HOLLYWOOD -- Laura Harring's life reads like fiction.

"I've had so much drama in my life that some of it doesn't even seem real to me any more," says Harring, who stars as the office worker who befriends Crispin Glover in Willard.

"When I was 10, our family had to flee Mexico. There was a really corrupt governor and he wanted our ranch and there were these threats on our lives so we had to leave the country overnight."

The family relocated in San Antonio, Texas, where Harring recalls she was fortunate just to reach her 13th birthday.

"When I was 12, we were pulling out of a parking lot and got caught in the crossfire between shooters in two speeding cars. I was hit in the head. They said the bullet missed my brain by about one millimetre."

Four years later, Harring convinced her parents to let her study languages at a boarding school in Switzerland.

"The school was famous for sending students to Third World countries as ambassadors, I was chosen and my posting was in the Himalayas where I ended up digging ditches, planting vegetable gardens.

"I'm so grateful for that experience. It was a very spiritual time for me."

Two years later, Harring volunteered to be a social worker among the poor in India.

She returned to Texas when she was 20 and began entering beauty contests. At 21, she became the first and only Latina to win Miss USA.

"That's about the time I started studying dance. Tango is my specialty but I can also salsa and samba.

"I'm taking swing and the flamenco."

Harring says she owes her acting career to friend Kelly Hu, whose films include The Scorpion King.

"I had no desire to be an actress but I used to help Kelly prepare for auditions. She finally talked me into auditioning for (1987 TV movie) Alamo: Thirteen Days to Glory. "I got to act with Raul Julia. It was magical. I knew then it was what I wanted to do with my life."

In 1990, Harring starred in The Forbidden Dance, and other early credits include Exit to Eden and Dead Women in Lingerie.

She admits it's been a struggle but says her role two years ago opposite Naomi Watts in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive was the turning point.

"When you're in a David Lynch movie, people in the business look at you differently. Your name automatically goes a few steps higher on the ladder. I'm getting some very interesting film offers lately."

In Willard, Harring's character finds herself attracted to the socially inept office worker. She doesn't find this as inconceivable a plot twist as it might first seem.

"It's not healthy but women often open their hearts to someone they think they can save. I've done it far too many times. I keep falling for the macho Latino types and that generally goes nowhere."

Harring was married briefly to Count Carl Edward Von Bismarck and, even with the divorce, is allowed to keep the title of countess.

"I've had almost as much drama in my life as my characters experience in my movies. I certainly have no shortage of life experiences to draw on for my acting."


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