The Time Traveler

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Kyra Sedgwick

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As a young Eastern European woman who conceals her Jewish heritage in order to be accepted in the genteel, Gentile world of 1940s Manhattan, Miss Rose White's Kyra Sedgwick comes up with a near-ideal accent: New York interrupted by brief, embarrassed flickers of Noo Yawk. ''I didn't have to take any lessons,'' says Sedgwick, a Manhattanite who grew up accent-free. ''My mother was a speech teacher, and she was always pounding into me not to use the dental T's and D's that people think of as a New York sound.''

As career assistance goes, Sedgwick could have gotten worse: With roles as a turn-of-the-century innocent in Ah, Wilderness! on Broadway, a 1930s Kan-san teenager in Mr. and Mrs. Bridge, and a small-town girlfriend to Tom Cruise in Born on the Fourth of July, the 26-year-old actress has won a reputation for emotionally vivid work in period pieces. But Sedgwick insists that Miss Rose White marks a departure. ''I've played so many characters whose hearts are on their sleeves. Whereas this one — well, I called her 'anal Rose'. Control permeates her voice, her clothes — even her hair is sort of repressed.''

Sedgwick finally moves into the present with this summer's Singles, an ensemble comedy-drama about the complexities of unmarried life circa 1992. Until then, Sedgwick will attend to the complexities of extremely married life: She and her husband, actor Kevin Bacon (Footloose), have a 3-year-old son, Travis, and an infant daughter, Sosie. ''Kevin and I have a deal that we'll never work at the same time,'' says Sedgwick. ''It's tricky. Great things come along and you have to grab them while you can. Really,'' she adds as 5- week-old Sosie gurgles delightedly, ''I'm ready to go back to work now. I'm not tired at all!'' Now that's acting.