Thanks to Xeri

Dreamwatch December: Max Exposure

JESSICA ALBA came from nowhere to find instant stardom as the lead in James Cameron’s Dark Angel. Jenny Cooney Carrillo discovers the woman behind the character of Max.

As the star of Dark Angel, Jessica Alba is nothing like her tormented alter ego Max, a genetically enhanced human prototype in search of the truth, justice and her surviving ‘siblings’.
The 20-year-old actress, hand-picked by James Cameron to front his first foray into television, may be feisty and tough like her character but she’s also light and cheerful when she meets with DREAMWATCH at a plush Beverly Hills hotel one balmy morning, clearly thrilled with her recent engagement to co-star Michael Weatherly (Who plays Logan). Yet while she’s happy to ponder the future of her character Max and the show itself, she balks at revealing too much about her own future. However, given her looks and talent, not to mention a hit show riding on her attractive shoulders, it doesn’t take psychic to predict that Alba will be with us for many years to come.

Dreamwatch: in the latest episode of season one we saw your character max die. What can you tell us about what happens next?

Jessica Alba: That’s all in Jim Cameron’s scientific head [Laughing]. I really have no idea what’s going to happen. I know there’s going to be other kid’s stuff involved but I’m not really sure what will happen exactly. They want it to be a surprise for all of us, you know. They keep telling me it’s going to be really great, but that’s all they’re telling me.

How do you feel not knowing where your character is going?

You know, it’s weird. I used to freak out last year if I didn’t know what was happening before we started filming. I was thinking, how could you wrap your head around a character when you don’t know what she’s going to go through, what she’s doing? Then after you do it for five months you’re like “Thank God I don’t know what’s going to happen next” because you do the same thing every day and you look forward to seeing what’s going to happen next. You want it to be suspenseful and surprise you. I want to feel like I can’t wait to turn the next page of the script when I get it and finish it right there in that first sitting.

The last episode also had you acting alongside your real life brother. Can you tell me a little about your relationship with him?

I actually have a very good relationship with my brother. When we were little kids we used to always fight, I think one time he knocked out about six of my teeth. He pushed me off beds, hit me in the face with plastic boots, we are only a year and three months apart so we were constantly at each other. Then when he got his license to drive he got really nice all of a sudden because I had a car. He would make my bed in the morning, you know, stuff like that, and ever since then we have grown really close. If he ever needs advice about girls or school or what he wants to do with his life, he usually comes to me.

Can you talk a bit about what your life has been like since Dark Angel has become such a huge hit?

Going through the airport is a different thing [laughing]. I love the kids that come up with their parents and ask for autographs and say that they love the show. I never had that before so it’s cool to know that people are watching and really connecting with the show and my character. It’s great reassurance among other things. But I haven’t really allowed it to affect me in other ways. Sometimes, though going through the airport is hard.

Have you seen a real dark side to your fame?

What is unfortunate is that I think my parents and my brother see more of the dark side, whatever that is. Because people ask those questions, you know, “I hear your sister is blah, blah, blah, blah”, and then make up all these stories about what I did with some boy in high school. They make up all these stories to my brother and he has to tell them not to talk about his sister that way. So my family has to deal with that but I don’t really get asked those oddball questions.

Can you describe how your character Max has changed through the series so far?

I think Max was a lot more naïve to the way human beings just react with one another. She didn’t really get that boys might like to see girls with a manicure or pedicure, like she would think why would they want that, who cares? That’s what she would think, but they do. They like girls to be nice and groomed. Then she has a gay best friend who is like an expert o men, which I think is ironic, and has to teach her how to be a lady. She is just now learning how to be a lady and growing up and learning about adult responsibilities.

What about her relationship with Manticore and Lydecker (John Savage) in the season one finale?

I know it’s really bizarre because he made her in the image of the woman that he was in love with so there’s that part of that woman in her and I think that she feels some bizarre, horrible connection. She can’t do anything about it; it’s just there. I think it’s hard for her to kill him, so she didn’t, but I don’t know why. It’s a bizarre thing that the writers have not fully dived into it yet, but this year they will explore if he is like her father, and where that will go because she doesn’t really trust him.

