HOLLYWOOD -- You might know Lori Petty from her tough cookie movie roles as Geena Davis' pitcher kid sister in Penny Marshall's A League of Their Own or as Keanu Reeves' surfer girlfriend in Point Break, but you'd have a hard time finding Petty in her latest film.

That's because she found herself working the other side of the camera for The Poker House, a disturbing autobiographical drama that held its world premiere at the just-concluded Los Angeles Film Festival.

Petty drew on her own dysfunctional childhood, growing up in the '70s and living hand-to-mouth with her two younger sisters and a strung-out, abused, divorced mother who allowed their home to become a vipers' nest of gamblers, thieves and assorted other undesirables.

Despite the grim and occasionally shocking subject matter, the film is far from a complete downer.

"I promise you, you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll laugh, and then you'll laugh and cry at the same time," assures Petty. "I mean, c'mon, I came from the Penny Marshall school of laugh/cry/laugh/cry."

Before she got around to completing the unfinished script that had languished in her basement for 10 years -- with the encouragement and assistance of her longtime friend David Alan Grier (they both appeared in the immortal Pauly Shore film, In the Army Now), Petty kept busy in between roles as a respected artist and a clothing designer.

But after acting for two decades, Petty, 44, who made her screen debut in 1985, playing a hooker on an episode of The Equalizer. was ready for a fresh challenge.

And she found directing to be a comfortable fit.

"It was great except for the no sleeping part," laughs Petty. "Someone commented on how there are so few female directors and I'm like, yeah, because we sleep. And we eat food. I'm vegan and we were shooting outside of Chicago and there was nothing I could eat. So I lived on vitamins and Guinness for three months. I don't usually drink beer, but someone told me pregnant women drank it -- that it had extra vitamins in it, or whatever."

Although the Guinness health tip proved to be an old wives' tale, The Poker House has been drawing strong response from festival-goers.

So has Selma Blair, who plays the part of Petty's self-destructive, drug-addicted mother in the film.

"She was there, 100%," praises Petty. "One of her agents saw it and said afterwards, 'I thought Selma was in the movie!' I'm not kidding you. That's how good she is."

Even with the buzz, Petty wasn't prepared to take any chances, and sent the word out to everyone she knew that attendance at her premiere wasn't an option.

"I made sure I packed the house on opening night," Petty says. "I didn't invite my friends, I required them to go. It was like, 'You have no choice. If you want me to pick you up from jail at 3 o'clock in the morning -- ever again -- you will come."

That Lori Petty sure drives a hard bargain -- and apparently hangs with some pretty hard-living people!