NEW YORK
The sleek, Swedish actress Lena Olin is well on her way to becoming one of the sex symbols of '90s. She wore little more than a bowler in The Unbearable Lightness of Being; she works up an even greater sweat in her tempestuous performance in the current Enemies, A Love Story.

But first, she's getting respect. Just Monday, she received the New York Film Critics Award for best supporting actress in Enemies, in which she plays a neurotic Holocaust survivor burying her memories with sex.

She takes the award personally, as she does her work. ''This is a new continent for me, so receiving this award is like going to a party where you don't know anybody, and somebody opens his arms and embraces you.''

Now on hiatus from filming Havana in the Dominican Republic, where she plays the wife of a Cuban revolutionary opposite Robert Redford, the 34-year- old Olin is shy and inhibited in her everyday life. But she's completely liberated when facing the camera.

''People refer to the cold eye of the camera. But to me, it's the warmest eye I know,'' she says. ''Maybe that's why I need my work so much. It's such a relief.''

Because of insecurity, she turned down what might have been a modeling career in the USA. Instead, she stayed in Sweden working with director Ingmar Bergman, both on stage productions and films such as Fanny and Alexander. She also devoted her energies to the challenges of being an unmarried mother to son August, now 4.

''I have to do exactly what I feel like doing, and if that means playing in a small theater in Sweden or a small part in a film, I'll do it,'' she says. ''The individual Lena Olin is not that important to me. Sometimes I have the feeling that people are so careful about what they're good at. I think it's definitely OK to fail in this business.''

That non-egotistical attitude, which helps her disappear into her roles, is what gives critics high hopes for her future. Rolling Stone's Peter Travers believes she'll be one of the major talents of the '90s. ''She's one of those people you keep casting in your mind for other roles,'' he says.

She's still naive about Hollywood. She hardly knows who Chevy Chase or Clint Eastwood are and is ho-hum about being a sex symbol.

''I feel very much alive when I act and I want to give some of that to the audience. And if they look at me as a sex symbol, well, they can look at me anyway they want - as long as something happens to them.''

Many thanks to Jinnie for this article!