Playing With ‘Fire’

After playing what she calls “the rural slut” and other “ angst -ridden emotional” roles, Lisa Blount was ready to have some fun. And her newest role, as the young mother of Jerry Lee Lewis’ 13-year-old wife and cousin in the just-released “Great Balls of Fire,” provided that opportunity.

“The thing I so much enjoyed about (the character of) Lois was that she’s so very fun-loving. She’s so excited about Jerry’s success and she’s loving it to the hilt,” said Blount, whose past roles--such as Debra Winger’s calculating girlfriend, Lynette, in “An Officer and a Gentleman”--have included women who are anything but positive and uplifting.

But while the young-at-heart, rock ‘n’roll-loving Lois was a quite different role for Blount, playing her brought back memories of the actress’s own upbringing.

“I was thinking of my own mom,” she says. “She was young when she had me and she also enjoyed rock ‘n’ roll. . . . I remember listening to the old folks--who were all of about 20--rockin’ and boppin’ in the living room.”

And while Lois and the other “Great Balls of Fire” characters are from Memphis, Tenn., Blount hails from the nearby area of Little Rock, Ark. That factor made her the perfect dialect coach for much of the cast.

“It just so happens that this (story) was from my place,” said Blount, who worked extensively with co-star Winona Ryder (who plays her daughter, Myra) on such language aspects as cadence, phrasing, pronunciation and Southern colloquialisms. Her Southern background even enabled her to contribute some of her own phrases to the film script.

But the “Great Balls of Fire” role was not merely a homecoming in terms of her return to the South. Blount said she also felt nostalgic about once again sharing the screen with Dennis Quaid (who plays Lewis)--they worked together in 1976 in her very first movie, “9-30-55.”