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By IAN SPELLING, New York Times Special Features

Jan. 3, 2003, 7:41PM

Brad Dourif, the actor best known for his Oscar-nominated performance as Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975 and as the voice of Chucky in the Child's Play movies, plays Grima Wormtongue in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. And as the turncoat adviser to King Theoden (played by Bernard Hill), Dourif steals the show.

Wormtongue answers to the dark wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee), who's out to help Sauron gain control of Middle-earth. However, Wormtongue peddles his own brand of evil, Dourif said. "Wormtongue walks around with a real corruptible feeling about him," Dourif said. "I made him out to be someone who was probably picked on when he was young, who's smart and able to figure out what people are going to do before they do it, and that way avoid trouble."

For all the brutal battle scenes in The Two Towers, perhaps the most deliciously nauseating scene is the one in which Wormtongue attempts to seduce Eowyn (Miranda Otto), Theoden's lovely niece. Audiences squirm and gasp as he, a sinister figure cloaked in dark robes, makes clear his desires to the White Lady of Rohan.

At 52, Dourif is the consummate character actor. He works nonstop, turning up on television and in movies, both studio films and direct-to-video flicks. He's a sci-fi and horror regular. His credits include Dune, Body Parts, Alien Resurrection and the upcoming Vlad. He also has done guest shots on The X-Files, Babylon 5 and Star Trek: Voyager.

If there's a common thread to his work, it's that more often than not he plays villains.

"I've done a few," Dourif said. "The thing about bad guys is that bad guys do things to people. If you're a good guy, then things are done to you.

"In a sense, that's the central difference in the acting process. It's kind of tough to have things happen to you when you're acting (as a good guy). It requires much more trust and much more luck. You either feel it or you don't, you either get into it or you don't."

"Our unconscious is much more of a mystery than we wish it was. You have to tease yourself to get into it. It kind of has to happen indirectly," Dourif said. "A bad guy goes in there and does whatever he has to do."

frome The Houston Chronicle