What about her relationship with Original Cindy (Valerie Rae Miller)? How will that be more developed?

I think I will be much more involved with her next season. She will be my roommate and I think she’s really Max’s only link to the outside world and her only link to a real friendship. The other kid is family, and Logan and Max were kind of thrown together because they knew so much about one another and initially just got stuck together. But with Original Cindy she really chose her as a friend so it’s her link to being a human being, too.

A lot of the fans of the show are guys and see Max as a really sexy character, but she doesn’t seem to be aware of it. How do you think she is evolving and do you identify with her?

I don’t think it’s something that she can do anything about. It is just who she is so she doesn’t really pay attention to it. I think that that’s what attractive and that’s what’s sexy. When people don’t care and are just doing their own thing, that’s what people find attractive because it’s untouchable. You know, they want it but they can’t really have it and she really truly doesn’t care when it comes to males except for Logan, so all the other guys get that elusive sort of “I don’t care” vibe which makes them want her more. It’s the whole girl-boy game. I’ve personally never really played that game, I have never really dated that much. I’m really selective with who I choose to go out with so I guess to a degree I understand because I just went on with my life and I really didn’t care unless someone was worth going out with.

Now you are engaged to your co-star Michael Weatherly, congratulations. How did the romance start and do you think this will affect your working relationship?

I think with anybody it just kind of happens and it just makes sense. I would rather not go into details about our first date and stuff, it’s so personal. As for our work relationship, I think that work and our personal life are totally separate, but that spark we had will always be there and I just feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be up there with my boy.

Since this show has become such a huge success you have been offered many different roles. How did you choose your next film, a little drama titled Sleeping Dictionary?

I like to make my choices a creative process for me. I am not acting to have a big pay cheque. I am acting because I really love what I do. Sleeping Dictionary was a great script and the director was new and I knew it would be an experience. It was in another country working with Brenda Blethyn and Bob Hoskins, who I love, so compared to making a big-budget movie with guns blasting and stuff, which is what I do every day anyway; this seemed like the right choice for me.

What do you think about these female ‘kick-ass’ films?

I think they’re fun. I thoroughly enjoyed Charlie’s Angels, I could go and see that film three time because it’s just fun. You just feel like you want to eat M&Ms and popcorn until you explode when you watch those kinds of movies. I thought Tomb Raider had great action. I mean, I have respect for girls and guys who do action movies. I knew how hard it is, but I also like to go see how hard their stunts are, how they compare to what I do.

You have said that doing these types of stunts gives you confidence. Where do you feel most confident?

I think just generally walking around. When you’re on stage performing and everyone is looking at you it’s easy to be scared of saying the wrong thing or putting something in the wrong place or falling over, there are so many things. But in everyday life I am not so self-aware and I am just more confident. I drive around by myself a lot and I used to always park as close to the door as possible and try to run in and out of wherever I was as fast as I could. Now I know that I can take care of myself if I needed to. The confidence is necessary because when you are working with these stunt people, if you can’t hit your mark or lift someone with the right strength you are going to go down with them and hurt yourself. You can’t be prissy. I was prissy in the beginning and hurt myself a few times, I learned the hard way.

Is there a part that you would love to play some day?

There’s a bunch of roles that I’d like to play but it really depends on the writer and the director and the other actors. I have seen that a script without the right director or actors can become an entirely different movie from what it set out to be. There is one character in a Euripides play called Medea that I really love, so I would love to play her if she could be incorporated into something.

How is your relationship with James Cameron, the creator of the show?

I see him as a really great boos. He’s definitely a boss figure and he’s a really good one. He’s really specific. He knows what he wants and he tells me what he likes and he doesn’t like. There isn’t much that he doesn’t like. He has actually given me positive reinforcement and gives me a part on the back and tells me I’m doing a great job. After seven months of doing this 90 hours a week and I’m thinking, “What am I doing this for?” And he’ll tell me I’m going great and it’s a great show. He will off and edit a show for eight hours, and when he’s done will call us up and say that it was an awesome show, so yeah, he’s a really good boss.

Have you even been to any conventions?