LOQUACIOUS is the nickname one of Cristi Ellen Harris' (Emily, Sunset Beach) brothers gave her. She likes to talk - a lot. But don't let that fool you. No idle chatter here; this is a girl who is articulate, focused and (refreshingly) practices what she preaches. Harris' openness and gift of gab are probably direct results of her upbringing. While she was growing up, her family - mom, dad, three brothers and one sister - moved a lot because of her father's airline job. "We would just pick up and go whenever my dad got transferred," she says. "We'd leave our friends, and the family would wind up getting closer. I learned that family is the most important thing, and they're always there for you, no matter what."

Being the baby of the family - and craving attention - basically fueled her acting inspiration. "I definitely did my share of performing when I was a child," she says with a laugh. When she hit high school, she enrolled in the drama program, but it took a move to the East Coast for that acting passion to be recognized.

"I ended up moving to New York to do some modeling," she recalls. While drinking in all that the Big Apple had to offer, she stumbled upon the Great White Way - and immediately fell in love. "I thought Broadway plays were the most amazing things, and just felt so alive whenever I'd sit down to watch them."

With her interest more than a little piqued, Harris decided to give Herbert Berghof's prestigious HB Studio a peek. "It was just incredible," she says sighing. "From the moment I walked through those doors, I knew acting was what I wanted to do."

Harris returned to California for a family visit, and wound up being signed by both Wilhelmina Models and the William Morris Agency. She headed back to New York, but unfortunately, her career didn't exactly take off, so she returned to California and her parents. "They wanted me to be happy, but really hoped that the desire to be an actress would end up just being a phase," she recalls. Her passion, however, ended up changing their tune. "Once my family realized that there just was no swaying me, they wound up encouraging and supporting me." Harris discovered that she had undergone a change of her own. "Up until then, my dream was to have the husband, the children...just like my family. I still harbor those wants; my priorities just have shifted a little."

Once immersed in acting, Harris says, "I really started to see why my parents were concerned. There's a lot of greed and backstabbing in this business. Everyone has their own agendas. These are things that my parents wanted me to avoid."

Entering the business as a teen-ager "built character," Harris notes. The audition process was especially difficult. "I was always too tall, or too curvy, they said. I was told, 'I'm sorry, you don't look 16.' I was in fact 16, and was driven crazy by this. I couldn't play older because my face was too young. Then I lost weight - thank god, it was in my top portion - and age. Now, I can play as young as 15."

Eventually, all that character building started to pay off. Harris landed a national commercial for Doritos, followed by a guest-starring role on Growing Pains during the "Leonardo DiCaprio year" of the show (1985). "He was a total sweetheart, and a real professional," she says of her brush with the Titanic star. Another sitcom stint, on Full House, popped up next. "I played this bitchy prom queen who tried to steal D.J.'s boyfriend," she recalls with a laugh.

Then came a couple of feature films "that never got released," followed by a brief return to studying acting. "The next job I got was in the film Rescue Me," Harris says. "I was a cheerleader. Really ditzy, with tons of this frizzy hair."

A lead role in the campy Night of the Demons 2 provided Harris with what she calls "the best acting experience until Sunset came along." While playing the sweet ingenue in that film, she did something almost unheard of in the horror movie genre: "To me, nudity isn't a big deal. I was brought up believing that it's not dirty or bad. It's your body. I feel violence is much worse than nudity. I would rather have a child view a naked body than look at the blatant violence that they're allowed to watch." Unfortunately, some of her family didn't share her views. "It was hard," she says. "I have relatives who thought what I did was so horrible." She brightens, though, when she discusses her grandfather's reaction. "He said, 'As long as you live by what you feel, you're not going to make a mistake. If you don't have a problem with it, don't let anybody else make you feel like you should.'"

After landing a few more gigs, Harris decided to give acting a rest for a while. "I think that because I started in the business so young, I got tainted," she says of her reprieve. "I was very disheartened by the negative side. People are not nice; I finally woke up and realized that." So, she went back to school, got her GED, and went to college while working at several real jobs, "I waitressed, hostessed and even worked behind the cosmetics counter at Nordstrom. I did all sorts of things until I realized that my true love is performing."

So, Harris threw herself back into the shark pool, and within six months landed the plum role of Emily Davis, Bette's estranged daughter, on Sunset.

"I'm glad for everything I went through before Sunset," she says, "because I think it gave me the chance to learn about myself and figure out what I wanted to do." Her Sunset experience also has renewed her faith in the business. "Everyone from cast to crew is so nice. There's no backstabbing or competition like on the other sets I've been on."

Emily is so focused, stubborn and independent, just like Harris herself. "I'm starting to find more and more similarities between us," she confesses. There is one resounding difference, though. "Emily is definitely much more naive, and gives people a lot more chances. I would never let someone like Amy walk all over me the way Emily does."

Sunset's ratings have been far from inspiring, but Harris has faith in the show. "I really hope that we all have jobs in six months. We're quirky and bizarre, and unlike anything else on TV. We just need a chance."

Speaking of bizarre...how did Harris feel bout Emily's recent supernatural blindness storyline, when Amy came up with a curse that left Emily sightless? "Emily's blindness was the most incredible personal experience," she says excitedly. "I'm huge with eyes when I'm acting. This was the first time that I couldn't look into someone else's eyes, so I couldn't feel what they were feeling. It was a thoroughly exhausting storyline but rewarding because I learned so much."

Harris answers immediately when asked if she would rather be blind or deaf. "I would absolutely hate going blind, but at least I'd be able to hear. Music is everything to me and I don't know what I would do without it." Her interest in music - especially opera - has paralleled her passion for acting she now studies opera, and hopes one day to feel comfortable enough to sing a famous Italian aria before a packed house. "I love to face my fears, and singing in front of people is the biggest. One day I will conquer it, though."

Until then, Harris is exactly where she wants to be. "I hate to say it but I'm in a perfect place right now," she says. "I'm not a morning person, but I love waking up and going to work, even if it's at 4:30 a.m."

Now, how many people can say that?