In person, Talia Shire is a small, slender brunette with big, dark eyes, pretty features and a natural grace in wearing the stylish black gaucho-pants suit she had on for a wintry New York afternoon.

On screen, she can look like almost anyone, from the not-very-bright daughter of a Mafia don (The Godfather and The Godfather, Part II) to a hardboiled type (TV's Rich Man, Poor Man). In her current film, Rocky, Talia is playing a mousy girl who blooms through her love for the boxer, played by Sylvester Stallone, who also wrote the film.

"I'm ready for a glamour clothes role," said Talia cheerfully, curling up on the hotel suite sofa. "Enough of these tacky girls!" Actually, she is well aware that she is a "young character actress,'' and quite happy to be one. But she has just gotten back to thinking about fashion "after two years of maternity clothes," and her new interest is making her think about a change of acting image as well.

"You have no idea the handicaps started with in acquiring a fashion image!  When I was a kid, I never got a hang of being 'coordinated.'  All the girls in Great Neck, Long Island were 'coordinated.'  But I was wearing uniforms at Catholic schools - I'm still trying to get over that hint of the nun in everything I wear."

Actually, Talia Shire has a well-thought-out fashion attitude. Largely because she is tiny enough to need most things shortened, she's had to be more clothes-conscious than many other women who can casually grab something off the rack. Besides, as a thoughtful actress, Talia is sensitive to the importance of costume as an expression of personality.

"For Rocky, our director, John Avildsen, let the cast get the clothes together for their characters. I created that girl by starting with what she would wear. At first, she looks swallowed up by her clothes, and they're in dark colors."

Talia thought that the girl shouldn't undergo one of those unbelievable Hollywood glamour transformations. "I thought color was the key, so when she blooms under the influence of love, she wears red, but not in anything more fashionable than she's ever worn. She curls her hair, too, but unskillfully.'' 

Talia added that even people who don't think anything of "fashion" make a statement by what they wear. "I divide people into those who want to be observed and those who want only to observe. I must say I've always thought of myself as the second kind."

Talia enjoyed her Godfather role because it involved a past period. She likes old costumes better than current clothes.

"I suppose I get an imaginative charge from older clothes. I remember when I was studying with Stella Adler and we were doing a studio production of 'A Doll's House,' she said we had to wear the 1880s costumes and hair styles to understand with our bodies the confinement Nora feels."

Although Talia is getting back into the swing of fashion, she admits she has a lot to learn. "My husband had a suit from somebody named Ralph Lauren - what's funny? Oh, he's famous?  Well, I also got a jacket of his. I like things functional, without fuss. As I said, I'm an observer."

Brought up in the theater, Talia is the daughter of arranger-conductor Carmine Coppola and the sister of director Francis Ford Coppola, responsible or the Godfather films. "You see, when your brother directs the film, you don't get glamour parts!"  Talia laughed. "Still, that role did get me an Oscar nomination, so I can't complain."

Her performance in Rocky may very well get her another nomination. But Talia has a few other dreams: "Actresses like Dietrich knew how to create a great effect with clothes. I wonder if there will ever again be parts like the ones she played."