Ron Perlman and Elya Baskin met in 1986 on the set of director Jean-Jacques Annaud's "The Name of the Rose."  The two actors, both LA residents and cigar aficionados, have been friends ever since.  For Perlman, who began his career on the New York stage, it was his third film but only the second in which he actually spoke a decipherable language, having debuted in a highly improvised role as a pre-language hominid in Annaud's 1981 film, "Quest for Fire."  With an ever-changing visage, Perlman has since appeared in "The City of Lost Children," "Romeo Is Bleeding," "The Last Supper," "Cronos," and as Vincent, the sonnet reciting beast in the short-lived but phenomenally successful "Beauty and the Beast" TV series.  The latest film in his diverse resume is the upcoming "Alien Resurrection".

Elya Baskin was already an award-winning European stage actor before his breakthrough role in Paul Mazursky's "Moscow on the Hudson."  As a graduate of Moscow's prestigious Theatre and Variety Arts College, Baskin was virtually assured of a successful career in the Soviet Union.  But when pre- perestroika emigration rules were relaxed in 1976, the Latvian-born actor came to Hollywood, though he spoke no English.  Within the range of the Eastern European roles in which he is almost invariably cast, Baskin has managed to portray a wide range of characters in such films as "2010," "Streets of Gold," and "Austin Powers" and the TV series "True Blue".  Baskin is currently on movie screens as a Kazakhstani terrorist in "Air Force One."

RON PERLMAN:  In high school, I was on the swim team and the whistle blew while we were doing our laps.  We all looked up and the coach said, "Perlman, out of the pool.  You see this guy standing next to me?  He's the drama teacher.  He's holding auditions for his play.  I've been watching you swim for two months, and he can use you a whole lot more than I can."  I did play after play throughout the remainder of high school, then through four years of college, and ultimately through two years of graduate school.

I got all my training on the stage, or at least 90 percent of it.  I got enough jobs in off-off Broadway plays to encourage me to continue to pursue the dream, and then after getting out of school and working exclusively in theatre in New York for several years, I started auditioning for cable networks.

ELYA BASKIN:  In Russia, being an actor when it was still the Soviet Union was one of the most prestigious professions.  It was like being a doctor here.  You had to graduate from one of very few theatre schools, which were all four-year colleges.  Without the degree, nobody would hire you.  We worked very hard because we wanted to get through the four years and get the diploma, but after you graduate and go to the theatre, the actors don't work like actors work here.

That's what fascinated me more than anything else here Ä how professional people are, how hard they work, and how much harder it is to get work.  In Russia we were always taught that we had the best theatre schools, but when I came here and started to work, I saw how wrong we were.  You really have to be the best to get the part here.

OTHER LANGUAGES

RON:  I try to do a play every few years.  In fact, this year started off with a play in New York, and it was great because I hadn't been on the stage since '9O.  When one begins to work in film and television, the theatre is a great place to come back and reinvent yourself and challenge yourself.  It's a very different process.  It has also become terrifying for me.  It's very difficult for me getting out there in front of people.

ELYA:  In Moscow, theatre was my passion, my love, and I did very little television and film.  Once I came here, I thought that because of the language barrier Ä I didn't know that you don't loop the films like we do in Europe Ä I'll try to pursue TV and films.  For some reason I lost interest in theatre.  Film work became so much more fascinating Ä the whole building of the character, no continuity, the whole camera aspect.  Those are the things that really fascinated me.

The language was the biggest challenge.  Instead of concentrating on the development of the character, you're thinking about your mouth, about putting your tongue in the right position so people can understand you.  I've worked for 20 years, and I will never be able to do a role in English like I would do it in my native tongue, and I know it.  Of course, with the years it becomes easier, and more often than not I'm cast as a character with an accent.

RON:  In terms of language, "Quest for Fire" was one of the most engaging challenges I've ever been given.  We had the luxury of a great deal of rehearsal time, mainly because when we were scheduled to start shooting, an actors' strike broke out and the film was delayed for about three months, so we continued to rehearse and steep ourselves in the lives of these 80,000 year-old characters. We got to the point where language was way too sophisticated a concept to even consider A his very son of primal, animalistic place.  If I would have had to utilize language, it would have been a major imposition; I would have had a great deal of trouble doing it, because my character was just too reactionary and just too. . . other-worldly.

RUN THE GAMUT

RON:  I've never been stereotyped, and I know this is a business where we are asked to do the same thing over and over again.  The premise from which my philosophy basically springs is, I have everyone in the universe inside me somewhere, and the farther afield I have to travel in order to find that person, the happier I am.  We are all capable of the entire gamut of emotions:  There's violence in us, there's jealousy, a lot of irrational passions in us that make very interesting theatrical situations. I've been fortunate enough to get to portray the more disparate facets of the human psyche.

ELYA:  I feel that, of course, I'm stereotyped.  But what can you do?  I can't imagine that some director would cast me as a sheriff from Alabama. But you can do exactly what you said:  With every character, they're different people, and it's up to you what you do with them.  This is your challenge.  It doesn't matter how limited your piece of the pie that you can use, you always try to do the best that you can.  How can I be upset for not being cast as a Southern sheriff?  That's what you call acting; you try to utilize whatever you can to be a different person every time.

RON: This is the most privileged industry to work in that I can think of because you can really hit the jackpot - financially, spiritually, fame, whatever.  And you can certainly hit the jackpot in terms of the richness of the experience, the great people you meet along the way, and the effect you can have on the great audience out there that's really interested in examining the human condition in any way, shape, or form that is pertinent, intelligent, illuminating, or entertaining.

But the only way to do it is to audition.  So if you hate auditions, get over it.  If you do badly at an audition, try to forget about it, because tomorrow you're going to have another one, and you better learn to like it and get good at it because that's the only way you're ever going to get a job over the other 800 guys who are trying to get that job.

ELYA:  I would sign that; I couldn't say it better. This is the strangest, most dangerous, insecure, and wonderful life.  I wouldn't choose anything else.