With new projects, Mandy Moore does more mature work

By Chris Hewitt
Knight Ridder Newspapers

	Mandy Moore
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It's hard not to think about Robert Frost's famous "The Road Not Taken" when speaking with the 19-year-old singer-actress because much of her conversation is about roads she hasn't gone down.

Her new movie, "Chasing Liberty," for instance. The film, which opened Friday, is about the daughter of the president, visiting Europe with her dad and attempting to elude her Secret Service protectors so she can have a European fling.

Moore, who has recorded four albums and appeared in a half-dozen movies (including "A Walk to Remember" and "The Princess Diaries"), says she can relate to the idea of trying to have a private life when you're in the public eye. But Moore says her life is a breeze compared with that of her "Chasing Liberty" character.

"The thing I'm lucky to have is that I can go away and people don't really care," she says. "I guess I shouldn't say that so much, because I don't want anything to change. But it helps to keep a lower profile."

Moore's latest record, "Coverage," is an ambitious project that finds her covering tunes by most of the greats of the '70s, including Elton John, Joni Mitchell and Todd Rundgren.

Moore's youthful fan base has not embraced the disc, which has not sold as well as her previous records, but reviews have been surprisingly strong (Spin magazine gave the CD four stars). And performing real songs instead of bubblegum about boyfriends and puppies has positioned Moore as a more serious performer.

Moore's parents came of age in the '70s, but they didn't turn her on to the "Coverage" songs, she says, sounding briefly like a regular teenager instead of one who's a conglomerate: "No, they're still dancing in the kitchen to the same Eagles and Doobie Brothers songs they listened to when I was growing up. It's embarrassing."

She says even if the record had been roasted, making it was its own reward. "I discovered these songs over the last few years, looking through record bins," she says.

"Once I developed the idea of doing these covers, I'd just go from A-Z and pick out people I didn't know, but knew I should know. I thought, 'I'm in the music industry and I don't own a Joni Mitchell record. I should.' "

So, ultimately, she decided to go down that path, instead of making another pop record. And she decided not to do the high-school comedies and slasher films she was offered. And she opted not to pose for the cover of Maxim, although she has been on other, less-racy magazines.

Along the way, Moore has had disappointments. Last summer's "How to Deal" was, she says, "homogenized. ... And it wasn't the movie we shot." Last month's "Mona Lisa Smile" had Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles and Julia Roberts but not Moore, who auditioned but was told she was too young.

And she has not realized her dream of appearing in a Broadway musical, yet.

"That's what I first fell in love with, and I'm dying to do it, but I'm satisfied to wait," says Moore, who's a bit too young for most of the classic musical roles.

Her eventual goal? Miss Adelaide in "Guys and Dolls."

Moore says she is confident she'll be able to go down that path, that "Guys and Dolls" will be revived again "sometime before I'm 50."

Which gives her 30 years to go down a few other paths first.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company