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<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Melissa George's 'Alias' Is the Other Woman</span>
By Kate O'Hare
Melissa George, who plays NSC agent Lauren Reed in the Sunday-night ABC spy drama "Alias," is a little groggy this morning, but brightens when she talks about what kept her up the previous night.
She was shooting a scene with co-star Jennifer Garner, who plays CIA agent Sydney Bristow. Sydney is the ex-girlfriend of Lauren's husband, CIA agent Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan). Sydney lost her memory for two years, and when she woke up in Hong Kong, she discovered Michael had gotten married, thinking she was dead. Then she learned she'd been going by the name of Julia and killed people. But, that's "Alias."
Anyway, George says, "We were kicking bad guys. It was really, really cool, and I actually -- you'll be the first to know this -- I put Jennifer through a wall, by accident. They were like, 'You come on this show, and in your first fighting scene ever, you put her through the wall!'
"I didn't hurt her. I just said, 'It's Jennifer's muscles. They're so defined and strong, that she's the one that did it.' It was just all out of hand."
It's not the first time that the 27-year-old Australian has played a tough chick on U.S. television. The same year as "Alias" premiered, George began a brief tenure on the critically praised but short-lived ABC action-drama "Thieves," with John Stamos, playing one of a pair of high-class thieves.
She recalls, "I did a stunt in the pilot for 'Thieves,' rappelling down the side of a building, 75 feet up. John and I were in a harness, and we were running vertically down the building, wearing gloves. The heat from the rope burnt through my gloves, and I was in stiletto boots. It was awesome."
Then, when the call came from "Alias" creator J.J. Abrams, George was hard at work in the two-hour season premiere of The WB's "Charmed," playing the scantily leather-clad queen of the Valkyries.
"While I was working on that, I got 'Alias,'" George says. "I was in my warrior outfit talking to J.J., saying, 'Really? I got the job? You have no idea what I look like right now.'"
Although she's a longtime "Alias" fan, George confesses to have had purely personal thoughts when news of Vaughn's marriage came out in last season's finale.
"I was saying to myself, 'I wonder who the wife is.' Isn't that great? As an actress in L.A., you're thinking, 'Who's going to get the role?' It's just bizarre how things work out sometimes."
A successful actress in her native land, George got her U.S.-television break playing Molly, a character in the short-lived Fox series "Roar," which shot in Australia. Then the show's creator, Shaun Cassidy, cast her in his pilot with Wes Craven, "Hollyweird," which brought George to Los Angeles. That show never made it on the air, but George had a foothold in the business.
"Everything's meant to be," she says. "It hurt at the time. 'Roar' did a lot of things for everybody. Shaun, he's loyal. He's the one who brought me to the States. I thank him for everything."
George also was part of the original cast of the recently axed NBC version of the BBC's "Coupling," playing Susan, the role later given to Rena Sofer.
"They just wanted to go for something entirely different," George says. "They messed it up."
From Ledger and Stamos to Vartan, George hasn't done badly with leading men on U.S. television. But even with all these hunks, her heart belongs to another.
"Doing all right, aren't I?" George says. "But my favorite was Tony Shalhoub, when I did an episode of 'Monk' called 'Monk Goes to the Theater.' We did 35 takes to get one shot done because he was laughing so hard at what I was doing. I was too scared to laugh because I thought, 'My God, if I take 35 takes, they'll kick me off the show!'
"We ended up having to do close-ups without each other in the shot, so we could actually get it done. Isn't that the most ridiculous thing ever? He kept saying to me, 'Thank you for making me laugh so much.' It was just a great time."
George currently shares her Malibu-area home with her husband and her stepdaughter, so that should put to bed any rumors started by her lesbian roles in "Mulholland Drive" and "Friends."
George recalls, "My brother called me and said, 'No, Melissa, no more lesbians on TV, in films! This is ridiculous.' I don't know. I guess they just want a woman who looks so unlike a lesbian, that could be a lesbian."
But there's plenty of girl bonding of other kinds on the "Alias" set, George says. "Jennifer is so cool, we're just two girls on the set now. We talk all sorts of recipes and Martha Stewart stuff. She loves Martha.
"We both are homebodies, in a way. You go and do CIA work, then you go home and have to do something normal."
When George talks about CIA work, she doesn't just mean sitting behind a desk sorting through satellite photographs or baby-sitting evil double-agent Sloane (Ron Rifkin). Lauren has now taken a page from globe-trotting Sydney's book and has headed out into the field.
"We did an amazing helicopter sequence the other day," she says. "Jennifer and I were running into this huge helicopter with Ron Rifkin. We took off in one shot, went around the city and came back. It was fantastic.
"We did it a few times. I was screaming, 'This is the best job ever!'"
