The Safe House - Expositions - Exclusively Michael

PASADENA, Calif. -- When viewers last saw CIA agent Michael Vaughn, the character played by actor Michael Vartan in ABC's hit show Alias, he was drowning in a flood of mysterious liquid.

"I wasn't doing too well," Vartan said with a grin.

But Vartan fans need not worry: Vaughn will survive his near-death experience. Vartan was cagey about exactly how his character survives, but he said that series creator J.J. Abrams (Felicity) came up with a plausible resolution to last season's cliffhanger.

"There are a lot of things on TV that are far less believable that the viewer seems to buy," Vartan said. "I have absolute faith in J.J.'s imagination, and when I read it I thought, 'Yeah, OK, I believe that, sure.'"

Although he will make it out alive, Vaughn won't necessarily escape unharmed.

"I know that something happens because of the liquid he was in," Vartan said. "Something will affect him, and I don't know if that's mentally or physically. I know it's going to be something along those lines."

Alias was one of last season's few breakout hits, a high-octane adventure series that quickly drew a loyal audience. Jennifer Garner stars as Sydney Bristow, who has followed in the footsteps of her father (Victor Garber) and become a secret agent. In the show's complex mythology, Sydney and her father are actually double-agents, working on behalf of the CIA while pretending to be loyal agents of a sinister agency known as SD-6.

The show was a critical as well as commercial success, earning 11 Emmy nominations -- a rare feat for a show in its freshman year. It won two technical awards.

Vaughn is Sydney's "guardian angel," a CIA handler who provides her with valuable assistance on her missions. The show has hinted at romantic tension between the two, but Vartan does not expect that "will they or won't they" aspect to dominate the show.

"As an actor, it's fun to play the 'want what you can't have' aspect of the relationship," he said, "so I hope it doesn't get, too quickly, too hot and too heavy.... I certainly hope they keep that edge.

"I don't think this year will actually be too much romance. I think they'll definitely start inching toward it a bit more maybe than last year, in the way Jennifer and I actually play the characters when we're together alone. There might be a little more playfulness and a little less of that business veneer."

Vaughn has some competition for Sydney's attentions from Will Tippin (Bradley Cooper), an intrepid journalist who has uncovered some of the secrets of SD-6. Some recent promotions for the show have played up the "romantic triangle" aspect of the series. If Sydney eventually has to choose between Will and Vaughn, Vartan said that -- naturally enough -- he is rooting for the character he plays.

"Who better could understand what she's going through than someone who's going through the exact same things and understands the life she needs to live and the sacrifices she needs to make?" he said. "I just think that Vaughn would understand her problems, and they're obviously attracted to each other.

"But then maybe, you never know. Sometimes people want the opposite. Will would be more a soothing influence, a solid kind of quiet strength to come home to after a hard day in Morocco."

Vartan was born in Paris, and after his parents divorced, he spent his childhood moving between France and the United States. He is a hockey enthusiast and enjoys playing the game when he is not working on Alias. Being on a hit show has made him a little more careful.

"I wear a mask now that I'm on the show, out of professional courtesy," he said. "If I showed up to work on Monday with a big gash across my face, they'd be like, 'What the hell? OK, quick rewrite: Sydney kicks Vaughn in the face.' "

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