Heather Graham knows how to confuse the image makers. She keeps misinforming them through the roles she chooses.

That's one of the reasons she jumped at co-starring in James Toback's smart love yarn, Two Girls And A Guy, which features Robert Downey Jr. and is a festival special presentation.

Writer-director Toback uses the film to vent about posturing. Graham used the picture to sharpen her acting skills by working with Toback.

"It was very intense," Graham admitted yesterday at the Four Seasons Hotel.

The New York shoot was very quick, too. But the 25-year-old was accustomed to that kind of moviemaking after appearing in the low budget Swingers with friends Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn.

Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy was similar, too, but she was only 17 when she co-starred in that and was baffled by the process. Not now. Now, she's -- gulp -- a veteran.

Besides a co-starring role in Boogie Nights -- a festival gala -- as the porn princess Rollergirl, she just wrapped on Lost In Space, the special effects film funfest based on the cheesie '60s TV series.

How did Graham get where she is today?

"It was just years of acting classes, hard work, and working on myself as a person," Graham said chuckling. "And growing up helped, too."


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