Thanks to Star24

Starlog 11/01 interview
by Ian Spelling

An episode of Dark Angel ends and the shows’ faithful fans flock instantly to the Internet to debate that particular hours’ merits. Elsewhere, Jessica Alba steps out on the town, where she’ll probably pass a magazine with a picture of herself on the cover or encounter another amorous admirer. Such is the nature of stardom in the wake of Dark Angel.

“I think it’s great,” Alba enthuses.” People are watching. What more could you ask for? What if nobody was saying anything? Then we wouldn’t have been picked up for this season. People who meet me go ‘Oh my God, that’s the Dark Angel!’ or ’Oh shit you were on the cover on my Maxim.’ I get that from teenage boys. Then I get sweet ladies coming up and saying ‘My daughter and I watch your show, and we love that your character kicks ass. We just think it’s great. We never miss a show.’ In the line at Starbucks, I’ll get a mom who will come up to me and tell me that. So I get different reactions and that’s great, because it means we go wider than what Fox thinks our demographics are.”

Dark Angel debuted last year to incredible hype, generally positive reviews and a sizable audience – but the show, co-executive produced by James Cameron and Charles H. (“Chic”) Eglee, cost so much to make that merely good ratings weren’t enough to prompt a no-brainer renewal from Fox. The network considered the facts however: a hot young female star, the marquee value of Hollywood’s “King of the World,” respectable ratings, the buzz that was generated by Alba’s engagement to co-star Michael Weatherly this past spring, as well as Dark Angel’s popularity with the all-important advertiser friendly 18-34 year old crowd. So, in the end Fox granted the series a second season pick-up.

“Fortunately, I was up in Vancouver, so I really wasn’t exposed to the hype,” says Alba (previously profiled in STARLOG #281). “I knew that the show would have a degree of hype because of Jim and the fact that his name was attached to it, and it was the first thing he had done since Titanic. I thought that was a good thing, because at least I know people would watch it. Whether they liked it or not, you never know, with any product what peopled will buy. You just hope for the best and that’s what we did. I think people like the kicking-ass stuff. They like the action. They like the SF elements because the show is so close to real life and to people’s imaginations. The year 2020 isn’t that far off, and people like to think, ‘What if the world, what if the economy did go to shit, then what would we do? What would the world be like? Is this accurate? And Dark Angel is pretty accurate. People almost enjoy that in a weird way, because it’s so close to home. They also like the Manticore stuff, the genetic engineering.”

Human Days

For those not up on the Dark Angel universe, a bit of background: Max Guevara (Alba) is an X-5, a prototype superhuman conceived, educated and trained by the government at a facility called Manticore. As a child, Max escaped from Manticore with a group of similar beings, and has been on the run ever since, hiding in plain sight as a messenger in Seattle, all the while searching for her “brothers” and “sisters.” Eventually, she hooked up with cyberjournalist and freedom fighter Logan Cale (Weatherly), and reluctantly became his operative when he ended up in a wheelchair. Most of season one followed Max as she became closer to Cale, learned to trust, dealt with assorted X-5’s and fought the good fight.

The year ended with “…And Jesus Brought a Casserole,” in which Max and her fellow X-5’s take the war directly to Manticore. Max nearly dies, but is rescued by Zack,( William Gregory Lee), who kills himself so that MadameX/Dr. Elizabeth Renfro (nana Visitor) can transplant his heart into Max. Lydecker, (John Savage) in a shocking twist. helps the X-5’s, and reveals to Max that his wife inspired her; in other words his wife’s DNA lives on in Max. By the time the credits roll. Madame X is looking down at Max, happy to have her prodigal daughter back home, while X-7 clones of Max and other X-5’s prowl about. Lydecker contemplates the notion that he is now prey for Madame X, and Cale sits, alone on the space needle, essentially repeating Max’s closing speech from the pilot.

Season 2 picks up (in the show’s new Friday, 8p.m. time slot) with ”Designate This,”
as a re-indoctrinated Max, wreaks havoc at Manticore. Amidst all the explosions, Max releases a number of beings that can only be described as failed experiments, which launches an X-Men-esque mutant-racism arc that will receive major play throughout the year. Chief among the mutants is Joshua (Kevin Durand, who has appeared in Stargate SG-1, and Andromeda), a half-human/half-dog who will emerge as Max’s ally.

