Alias Declassified
Quotes from Alias Declassified
by Mark Cotta Vaz.
MV QUOTES
"The Haladki character is a perfect example of how J.J. has a basic
framework but can go with the flow. The part was originally planned for
that one episode, but Joey (Slotnick) was so great, and we all loved him so
much, that J.J. said, 'Hey! Screw this -- he's going to be in more!' The
cool thing about J.J. is he gets all these crazy ideas at the last minute
and we get rewrites at the last minute, but it's definitely worth it in the
long run. His mind is a really active place!"
----
"I have no idea what acting is and I didn't get into this because I love
acting. It was just that I was broke and said to myself, 'Okay, I'll try
acting.' Honestly, I don't know what I did for Alias that I didn't do in
other auditions. Don't get me wrong. I love my job. But it's all a whim and
if the stars align it's 'Hallelujah,' and if they don't, you move on."
---
"One of my mentors was a guy they called The Drummer. He happened to be one
of Frank Sinatra's first studio musicians way before Frank got famous. He
played drums in this early studio session. That's how he got his name, The
Drummer. He's an eighty-year-old guy who chain smokes, has every cancer
known to man, shakes like a leaf -- but, boy, can he play. The Drummer
taught me that if you're mentally sharp you can beat someone more talented.
But I haven't played in about five years. It became like a drug to me, so I
had to step away from the pool halls."
----
"I defy anyone not to have chemistry with her," MV says of JG. "I don't
know what it's called, you can't buy it or earn it, you've got it or you
don't -- and she's got it. When you're acting with her, and I've heard this
from the other cast members, you get energized."
----
"There have been times when I've been driving and I'll look up and there's
the Hollywood sign and I'll think, 'Wow, I made it, I'm a working actor in
Hollywood!' How many people have come to this town with that dream and gone
home brokenhearted? I don't know how long it'll last for me, but so far, so
good. But I always swore to myself that no matter what happened on this
path I've chosen, I'd never take things too seriously. At the end of the
day it's fun, a great escape -- it's all about make-believe."
QUOTES ABOUT MV
JG: "Michael is so intense, very focused and contained. He can do these
quiet, longing looks like no one else on the planet."
Fight coordinator David Morizot: "Michael says he's not a physical person,
but he plays hockey -- he had a good fight in 'The Box.'"
QUOTES ABOUT THE VSR
While crafting the screenplay for the pilot, Abrams realized that there
might be another story line on the CIA side -- Sydney's handler, Agent
Vaughn, could be a potential love interest. Abrams had been scripting the
scene of their first meeting, with Sydney having boldly marched into CIA
headquarters to write down everything she knew about SD-6, when realized
Sydney's handler could be so much more. "Their potential love interest
hadn't occurred to me as I was writing their first scene together. That
scene was going to be the set-up for the next scene, where Sydney's at a
cemetery and her father shows up and tells her that she's in, she's been
accepted as a double agent for the CIA. But I sort of stumbled upon it --
it was, 'Oh, my God!' It became clear to me in that scene, as Vaughn looks
at Sydney while she's writing her statement, that he finds her attractive.
From there it became obvious that Vaughn and Sydney would have a
relationship.
The other layer of complexity was that agency protocol dictated that Sydney
and Vaughn could be professionals -- there's no office romance between
agent and handler. As such, their obvious attraction would have the flavor
of the forbidden fruit. "In this day and age, when there are no limits,
it's almost impossible to find that sort of modern Victorian romance where
the lovers can't be together."
"I think my character is a pretty straightforward guy who likes his job,"
Vartan added. "Then this woman comes in and rocks his world adn he's
struggling with these feelings and trying not to let them interfere as he
tries to do his job. My character's romantic struggle is actually similar
to who I am. I don't get too emotional about relationships -- you either
like each other and it works or you don't and it doesn't work. My character
doesn't think he can ever be with Sydney unless she's no longer working [as
an agent]. That's easy to play, those are really broad strokes -- I like
her; can't be with her."
MISCELLANEOUS QUOTES
That Will would, by season's end, become drawn into the shadowy world of
espionage was an effort to make him a major player in Sydney's double life
and even more of a romantic possibility than the early "best friends"
scenario. "Since many of the viewers were finding Will annoying and not
this great guy, we decided to clue him in on her secret in time for the
next season," (Jesse) Alexander explained. "The other interesting part of
that was to make Will a realistic rival [of Vaughn] for Sydney's
affections. Vaughn is looking out for Sydney, but as her handler at the CIA
he's involved in all the protocol and responsibilities of that world. But
Will only cares about Sydney."
----
Curiously, one of the toughest of the regular characters to write was actor
Bradley Cooper's Will Tippin, the crusading young reporter whose love for
Sydney leads him to pursue the unexplained murder of her fiance. The Alias
production, which had monitored public reaction to the show through focus
groups and Internet message boards, discovered, to their astonishment, that
many fans hated Will.
"At least towards the end of the season we didn't have that vehemence we
had at the beginning -- 'just kill him and get it over with!'" Alexander
sighed. "That was incredible for us, because the staff loves him. He's a
great actor, he's fun, he brings a great side to the show. It might just
have been
that viewers were protective of Sydney. After all, Sydney had asked him to
stop investigating Danny's death, so he was acting in opposition to our
main character. But Will cares about Sydney, he was doing things for the
right reasons. But how to tell the best version of that story, how to
properly serve the Will character, was the most intense thing we had to
deal with all year."
----
When this (Noah) storyline was developing, the writers' room code name for
Sydney's former flame was Zorro.
----
The home of Arvin and Emily Sloane ... was actually the historic Dorothy
Chandler home.
----
Jennifer said her mother had called her and said, "Tell Ron we love him,
but we didn't like the way he was touching you; it was very weird."
----
VG: "After my character's first mission to Cuba, I said, 'No more missions,
Daddy's tired.' But later, I was ready to do more."
© JJ Abrams et al
Back To All About Alias 2002
