In the comedy Strike -- opening Friday in Calgary -- Lynn Redgrave plays Miss McVane, the headmistress of an elite girls' school.

When her pupils learn the trustees plan to merge their alma mater with a boy's school, the girls rebel.

Redgrave, 55, is no stranger to the consequences of taking on the establishment.

In 1981, she was fired from her TV series House Calls. Universal Studios claimed it was over a salary dispute.

Redgrave countered it was because she had insisted on breast-feeding her daughter Annabel on the set between takes.

"I didn't work for six years. People were afraid to hire someone who'd taken on a major studio so publicly," recalls Redgrave in a telephone call from Toronto, where she's attending the premier of Strike.

The Clueless-style comedy was produced by Canada's Alliance Communications and was shot last year in Toronto.

Redgrave eventually had to declare bankruptcy in 1994, but her fortunes and her reputation got a boost in 1996 when she was cast as Gillian Helfgott, the wife of Australia's eccentric pianist David Helfgott, in the Oscar-winning Shine.

For Redgrave, the response to Shine was a jolt of deja vu. In 1965, at 23, Redgrave became the toast of Hollywood when she was nominated for an Oscar for her breakthrough performance in Georgy Girl.

"The response to Georgy Girl was an incredible validation," she says. "I was never supposed to be a film actress. I was chubby and plain. Those were not prerequisites for a career in movies."

Though she worked steadily in films, TV and on stage until her dispute with Universal Studios, Redgrave never made a blockbuster film.

"People only think of me when they're casting a low-budget, independent film.

"I have many friends who've starred in big-budget movies. They talk about having to sit around for weeks waiting for a single take. That's not my idea of acting."

Since Shine, Redgrave has worked non-stop. Last year alone, she filmed Strike, Gods and Monsters and the highly praised Canadian TV mini-series White Lies.

In this drama about underground white supremacy groups on Canada's campuses, Redgrave plays one of the leaders who she calls "an absolute monster of a human being.

"It was a juicy part to play, but it was also very disturbing."

"I couldn't be happier with how my career is going these days." she says. "It's marvellous to be allowed once again to do what I love."

During her imposed six-year hiatus from film, Redgrave wasn't inactive. She wrote and starred in the one-woman show Shakespeare for My Father. It was a tribute to her father, the legendary stage and screen actor Sir Michael Redgrave.

Redgrave's siblings are actors Vanessa and Corin Redgrave and her nieces are actors Natasha and Joely Richardson and Jemma Redgrave, making the Redgraves a five-generation acting dynasty.

Redgrave took the hairstyle of a favorite teacher for her headmistress in Strike, along with the fierce dedication of her favorite drama teacher.

"He quit teaching because he felt it was so wrong to be training actors only to send them out into a marketplace that was already overcrowded and hostile."

Thankfully, Redgrave is more positive about her craft.

"I've been acting for 36 years and I still love the thrill of the chase," she says.

"I get so excited when I finally realize how to play my newest character."


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