“Max is more human,” Alba remarks of her character’s second season transformation. “ I definitely thought of her as more robotic, cold and unfeeling [in the beginning], and now she’s more human than anything. She struggles with that. I want to see how she’s gong to be as an adult, how she’s going to get over this early 20’s thing and try to figure stuff out. This whole year, I think, will be about her trying to find the guy who made Manticore. She destroys Manticore this season, and now she wants to go search out the guy who made it. Why did he make it? Why did he do that to them? And we’ll see how she deals with all that.”

As always, Dark Angel will explore Max’s relationship with Cale. This season watch for Max to suffer from a virus that prevents her from even touching Cale, and also look for potential love interests. Max will be tempted by her breeding partner Alec, Jenson Ackles, who played Ben in the episode “Pollo Loco), while a woman named Asha (Ashley Scot, Gigolo Jane from A.I.) will turn Cale’s head.

The possibility of pairing up Max with another character doesn’t ring true to Alba. “They’re trying to, but I don’t know if it will work,” Alba questions. “For my character, I don’t think it would work at all. She’s not like that. She doesn’t really care enough about people and early-20’s drama. She’s beyond that. She’s trying to survive. She has lived too much of a life to deal with that stuff. So when she meets Logan and has a special connection , I think she takes that to heart. But they’re definitely throwing in some storylines. They’ll probably put me in heat again.”

Angel Ways

Dark Angel will also devote some time to the gang at Jampony and, of course to Lydecker. “I’m very pleased with the way they’ve developed the relationship with Logan, Alba comments. “Unfortunately they throw too much exposition at Michael. They always give it to him and he hates it, but he’s such a good actor that he actually does something with it. So they just keep giving it to him instead of the other characters. He’s so good to work with. He’s always 100% there for me emotionally , and he never checks out. That’s just great to have that, especially with regulars, Many times you just get so comfortable with everyone, that you just forget, you zone out, but Michael always has his eye on the prize. He’s always thinking of the show’s climax and ‘What is this episode about?’ and ‘What’s the point of it?’ and ‘How can we make it better?’ I love working with him because he’s so on the ball like that.

“With John, it’s an experience to work with him,” she continues. “He’s such a pro, and he has been doing this forever. John definitely has his own method and does his own thing. The way they’ve developed Lydecker is totally unlike what you would expect based on what you saw at the series beginning, and I dig it. Lydecker’s not really a bad guy, but he’s not really a good guy either. I think that’s more interesting than the quintessential bad guy. And Lydecker doesn’t have a [foreign] accent, which is good. As far as the other characters, it’s a learning curve. Hopefully, their characters will have some good storylines. All in all, as long as we’re not doing things that are just so off-base and idiotic that the audience is like ‘What? This isn’t Melrose Place. This is Dark Angel,’ and as long as we stay true to our audience and work hard, hopefully we’ll stay on the air.”

Guiding the behind–the-scenes ship these days, are Eglee and Rene Echevarria, the latter late of both Deep Space Nine and Now and Again, with an assist from Cameron. Alba insists that Cameron is more involved than viewers might assume. “Jim is on a boat somewhere now, but you know, he was in Russia last year and still managed to be very much a part of the show,” the actress argues. “He comes back from his trips and he’ll spend eight to 10 hours in the editing room, editing together fight scenes and shows. He also puts together six storylines with Chic and Renee, and then they go at it and we film it. That takes long time. So by the time he comes back, he’s like, “OK, where are we in the progression of the show? How is it going?”

“He gets a daily e-mail about the things that are happening. He knows all about the dog guy, the cat woman and all the crazy creatures we have these days. He drew up the dog guy, and I think he made them a sketch of some lizard guy. Jim likes that stuff. He’s very involved. Just because he’s not there, doesn’t mean he’s not involved. Technology is his best friend. He’s totally into it. And Chic and Renee make a great team.”