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At just eighteen years of age, JESSICA ALBA has emerged from nowhere to amaze critics and fans alike as Max, a genetically-engineered woman of the future.

-Interview by Jenny Carrillo

Jessica began taking acting lessons at eleven, and soon began landing roles in such series as THE SECRET WORLD OF ALEX MACK and FLIPPER. But it was not unti the feature film NEVER BEEN KISSED, opposite of Drew Barrymore, that a wide audience got to see the dark-haired actress.

And so did James Cameron, hot off the biggest movie in history, TITANIC, and ready to cast an unknown in his first highly anticipated foray into television. Now Alba has lost her anonymity, as her portrayal of the tough yet sensitive Max has made her the critic's darling, not to mention a cult hit on the internet amongst avid fans of the show.

Still at the beginning of her career, it is anyone's guess as to how high this talented young actress may soar. For now, we must be content to sit back and get lost in her world for one hour...

How was it auditioning for James Cameron?

My agents knew about it before I did. They came up to me and asked if I was excited to meet James Cameron and I was surprised to learn that I was auditioning for him - I didn't even know I had the callback! I was just thrilled that I got that far. I work because I love it, not to pay the bills.
I don't have to support myself, so I want to do work that I really love and this project spoke to me. It is amazing material and the character is great and, for me, spending an hour with a great director, I knew I was going to get something out of that and he would get something out of me that other
directors wouldn't.

So were you at all intimidated by him?

Not really, I mean, Jim is an amazing director. He had this same talent when he made his first movie and now he has done TITANIC. He has through his career been an amazing talent and creative human being. He just happened to be glorified as the king of the world when I met him.

James Cameron has the reputation for being tough at times. How do you feel about his directing style?

I think that he just does not believe in coddling the actors. He just gets to the point. He does not want to sit there for twenty minutes and talk about how beautiful this is in order to get you to do something. He does not manipulate anything. He just tells you what has to happen in this scene and lets you do it. Some actors need to hear how great they were in this scene or whatever, but to me that is boring.

You auditioned by doing a scene from the pilot, right?

It was the scene where I'm in the hospital bed, so it was a really intense sort of audition and they had me play the scene two completely different ways. I went to Jim a week later and he had this camera and these lights all sset up in the room, and he had me try the scene a bunch of different ways. It was really good. It was the same scene because it was all that they had written at that point. They wanted to wait until they had the actress to make the script as real as possible.

How did the character speak to you?

Her confidence, and the fact that she didn't show everything that was on her plate at once, was what initially drew me. A lot of times writers don't have the confidence in characters that they should and they feel like they have to show it all. Max is sensitive and she's strong and she's so layered that she can be misinterpreted, and that is so cool about her. People think she's really tough and she's mechanical but she's emotional and sensitive. Because she is genetically engineered, her feelings are as well so she's hypersensitive, and I just loved that.

Where was the parallel for you? Was there an emotional connection?

Oh, there was definitely an emotional connection there. Especially being in this business and being young and being a girl, people like to attack you and tell you that you're not going to succeed. My determination and the way I kept from getting my heart broken was to just say "I don't care." That was my sort of front, and that's Max's as well.

You have become a hero among the Latino community for playing a strong, positive lead in a peak time drama series. How do you feel about that?

It actually hasn't influenced me, really. I don't like to follow a certain stereotype tht people want to put me in. I am so proud of being Mexican on my father's side and Danish and French-Canadian on my mother's side that I dont think of myself as representing any one group. I'm all mixed up so I tend to play roles that are sort of nondescript. I definitely can't play the waspy white girl, which sometimes I get a little heartbroken about, but what are you going to do? Sometimes I would lose parts because they would say I was too exotic or whatever, but that's what's great about Max. She is the reality of what America is.

Your character is genetically altered. Are there any human qualities left?

Yeah, I mean, Max is human, and that's her whole struggle. She has this trained soldier genetic side, but that is more a hinderance to her. She doesn't want to be that. She wants to be human and normal and regular like she was for a long time. She has these capabilities and she is going to use them; she likes to be a thrill-seeker and drive a motorcycle fast. But she's very human and very sensitive and yet does not always understand what it is to be human. She struggles with the feelings she has
because she has been trained to think of those qualities as negative.

Are you anything like Max in real life?

The thing is, when people pressure her into being something that she is not or make her feel like she has to apologize for who she is because they don't like her, she's like, 'Screw you, I am going to be who I am.' I'm like that and I think that is why Jim hired me, because of that tendency. I
cannot apologize for who I am, and if somebody has a problem with me because I'm not their ideal, then they're talking to the wrong girl.

If you had the same genetic powers as Max, what would you do?

I don't know. She does not have the normal fears that we all have of getting shot by a gun or hit by a car or even walking in a bad neighborhood. I guess I would like to have the confidence that Max has. She does not have a fear of people. I would definitely jump across buildings and do stuff like that. That's awesome!

Do you have any fears?

I am afraid of crazy people sometimes. In Vancouver, where we film, there are a lot of people on drugs, and where we film is an area where a lot of them congregate. Before we do a shoot they have to do a big needle clean-up. Then there is always the stray person that shows up and can freak out on you
at any second. One time when we were filming on the motorcycle a bunch of people came and tried to jump on the trailer and that freaked me out. Also there are people who think, since they have seen me on TV - they can come up and talk to me and do anything, you know? That kind of scares me.

When did you start to act?

When I was eleven I started taking acting classes. I always wanted to do it and I just believed that I could. My whole family is pretty dramatic - my grandparents met doing a play. My grandfather plays classical
guitar. There are a lot of artists in the family so I guess it just comes naturally. It's a part of who I am.

Your first big break came from Drew Barrymore, who produced and starred in NEVER BEEN KISSED. Are you still friends?

Drew is really great because she works so much. When you have working relationships with people, usually you work with them, and it's great while you are together, but you rarely keep in touch after the job is over. Drew actually invites me to parties and she sees me and she'll say 'hi'. She remembers to be a person and relate to people. She has not lost her passion for film and she just loves life, and i have learned from her that you do not always have to get jaded.

What do you do when you have free time?

I like to go on walks. I like to go to the movies and out to dinner. I like massages a lot. But my days are really long. I mean, I start at 6am and end at 11pm. I have to be in the action scenes and so I am always working. At the end of the week, it can be really tiring, but then when you see the whole thing put together you say to yourself, 'Yes, this is why I am doing this.' It's an amazing television show and everyone loves what they do so much. I just hope that it will last.

Max is on a journey of self-discovery. What about you? Have you found your place in the world?

I think I definitely have, especially when I turned eighteen. We were supposed to shoot the show earlier, but for whatever reason we got delayed. We wanted it to be perfect and we wanted the stories to be developed completely and the characters to be fully formed. We wanted a Grade-A show. I do not think we would have been ready any earlier. It all just came at the perfect time. When i turned eighteen I was just learning how to be an adult and Max is just learning how to be an adult and find her place too, so it was just coincidental that it happened at the same time. But I think it's working perfectly.

On Sky One, Wednesday at 9pm in the UK and in the US on Fox, Tuesday at 9pm ET/PT

NEXT ISSUE: JAMES CAMERON speaks exclusively to DREAMWATCH about the making of his hit television series....

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