glowing terms. However, Lauper’s reasons for choosing “Vibes” for her movie debut go beyond wanting to work with the director.

“I’ve wanted to do a movie for a long time, but I didn’t want to do a typical airhead version of what Hollywood thinks a woman is--and I didn’t want to do an ultra-serious La Femme! film either,” explains the 33-year-old New Yorker during an interview in her mobile-home dressing room for a final week of shooting.

“The character I play in this film, Sylvia, is the kind of girl who’s very conscious of her appearance and always wants to look good, but unfortunately her favorite color is leopard skin,” she says. “She’s definitely kooky, but she’s different from my pop persona. For instance, these are Sylvia nails,” Lauper illustrates, waving long nails lacquered flaming red. “Cyndi chews hers,” she adds with a laugh. “And if Cyndi bleached her hair this white color, she’d have black streaks in it.”

Though Lauper has earned her stripes as a pop singer, she’s an unknown quantity as an actress. Consequently, she’s doubly determined to pull her weight in “Vibes.”

“I did a lot of preparation for this role,” she notes. “Sylvia’s supposed to have psychic powers, so I studied under a psychic, then I hung out at a beauty school and at various beauty parlors to see what that world was about.

“Acting and performing music come from the same place, but each requires a slightly different technique,” she concludes. “To play Sylvia, I had to learn to tone everything down. I’m used to things being exaggerated and larger than life--you know, the eyes going back and forth--because those things work in a big concert hall. To perform for a movie camera, you have to be capable of a certain stillness. That’s something I’ve learned here that I enjoy very much.”

Still is exactly the word to describe Lauper as she prepares to shoot yet another take of a scene that finds her and Jeff Goldblum clambering around production designer Richard Sawyer’s impressively realistic replica of an Incan ruin. Waiting for the camera to roll, Lauper stares into space and speaks not a word as she composes herself for the take.

Meanwhile, co-star Goldblum preps in a decidedly different fashion by reading to himself from a volume of P.G. Wodehouse. A hyperactive whirl of energy, Goldblum wastes not a moment on or off the set. Between takes, he customarily gives loud, theatrical readings from whatever book he happens to be into, but in deference to Lauper’s meditative preparatory technique he reads silently to himself today.

Winning critical raves for his performance last year in “The Fly,” Goldblum has racked up an impressive list of credentials working with such esteemed directors as Woody Allen and Robert Altman. The question arises: Do actors who’ve paid their dues resent it when pop stars with no previous film credentials are given major movie roles?

“Absolutely not,” asserts Goldblum as he fiddles with a deck of cards in his comfortably cluttered dressing room, “at least I don’t. I’m totally enamored with the world of music, so it’s a thrill for me to meet people like Cyndi. Beyond that, Cyndi’s really great. She’s spunky, smart and eager to learn and she went to great lengths to prepare for this role.”

After describing “Vibes” as “a light entertainment,” Goldblum explains that “personally, I like more serious, adult movies.” Considering that Goldblum is presently fielding more offers than he can take (look for him next in Robert Altman’s “Beyond Therapy” and “Double Helix,” a BBC production co-starring Tim Pigott-Smith), one wonders why he elected to appear in this film.

“A lot of it has to do with Ken Kwapis. Personally, I find him very attractive. He has a humbleness and is never ostentatious or overblown, yet there’s something very colorful about him. He has a musical background, so he works sort of like a symphony conductor and seems to have an intuitive feel for the majesty movies can have. I think Ken can make good movies.”

If it was Kwapis that lured Goldblum into the “Vibes” net, it was Mandel and Ganz’s fictional character Harry that attracted Falk.

“I took this part because I love the character I play,” explains the roguishly charming Falk in his trademark street-wise growl. “He’s funny and a great liar and your heart goes out to him because he wants gold so bad. Beyond that, all the elements of this picture are good. The writers have an offbeat sense of humor that goes beyond car crashes and dopiness, Jeff has a genuinely original comic style, and Cyndi’s a natural. She’s a street kid from Brooklyn and her gestures, her face and the way she projects are enormously appealing. Ken has a great eye and a good sense of knowing what to say--and when not to say it. There’s nothing worse than a guy who’s too quick to be helpful.”

One wonders if Julian Sands feels as positive about his last on-screen appearance as the poet Shelley in Ken Russell’s “Gothic.”

“I feel very good about that experience,” he asserts while smoking a cigarette in mobile dressing room No. 4. “I’d wanted to work with Ken for a long time, and having done so, I’m still a great fan of his.”

One of the sexiest young actors to come out of Britain since David Hemmings, Sands set female hearts aflutter with his portrayal of the lovesick swain in “Room With a View.” How, one inquires, does Sands feel about the sex symbol brand he’s been stamped with.

“Sex symbol? I wasn’t aware of that,” he demurely protests.

Oh, come now, Julian, let’s not be coy, the reporter chides, and he concedes with a laugh, “Yes, it’s true, some people have written that, but that doesn’t mean that everyone who reads it agrees with it. I suppose I find it amusing, but I’m well aware that an actor can’t trade on that sort of thing for long because people get bored with the bland.”

In “Vibes” he’s cast as the evil Dr. Steel. However, it wasn’t the character that drew him to the film.

“I’d never been involved with a light entertainment before, so I took this part because I thought it might be fun--and it has been great fun. I’m enjoying punctuating my work with this film. However, this isn’t really my beat and the character I play doesn’t demand much introspection.”

The golden rule on this set of good vibes seems to be: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” The film is on schedule, on budget, everybody loves the director, and the esprit de corps is so thick you can see it. However, none of this guarantees that a great film will be the result. We’ll have to wait until next summer to find out if a star is born in “Vibes” or if, alas, it’s Lauper’s “Shanghai Surprise.”