By Kate O'Hare
Melissa George, who plays NSC agent Lauren Reed in the Sunday-night ABC spy drama "Alias," is a little groggy this morning, but brightens when she talks about what kept her up the previous night.
She was shooting a scene with co-star Jennifer Garner, who plays CIA agent Sydney Bristow. Sydney is the ex-girlfriend of Lauren's husband, CIA agent Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan). Sydney lost her memory for two years, and when she woke up in Hong Kong, she discovered Michael had gotten married, thinking she was dead. Then she learned she'd been going by the name of Julia and killed people. But, that's "Alias."
Anyway, George says, "We were kicking bad guys. It was really, really cool, and I actually -- you'll be the first to know this -- I put Jennifer through a wall, by accident. They were like, 'You come on this show, and in your first fighting scene ever, you put her through the wall!'
"I didn't hurt her. I just said, 'It's Jennifer's muscles. They're so defined and strong, that she's the one that did it.' It was just all out of hand."
It's not the first time that the 27-year-old Australian has played a tough chick on U.S. television. The same year as "Alias" premiered, George began a brief tenure on the critically praised but short-lived ABC action-drama "Thieves," with John Stamos, playing one of a pair of high-class thieves.
She recalls, "I did a stunt in the pilot for 'Thieves,' rappelling down the side of a building, 75 feet up. John and I were in a harness, and we were running vertically down the building, wearing gloves. The heat from the rope burnt through my gloves, and I was in stiletto boots. It was awesome."
Then, when the call came from "Alias" creator J.J. Abrams, George was hard at work in the two-hour season premiere of The WB's "Charmed," playing the scantily leather-clad queen of the Valkyries.
"While I was working on that, I got 'Alias,'" George says. "I was in my warrior outfit talking to J.J., saying, 'Really? I got the job? You have no idea what I look like right now.'"
Although she's a longtime "Alias" fan, George confesses to have had purely personal thoughts when news of Vaughn's marriage came out in last season's finale.
"I was saying to myself, 'I wonder who the wife is.' Isn't that great? As an actress in L.A., you're thinking, 'Who's going to get the role?' It's just bizarre how things work out sometimes."
A successful actress in her native land, George got her U.S.-television break playing Molly, a character in the short-lived Fox series "Roar," which shot in Australia. Then the show's creator, Shaun Cassidy, cast her in his pilot with Wes Craven, "Hollyweird," which brought George to Los Angeles. That show never made it on the air, but George had a foothold in the business.
"Everything's meant to be," she says. "It hurt at the time. 'Roar' did a lot of things for everybody. Shaun, he's loyal. He's the one who brought me to the States. I thank him for everything."
George also was part of the original cast of the recently axed NBC version of the BBC's "Coupling," playing Susan, the role later given to Rena Sofer.
"They just wanted to go for something entirely different," George says. "They messed it up."
From Ledger and Stamos to Vartan, George hasn't done badly with leading men on U.S. television. But even with all these hunks, her heart belongs to another.
"Doing all right, aren't I?" George says. "But my favorite was Tony Shalhoub, when I did an episode of 'Monk' called 'Monk Goes to the Theater.' We did 35 takes to get one shot done because he was laughing so hard at what I was doing. I was too scared to laugh because I thought, 'My God, if I take 35 takes, they'll kick me off the show!'
"We ended up having to do close-ups without each other in the shot, so we could actually get it done. Isn't that the most ridiculous thing ever? He kept saying to me, 'Thank you for making me laugh so much.' It was just a great time."
George currently shares her Malibu-area home with her husband and her stepdaughter, so that should put to bed any rumors started by her lesbian roles in "Mulholland Drive" and "Friends."
George recalls, "My brother called me and said, 'No, Melissa, no more lesbians on TV, in films! This is ridiculous.' I don't know. I guess they just want a woman who looks so unlike a lesbian, that could be a lesbian."
But there's plenty of girl bonding of other kinds on the "Alias" set, George says. "Jennifer is so cool, we're just two girls on the set now. We talk all sorts of recipes and Martha Stewart stuff. She loves Martha.
"We both are homebodies, in a way. You go and do CIA work, then you go home and have to do something normal."
When George talks about CIA work, she doesn't just mean sitting behind a desk sorting through satellite photographs or baby-sitting evil double-agent Sloane (Ron Rifkin). Lauren has now taken a page from globe-trotting Sydney's book and has headed out into the field.
"We did an amazing helicopter sequence the other day," she says. "Jennifer and I were running into this huge helicopter with Ron Rifkin. We took off in one shot, went around the city and came back. It was fantastic.
"We did it a few times. I was screaming, 'This is the best job ever!'"
:lol: