big talent; Joan Juliet Buck talks to Rachel Griffiths, the consummate alpha female of TV drama.(Interview)

Byline: Joan Juliet Buck

Rachel Griffiths is a great actress who delivers a charge that's a rare combination of Earth Mother, leader, troubled soul, sexual libertine, and player. A tall Australian with features that register the subtlest emotions, she has perfect pitch for the multiple dimensions of unconventional American women who linger long after the shows have gone. In Six Feet Under, she riveted viewers as the brilliant, difficult Brenda. This month, in Angel Rodriguez on HBO, she is Nicole, a married and newly pregnant social worker who takes one of her charges home. Directed by Jim McKay with the slow attention to dailiness that one sees in European films, it makes every real-time instant suspenseful. In the new series Brothers and Sisters on ABC, she's Sarah, the oldest sister in the food business with her three brothers, all of them slightly embarrassed by a younger sister (Calista Flockhart) who's a right-wing pundit. In half a second she'll also be Inez Scull, flamboyant Southern-belle wife of Val ...