By BOB THOMPSON --

HOLLYWOOD -- You don't hear 'actress' and 'fourth-year university student' in the same sentence often. But say hello to Mia Kirshner of McGill University, who has a major in 19th century Russian literature, and a minor in the 20th century movie industry.

"It's very light stuff," says the perky 21-year-old Toronto native sitting demurely in a room at the trendy Nikko Hotel.

Light stuff means she's making mock of the very heavy stuff of Tolstoy, not criticizing the very part-time stuff which is her movie career.

Other actors should have it so occasionally good.

Since her grueling teenaged days as a Toronto extra in The Freshman, Kirshner has managed a slow but steady climb -- as dominatrix in Love And Human Remains and a stripper in Exotica. Less controversial parts in The Grass Harp and Anna Karenina followed.

So did her first big picture adventure, in Costa Gavras' Mad City, which stars John Travolta and Dustin Hoffman.

In the film, opening Nov. 7, Kirshner plays a TV news intern to Hoffman's veteran television newsman who stumbles into a smalltown hostage situation.

As Hoffman's TV reporter tries to manipulate the hostage taker (Travolta), Kirshner's rookie learns about callousness and media manipulation, filmed ironically before the Princess Diana tragedy.

Although Kirshner may not agree with her opportunistic character in a post-Diana media world, she doesn't apologize for the reporter either.

Perhaps she understands the reporter's mentality better than most. Her father is a newsman with the Canadian Jewish News. In real life, Kirshner learned that in newpapers "what matters is on the page," she says.

"My character bites the bullet and decides, 'I'm going to do what I have to do.' It is very tragic when you put your humanity aside for the story, but I'm not a journalist."

She chuckles: "I just play one on TV."

By all accounts, she does the co-starring part decently. But hot or not, she still plans to live in Montreal, finish her studies at McGill and maintain her priorities.

"To be a good actress," she says assuredly, "you have to have a normal life. It's not real to stay in beautiful hotels, getting your hair and makeup done.

"My life is riding a bus, papers and exams. I want to strike a balance between two lives."

In other words, she's not nearly as ambitious as her Mad City character, who understands "it's cutthroat out there."

The level-headed Kirshner also has a good memory.

"I started out as an extra," she says. "There were days on The Freshman when I couldn't believe I was there. But I also remember they treated the extras like such crap.

"I decided you can't treat people badly, so I'm glad I started at the bottom."

Maybe that just-folks thing is why Kirshner became fan-silly at her first audition sight of Travolta and Hoffman.

"I was mortified," she remembers. "I didn't know I was going to meet anybody so I wore these dirty clothes.

"I had rips in my jeans in all the wrong places. My T-shirt was pulled up, and my pants were falling down.

"I couldn't even look John and Dustin in the eyes. I just sat there, playing with a rip in my jeans, making it bigger and bigger."

Tolstoy never came up either, but Travolta and Hoffman obviously liked Kirshner's A-plus effort.


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