HEADLINE: SEQUEL MAN; PROFILE: Emilio Estevez, starring in his third major sequel, may not get much respect. But he says he doesn't care.

Emilio Estevez was filming a movie on location in Canada when Disney honcho Michael Eisner unexpectedly dropped the bombshell that reverberated around the hockey world.

Word spread quickly throughout Canada _ "The Mighty Ducks Are Coming! The Mighty Ducks Are Coming! " _ and Estevez admits now that he was not sure he was going to get out alive.

"Hockey is a national treasure in Canada, and they take their sport so seriously," said the actor, who starred in the original 1992 film "The Mighty Ducks" and reprises his role as coach Gordon Bombay in Disney's "D2: The Mighty Ducks," the long-awaited sequel that opens today in Orange County.

"It was a most unfortunate place to be when Eisner announced that he was forming a new professional hockey team named after the movie I had been in," said Estevez, 31. "I genuinely feared getting sniped as I walked down the street.

"Then I had to hang around Vancouver reading newspapers and listening to the radio every day as they discussed, quite emotionally, how bad this was for the game and how Eisner was trivializing the sport and how he was Hollywood-izing hockey. " Pausing momentarily while relating his ordeal in Canada, Estevez stops and smiles. Looking around to make sure no Canadian hockey fans are listening, he adds in a conspiratorial whisper:

"Quite frankly, I understood exactly what Eisner was doing. He was making hockey a money sport, which it never was. He has opened the doors for television, he's opened the doors for a merchandising bonanza, and he has generated interest in the sport.

"I can't tell you how many parents come up to me and tell me their kids are playing hockey because of the movie and the team.

You can't walk down the street without seeing a kid wearing a Ducks hat. Eisner knew exactly what he had done. And it didn't hurt the movie sequel, either.

"A kid would have to be living in a cave in Siberia not to know this movie is opening. "

The sequel, in which Bombay coaches a national team comprising the original Ducks as well as some new young hockey players, was almost a foregone conclusion. The first movie was extremely popular in the theaters, but it skyrocketed in the video stores, where it reportedly sold an astounding 800,000 units.

In fact, Estevez proved himself a seer of sorts while filming the first film. At the end of the movie, coach Bombay stands in the doorway of the bus addressing his triumphant team. He says, "No matter what, I'll see you again next year, because we have a title to defend. "

Estevez said that after doing the scene correctly, he asked for another take to use for the gag reel, a film reel filled with bloopers that's shown at the final cast party. In this take, coach Bombay says, "I'll see you again next year because we have a sequel to make. "

Even with the joke, Estevez said he hesitated to make the sequel. He loved the character but was worried that he was starting to get a reputation as someone who does only sequels. He has starred in "Young Guns II" and "Another Stakeout. "

"That alone was a reason for not doing the sequel," Estevez said. "I thought I was going to be cursed with doing sequels the rest of my life. But my agents convinced me that no matter what I did in between, these sequels were a nice well to return to.

"But there were plenty of reasons to do the film," he added. "I love the character because he's the most like me of any character I've ever played. I don't have to delve too deeply into the bowels of his psyche to know what he's thinking, because he's essentially me. I don't mean that I phoned in the part, but it was fun acting.

"I also love working with the kids. I am not W.C. Fields. I love working with kids, and I have two kids of my own.

"There was one other reason, a more practical reason for doing the sequel. People really took to the original. They feel they discovered it. My character was a motivating force of the original movie, and people expect him to be in the sequel.

"If I didn't appear in it, I wondered whether the public might resent me for it. I wondered if it would affect their feelings about other movies I do in the future. "

In the sequel, coach Bombay starts believing his own hype and starts showing up looking like Knicks coach Pat Riley, slicked hair and all. Opposing his team is the fearsome bad-boy team from Iceland. Iceland?

"That's a new twist in movie villains," Estevez said with a laugh. "That sprang out of the mind of the writer, and I don't know why they were chosen to be the villains.

"Maybe the writer thought that Iceland would be the least offended country to have this burden placed on them. But I haven't really talked to any Icelanders to find out how they feel about being the bad guys. "

The movie also contains a great deal of patriotic flag-waving, and Estevez admits that some of it was embarrassing.

"It's not because I'm not proud of my country," he said. "I love living here, and I enjoy being an American. But I thought it was little much at times."

"I really protested when they had me doing a speech near the end of the movie that begged for me to be standing in front of a giant American flag, straight out of 'Patton. ' They wanted me to talk about how gentle America is, and I reminded them that the big-stick policy was still very much in effect. I told them this speech is a lie, and I couldn't get my mind and mouth around it. " The filmmakers conceded the actor's point and changed the scene to the "Where-are-you-from" locker room speech.

Estevez is not known as a boat-rocker in Hollywood. He has worked steadily because audiences like him and studios trust him.

Even two directing failures _ "Wisdom" and "Men At Work" _ have not dimmed his career. It's possible, the actor says, that he continues to work so much because of those failures, not despite them.

"While those movies I directed were not successful, they afforded me an opportunity to take myself out of commission for a few years," he said. "Who knows what would have happened to me if I had not directed those films and had continued to act?

"What if I had acted in three duds during that time and gone by the wayside, like so many of my contemporaries? I used to bang my head against the wall because I was never the flavor of the month like so many of my friends. I hated being vanilla. I wanted to be some exciting color. But I've been around 14 years, and many of those flavors-of-the-month have come and gone.

"It was always more important for me to have a full-rounded and long career, and the only way to do that is to not believe your own hype. I never had a chance to believe my hype, because I've had the rug pulled out from me every time I've been on top of my game.

" Emilio Estevez at a glance

Birthplace: New York City
Famous father: Martin Sheen
Famous brother: Charlie Sheen
First movie as actor: "Tex"
First movie as director: "Wisdom"
First sequel: "Young Guns II"
First film on ice: "The Mighty Ducks"
Best cult film: 'Repo Man"
Two words he hates: Brat Pack.



THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER March 25, 1994 Friday MORNING EDITION BYLINE: BARRY KOLTNOW, The Orange County Register
Article contributed by Elaine for PRESENTING...EMILIO!!!