She's quite the character

LOS ANGELES -- As she makes her way to a photo shoot, the phone keeps cutting out on Molly Shannon. One minute she's all gosh-golly enthusiasm about getting to star in a movie, the next she's . . . gone. Again and again, until she's called back a half-dozen times, identifying herself by name each time and apologizing for the inconvenience.

Shannon may be the marquee name in a new movie, "Year of the Dog," which opens Friday , but she's no movie star, not even after six years on "Saturday Night Live" and turns in a slew of big-screen productions since then. She's too undemanding to fit the archetype, too thankful just to have a career. And, Hollywood shocker, she dials the phone herself.

Shannon is unlikely in other ways. She's still getting roles at 42, ancient by actress standards. She's not conventionally pretty. She made her name smelling her armpits and flashing her underwear -- "Superstar" -- but she's got a seriously serious side. Another thing she apologizes for is not being flat-out funny, instead bringing the same blend of earnestness and offbeat humor to conversation that she does to many of her characters.

"It sounds like I'm spinning it, but I think she's one of the most genuinely nice people I've met in the business," said director Mike White, who wrote "Year of the Dog" specifically for Shannon and made his feature directorial debut with the film. "I thought it'd be interesting to create a character that has that sort of winning appeal she has. I liked the idea of creating a character, one of those women who are very sweet and demure and kind of quiet and that you can glance over in life and letting that person come center stage and have a movie of her own."

In "Year of the Dog," Shannon plays Peggy, an office worker with no personal life whose adored dog dies an ugly death, setting in motion an emotional breakdown and a turn toward animal-rights activism that gets out of control. Shannon, who happens to be allergic to cats and dogs in real life, swears she laughed and cried her way through the script, hoping that White ("Nacho Libre," "The Good Girl") meant to cast her as the lead. But she was too insecure to be sure despite his promise to do just that after the pair worked on the television show "Cracking Up" together, which he calls the "worst professional experience of my career" thanks to network interference and which she doesn't describe as any more pleasant.

"I never thought Mike was blowing smoke," Shannon said. "He's a very, very funny guy but when he comes to work he's very reliable. I didn't think he'd say it if he didn't mean it but I didn't know how long it would be.

"When I got the script I think I went and got a cup of coffee and I was like, 'Year of the Dog' by Mike White . . .," she said, drawing out the title and name for dramatic emphasis. "I was hopeful, thinking, I hope he thinks the big part is for me."

Obviously it was, and the married mother of two young children set about transforming herself into someone who longs for love from something other than a four-legged creature. She says the clothes -- prim sweaters and sensible shoes almost to the point of caricature -- helped. So did slowing her walk and talk. Shannon, after all, may be best known for her silly "SNL" antics, but she also studied drama at New York University. She can play it straight or for laughs. "Year of the Dog" -- which costars John C. Reilly, Peter Sarsgaard, Regina King, and Laura Dern -- requires her to do both.

"I think people will see Molly and a dog and John C. Reilly and they'll think it's a wacky comedy," White said, speaking by telephone. "It walks a weird line, a weird mix of tone. . . . Depending on the crowd, some people think it's a comedy. Some people think it's tragic. It can be divisive."

For her part, Shannon didn't grow up feeling funny, although she says she was always character driven, playing pretend with friends in Ohio and from an early age acting out parts that typically required a Southern accent and maybe some singing a la Loretta Lynn.

No doubt make-believe made real life more palatable; when Shannon was 4, she was in a car accident that killed her mother, one of her sisters, and her cousin, and crushed her father's legs. Ever afterward, she says, her father encouraged outrageousness, including a successful attempt to stow away on an airplane with a friend when she was 12.

"He was into breaking rules and getting away with stuff; my dad thought that was funny and crazy," she said. "I don't worry about my kids doing things like that too much. We are a lot stricter. But you never know."

At that, Shannon the mom, who is married to artist Fritz Chesnut, defended her dad, who died in 2002. "My dad was all involved in that [stowaway] plan but he did get worried. But he couldn't get mad because he allowed us to do it. He was a real eccentric."

Shannon knows from eccentric characters. Back at NYU, between classes where she did sense memory work and thought about her grandmother's funeral until she was overcome by grief-filled tears, she was cast in a comedy review that included skits and impressions of the drama teachers. She ended up creating characters -- including Mary Katharine Gallagher -- so clever that the show was a nightly sell out. Suddenly she was being recognized all over campus.

"It felt fun and easy," Shannon said. "That's what really kicked me into comedy and then I thought, 'I'm going to LA and do my own show,' and people started saying, 'You should be on "Saturday Night Live." ' "

And so she was, from 1995 to 2001. But she tired of how the show consumed her life (she says she had none). Wanting balance, she walked away from one of the most coveted roles in comedy. She says she has no regrets. She went on to win roles in everything from "Sex and the City" to "Marie Antoinette," not to mention dozens of other movies and sitcoms along the way. Shannon just filmed a pilot called "The Mastersons of Manhattan" with Natasha Richardson. They play wealthy socialite sisters, each with her own eccentricities. It was created by a former writer and producer of "Will and Grace," where Shannon guest starred for several episodes.

"It really doesn't make a difference what medium I'm working in," Shannon said. "I just like to work with friends and writers I know. I like both TV and movies and I kind of go back between both. I don't have a big master plan. I just kind of go with the flow."

That said, Shannon also understands that starring roles are rare for women in general and for women over 35 in particular. Fully developed parts like Peggy, who, as Shannon explains it, would normally be a one-note character seen in a single scene depicting a bad date, don't come along all that often. So she's doubly thankful for the opportunity.

"I did go through a period where I was like 'Why isn't there more stuff for women?' " she said. "But I choose for the most part to focus on what women are doing, and women are doing some amazing things. I'm so grateful to Mike that he wrote this complicated deep woman and you see her loneliness. You see her making mistakes."

So much for over-the-top "Superstar" laughs. But "Year of the Dog" isn't aimed at that crowd. Shannon calls it "definitely" an adult comedy, not a peak of her underpants in it.