\ \ \IgID? foIOVIES stage, in film, on TV and in her personal life.Under' While pregnant last year, the 29-year-old actress made her Broadway debut opposite MarkRuffalo inthe Clifford Odets revival "Awake and Sing!" InJanuary, she gave birth to her son, Orson.</p><p> Last summeq, she starred in Shakespeare in the Park's "Romeo & Juliet," which gar- nered Ambrose great reviews.</p><p> On Friday, she'll be seen as an ambitious graduate student who latches on to her writing idol @layedbird" when she was I l, she has "a problem with au- thority." So how did Andrew Morgan, director of "Eve- ning," win her confidence?*Andrew is very passionate about his work, and this movie in particular," says Ambrose, who married her husband, Sam Handel, a photographe4 in 2001. "I re- membertalking to him about it and he was weeping when talking about doing this fllm.</p><p> I've noticed that the people who make the best movies are the ones who are really passionate." Ambrose felt a kinship with her charac- ter, Heather, a young woman who is sort of a less-poisonous Eve Harrington: She woos editors, writers and others who can advance her desire to become a writer herself. (-angella's Leonard Schiller is an obscure, ailing writer she persuades to let her interview him at length for a thesis on his work.) But Heather doesn't ty and take advan- tage of people's kindness so much as use their knowledge and utiilize it.</p><p> In the same way, Ambrose used being a new mother to bring pas- sion to the all-consuming love of "Romeo & Juliet." "He's the real Romeo," says Ambrose of her son. "And I was able to use [pregnancy] and having a baby as Juliet.</p><p> You use things in your life, and Shakespeare can hold all that."by Frank langella) in "Starting Out in the Eve. ning." It follows a busy "'ns when she gave a vocalperformance as a "wildthing" inthe Spike Jonze movie'Where the Wild Things Are," plays Jeff Bridges' daughter in the upcoming "A Dog Yea4" and taped epi- sodes ofthe sitcom "The Return ofJezeb- el James" with Parker Posev. 'I don't think I will ever say 'I know what I'm doing,'" says AmbroSe, who first gained notice in the 1998 teen comedy "Cap't Hardly Wait. " "Ev- ery job that I get, everytime I start, I think,'Okay, l' m definitc$ getting fired from this.' Because ev- ery actor gets fired some- time, and I haven't yet.</p><p> So everyacting job for me is like starti4g from scratch.</p><p> It's an exercise in faith." And an exercise in trust: Ambrose says that, thanks to an im- pressionable reading of "To Kill a Mocking-
