By Hercules
SPOILERS!
Jack and Irina teamed for a mission! Twitchy Marshall gets a field assignment! Syd wonders which parent is more evil!
The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences gathered together the key talents behind ABC’s “Alias” Monday night. The correspondent who covered the ATAS “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” event event for us back in June is back to offer details:
There were only three spoilers about future episodes. One -- they revealed that the Bristow family – father, mother and daughter – are soon going to go on a mission together, to some place like Pakistan. Two – they revealed that Marshall (the high tech geek) is going to go on his first mission this year. Three – and most intriguing – Jennifer Garner revealed that Sydney may question whether her mother is completely villainous and she may question whether her father has only her best interests at heart. This was revealed when the moderator asked the performers what they would like to see happen to their characters this season, and Garner said that she’d like her character to have at least one parent that she was sure she could rely on and trust. At that point, Victor Garber said, sounding very much like his character, “I keep telling you, that’s me!”
That was about the only time Garber sounded like his character. The rest of the time, he was hilarious. I don’t think he ever stopped grinning, unlike Jack Bristow who I don’t think EVER smiles.
Bradley Cooper (Will) was very funny when he spoke about the scene from last season when Will was rescued by Jack, and how Cooper got so into Garber’s performance that he started talking like Garber, and the director had to take him aside and remind him that he wasn’t playing Jack. And then he did a very funny impersonation of Jack telling Sydney that she played a turkey in her school play: (deadly serious) "You were a turkey."
Garner said of Garber, “Wow, spy-daddy has one glass of Merlot before the show and he starts doing stand up!”
But my favorite person at the event was Lena Olin. It wasn’t that she had that much too say, but I could not believe how gorgeous she was. Yes, she’s gorgeous on the screen, but multiply that by about a billion and you’ll have some idea of how gorgeous she is in person.
Garner was cute, but goofy. Her best moment was when she was talking about her stunt work in “Q & A” when she was in the car sinking into the ocean. She said the first time they let the car sink in the ocean; she completely panicked and had to leave the car at once. J. J. Abrams was worried they wouldn’t be able to do the scene at all. But the second time they did it, Garner felt safe and enjoyed herself, taking a hit off a can of oxygen whenever she needed to breathe, and giving the crew a grin and a thumbs up signals through the window. This time Abrams was worried that she’d gone nuts.
Ron Rifkin revealed that when he’d auditioned, he’s asked if he could also read for the part of Jack Bristow.
Michael Vartan (Vaughn), Carl Lumbly (Dixon), Merrin Dungey (Francie) and one of the other major writers – whose name I forget at the moment – and the actor who plays Sark (who is only 21), were also there. They were all amusing, and gave the impression that they love working with each other, but I’m having trouble remembering anything in particular they said. Oh- Merrin Dungey said that she hoped her character coudl find out the truth about Sydney without getting killed.
J. J. Abrams was most amusing when he told us how he reacted when he learned that “Ed” has roughly the same budget as “Alias.”
That's about it. I had a great time, and so, it seemed, did everyone from the show.
© Ain't It Cool News 2002
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