Louise Robey was afraid of the dark before landing the role of Micki Foster on "Friday the 13th: The Series." Three seasons later? "I'm still afraid of the dark," chuckles the actress. "But I'm less afraid of myself."

Deep thoughts like these are only one facet of the Robey package. Alternately introspective, outrageous, flighty, headstrong, and refreshingly independant, she seems ideally suited for battling otherworldy forces and possesed antiques in "Friday the 13th: Series," Robey's dark fears aside, has proven highly helpful. "Doing this show has definately been therapeutic," she notes. "It's taught me to open myself up and to release myself, and to have unbridled enthusiasm for my work and in life."

"Friday the 13th: Series" is currently finishing its third season, and, unlike most television fare, seems to be improving with age, so much so that a longer run seems a safe bet. "Which is great," nods Robey. "I truly believe this show has a lot longr to run. I had no idea when I took this part that I would be sitting here talking about a possible fourthseason. I'd ben in show buisness for 10 years before this series, and a lot of things I had high hopes for never lasted. For something I'm involved in to actually work is the greatest thing in the world."

Robey's self-described "workaholic nature" is in high gear during this week-before-Christmas interview. With three days off between "Friday" episodes, Robey jets off to Paris to promote the show. For the past couple of months, she's had a group of musicians living in the basement of her Toronto house, the better to sandwich in tracks for Robey's new LP between "Friday the 13th" chores. Come day four, it's a fast limo ride back to the "Friday the 13th" set.

"Jet lag is my life," she laughs. "I'm constantly tired, and I've been burned out quite awhile now. But I never go back on my word. When I sign to do something, I do it, and when I work, I work very hard."

"Robey claims she's worked particularly hard in molding the character of Micki into something other than your typical horror heroine. Still, the changes, as far as she was concerned, were a bit slow in coming. "During the first season, Micki was a bird of paradise," she sighs. "She wore all fancy jewelry and clothes and played a lot sexier but a bit more vulnerable. She was always a strong gal, otherwise she would never have stuck it out, but the bottom line was that whatever happened to Micki, youknew her nails would match her lips."

Robey recalls that the breakthrough for Micki came about halfway through the second season. "My bird of paradise turned into a bird of prey," she quips. "It was in that episode ["Better Off Dead"] where i was turned into that monkey person. I ragged the nails and made them dirty and ripped. While I was doing that episode, I realized that i wanted to make the character stronger, somebody who suddenly realized that it would benifit the people around her if she opened up more." At that point, she became much more tomboyish in her attitude.

Robey feels that the third season, which saw her cousin Ryan (John LeMay) eliminated from the show and replaced by newcomer Johnny Ventura (Steve Monarque), will cause even more changes in Micki's demeanor. "The character of Ryan was very street-oriented and, by comparison, Micki was elitavely naive," the actress explains. "But now Micki has grown into being very much the foundation of this whole bizarre situation and will have to deal with Johnny, who is new to the whole scene and posesses the naivete that Micki once had.

"Johnny's presence opens up new dynamics and different situations for Micki to play off. There's more of a love thing possible now that wasn't there before because Ryan and Micki were cousins. Now that the family obstacle is no longer in the way, you're probably going to see some kind of romantic relationship develop between the two at some point," she pedicts. "But I'm going to mis John LeMay. You tend to bond with the people you work with, and it has become a real family situation for everybody connected with the show. It was sad, but then life has to go on."

Robey refuses to disclose much beyond the romantic notion and a hint of "another time-travel" show as to what the future of "Friday the 13th" will hold. The very nature of the series, she says, holds a coffinload of challenges for her character.

"Every week is a new challenge because, unlike most shows with continuing characters, `Friday the 13th' does not have to relate in any way to the show the week before. I can have my arm broken one week, fall in love the next, die the next week, and come back to life in the following episode. You can bring up things in one show and not have to worry that there has to be some kind of arc.

"Because the show runs that way, we actors are faced with a big challenge of playing the obvious without playing the obvious," she continues. "When we meet a bad guy, we have to play it like we don't know who this person is, and yet give the audience some indication that we do know who he is. It's also a big challenge for me personally to avoid certain mannerisms that tend to arise when you play the same character week after week."

