Well, popular actor Lou Diamond Phillips wants to submit himself to the same, nipple - numbing initiation ceremony. And not just for reel but for real.

For Lou, who was born in The Philippines but boasts Cherokee Indian blood, is passionately committed to the cause of the modern-day 'native American', whom he believes to be downtrodden and misrepresented, so misunderstood.

As a reward for his commitment, and the pro - native American work which goes with it, the young star of La Bamba, Stand And Deliver, Young Guns and Renegades was recently adopted into the Sioux Tribe, where he was given a Red Indian name which translates as 'Star Keeper '. But it didn't satiate his appetite for further involvement. Rather, it whetted it.

Now Lou is seriously considering participating in that aforementioned Sioux sundance ceremony. But only, he adds with a smile, when his film career has progressed to the point where he no longer needs to take his shirt off on - screen. It's the scars you see ...

Lou's relaxed rapport with the press is legendary. And today is no exception. As we sit and talk on a sunny Cannes beach, he's animated, affable and endlessly polite. And ready, willing and able to talk about any aspect of his life and his on -the - up career. As he said, and as certain others would do well to emulate : "When you put your heart and soul into a film, when you sweat and stink your way through a hard, 12-hour day - well, you want an audience to see the work you've put in."

"If that means putting myself out a bit to promote it - well fine. It's not a lot to have to do."

"I haven't done a film yet that i am not proud of. I haven't given a performance that i don't feel has some merit."

"That's not to say that any of my films are perfect. Far from i, many's the time i've sat in a cinema going 'God, Lou - that scene !', and wishing that i could have redone it . "

"But it was the best i was capable of at the time."

"I like the industry I'm in. I like the work.That's why i got into. And that's why I've stayed in it. I've other interests - writing, for instance.But I'm viewed first and foremost as an actor. And I'm proud of that fact. I always will be an actor ".

Lou, who's wearing his jet - black hair long, and who's dressed cowboy-casual in black pants, waistcoat and mutedly patterned shirt, loses his cool only once. And only slightly.

It's when i innocently ask him whether he feels he's now nearing the career point where his exotic looks could come become incidental to the parts he play's rather than central to them.

"I don't feel pigeon-holed or overly categorised because of how i look", he snaps, albeit rather mildly. I've willingly accepted the opportunities of representing Hispanics and native Americans. And I'll continue to do so. Because, in a way , I'm someone who is caught between two worlds too. So maybe I can shed a little more light on screen on their real situation than some other actors could."

"If I've a message, it's that Americans come in all shapes, sizes and colours. But they're all still Americans".

This month sees the UK premiere, on RCA/Columbia video, of an old Lou Diamond Phillips film called Dakota. But that's pure coincidence. It isn't Dakota's poignant story of first love that Lou has come to the Cannes Film Festival to promote. That distinction goes to Mind Game,a forthcoming film in which the multi-faceted Mr Diamond will not only star in, but also wrote.

It's a psychological thriller in which Lou plays a Filipino writer, living and working in the US, who's thwarted in his bid to write a book about his dying dad. He turns his attentions instead to the story of a ostensibly rehabilitated killer, becomes obsessed by him - and bids to manipulate the mass murderer into becoming his own personal weapon of vengeance.

"It's probably the only time I'll ever get to play a Filipino", Lou jokes, about yet another torn between two worlds role. "It's also",he adds, somewhat more seriously," the most important film I've made so far. And the most complex role I've played."

"For Mind Game isn't a film whose heroes and villains are clearly defined. The serial slayer winds up the sort of hero. It isn't black and white. But,then nor is life".

Lou goes on to describe the film as affording excitement without overt action. And the prospect pleases him.

"I've really run my butt off doing action films these past few years", he tells me."And I've always done a lot of my own stunts. Now, I'm really looking forward to a film where the height of my activity is sitting down at the typewriter."

"It'll be terrific not to have to break sweat. Not to get beaten up ".

Mind Game is one of six screenplays that Lou has written, but the first actually to have made it into pre-production(shooting is scheduled to start shortly).

He's been writing for years. And he loves doing it, if only because it offers him the chance of getting movies made that feature favourite themes. But it's not his only additional talent. Lou is also a skilled teacher of the tricks of his trade. In other words he passes on front-of-the-camera tips to talented young stage actors who want to make a transition from theatre to film.

They include coping with the myriad's of positional marks and such nifty little knacks as how to focus one's eye on a character one's meant to be talking to when the the character may well actually not be there when your scene is being filmed.

"It's film techniques," Lou explains. And i love teaching them. I was teaching only last week.

"It's necessary teaching, too. I'd have found it really useful myself when i first started making films. When i saw videos of my first scenes, I felt ready to quit. It's so different from stagework".

Talk turns to the forthcoming Young Guns 2 - Lou's first sequel, and a film which reunites him with bosom buddies Kiefer Sutherland and Emilio Estevez.

"I never thought I'd do a sequel", say's Lou who, as you'll have gathered, takes his film career very seriously. But I read the script, and really believed that we could make a better movie than the first one. And I believe we have.

"I wouldn't have dreamed of getting involved if it had only been put together to make money."

"My thinking was that the superior script offered me a chance to do a better job with my role, which had been written with much more depth to it".

Lou also admits that he relished the prospect of re-teaming with Kiefer-and in particular, with Emilio,whom he holds in especial esteem.

"Emilio's a ground breaker", he tells me". He was the first in our age range to write, direct and act in his own film. We talked at length during Young Guns 2, and he gave me a lot of good advice. The best bit was to take things slowly - not to try to rush them".

Lou also rates highly the front - of - camera rapport that he has with the likes of Emilio and Kiefer. "It's a sort of chemistry ", he says. "We're connected. When one of us leads off into something, the others follow. It's a really wonderful thing. "It allows you to do your best work".

Talk turns to Lou's off-screen life.

"Home life?", he queries, grinning broadly. "What home life? No, seriously, I'm really happy to be shooting Mind Game in Los Angeles. It isn't often that I get to sleep in my own bed while working."

"But I'm not complaining. Mine's not the sort of job where I'm involved in the same ritual routine every working day of the year. Sure filming is hard, unglamorous work."

"But when i'm off - which, by choice, I am a fair amount of the time - I'm off. And I'm well enough paid to go visit my wife where she's working (she's line-producing a film in Indiana at the moment), and for her to visit me when I'm working and she isn't."

"So when I get time with her and my friends. I've no complaints".

For the future, Lou has several immediate ambitions. One is to back off from overtly commercial films a bit, and to make movies that maybe don't make mucho moolah, but that deftly tread the tightrope between art and commerce. Another is to do more comedy. Lou dabbled with it in the disappointing Disorganized Crime, which video-premiered in the UK a few months back. But he'd like to do better.

"I'm writing a script now that's a comedy", he reveals". And I'm reading a couple of others."

"I'd like to do a romantic movie, too. Even though I'm considered a romantic lead, I haven't really done a romance."

"In fact, I've made more movies with horses than with girlfriends".

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