Various "Friday the 13th" battles have seen her come close to mating with the devil, get familiar with spiders, snakes, bees and bats and cross swords with people who stumble across cursed antiques. These chores force her to put on a wide variety of acting faces, but Robey claims there's no method to her madness.

"I'm a pretty upfront person, and I wear my emotions on my sleeve," the redhead says of her acting approach. "So I don't worry about methods. I don't do push-ups before a scene to get in the right frame of mind. I'm pretty much able to turn Micki on and off. I can be smoking a cigarette, get a call to the set, stamp it out and be ready to do the damned scene."

The actress has a bone to pick with anyone describing "Friday the 13th: Series" as a horror show. "It's not horror at all. It's a suspense show with horror elements, but it's not an out-and-out horror show," she stipulates. "And if it were, that wouldn't set too well with me because I've never been a horror fan. I'm a woman. I enjoy movies about life and love, not about bodies being ripped apart."

Robey, as she is prone to doing, kidnaps the conversation into the unusual diatribes about miniature pigs, the Wicca religion, and the interview process, which she likes. For the most part. "What really drives me up the wall is when people ask me if anything weird or supernatural ever happens on the set," she groans. "Nothing weird happens! `Friday the 13th' is just a piece of work. Occasionally the craft service is bad, but that's about as weird as it gets."

Weird is the word that has couched many stories on the actress. She's serious when describing a teenage bout of agoraphobia (fear of open spaces) as "thinking I was part of a government experiment to see how much pain I could take." Ditto her exhibitionist tendencies that, during her modeling years, had her posing nude for magazine spreads.

"I'm a legitimate free spirit," she shrugs. "I don't care what people think. People can't say anything about me that will get me upset. It didn't used to be this way, but now I do what I want, and what people say just rolls off my back."

Robey, the daughter of an Air Force major and a London stage actress, was born in Montreal. Educated in schools throughout Eurpoe, Robey mastered a number of langueges and honed her talents in music, dance, and painting. At age 15, she left to study dance at the London Royal Academy of Ballet, returned to Canada and was juggling potential careers in dance and music when her real-life interest in the occult set her on a different course. "I was told by a psychic that if I would go to France, my entire life would change," she confesses. "Well, I didn, and my life changed."

While Robey hung out in France with the likes of actor Klaus Kinski and former French President Valerie Giscard d'Estaing, she saw a short-term musical fling called Louise and the Creeps do a fast burn and did a great deal of topless sunbathing on the French Riviera. During one such frolic, Robey was spotted be famed photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue, who photographed her. Those pictures ended up in "Paris Vouge," and launched Robey on a successful modeling career.

Income from modeling allowed Robey to continue exploring the world of pop music. She formed a new group under the moniker Robey and had a moderate pop hit with the song "One Night in Bangkok" from "Chess", one of six Robey singles that would chart during the mid-to-late 1980s.

She turned her attention to smaller roles in the films _The Money Pit_ and _Raw Deal_. When the initial opportunity to audition for "Friday the 13th" came up, Robey's initial reaction was to run the other way.

"I've never seen a "Friday the 13th" movie, but when i was first offered the opportunity for the series, I just assumed it had to do with the Jason movies and said no on two different occasions," she relates. "Finally I went when they asked me a third time. When i saw the show's bible, I realized this was something rather interesting."

Robey's rating has gone from interesting to downright pioneering as the seasons have continued. "We're doing a show that is breaking down walls," she assesses. "We've been rather controversial in spots. This is a show that's creating an emotional impact and making people think. And one of the most important things it's making people think is the potential of a woman having a pivital role in a suspense or horror series. I'm pretty and well endowed like the women you see in all those horror films, but unlike all those films, I'm not presenting Micki as a totally useless woman. Micki is smart and resourceful. I'd like to think that my portrayl of her in this series is changing the perception people have in this genre.

"I constantly balk at any attempt being made to portray Micki as a glamor queen. I've played Micki as sweaty and dirty. If she has to look ugly to make this character play as real, I'll fight for that," Robey concludes. "I'll get ugly in a minute if it makes this show play as real."

Finale.

***As the original story was going to press, F13 got canned. Bummer.