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Sunday Mail (Queensland, Australia)
April 7, 2002
The NAME Game
by Colin Michaels
STRANGE but true. Michael Vartan is thinking about assuming an alias.
Vartan stars in the popular Seven action drama Alias, in which mild-mannered college student Sydney (played by Jennifer Garner) doubles as a secret agent after class.
He is the equally mild-mannered CIA agent who mentors and assigns jobs to the young "Jamie Bond".
And while the series has been a hit in the US and has rated well in Australia since premiering on Seven, Vartan's reason for considering a name change is not to avoid fan. No, it is because he doesn't think the name of his character, Michael Vaughn, is mysterious or interesting enough for a CIA agent.
"I like Darius," he said. "I'm thinking of just referring to myself now in interviews as Darius and see if it catches on."
His screen name is the only thing Vartan doesn't like about his latest television gig.
"I personally didn't want to do a TV show," said the star of movies such as To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar and Never Been Kissed.
"Not because I thought I was above it, but because the idea of signing a five or six-year contract was kind of scary for me," he said. "But I had worked with creator J.J. Abrams on a movie called The Pallbearer and I just loved the guy. He is smart and funny and young and he has a crazy mind."
Vartan's role was limited in the first episodes, but as the series has progressed fans are seeing him move out from behind a desk.
"For the first four or five episodes I am more of Sydney's CIA correspondent. We meet in all these clandestine places and pretend we don't know each other and talk out of the corner of our mouths," he said.
"Now I am starting to get a little bit more involved in the missions. I get to use my gun and kick people and I get to play with all these gadgets. Other than sports I cannot think of anything better than my job."
A keen baseball and hockey player, Vartan didn't need to do any special training to get in shape for his law-enforcement role. And so far he hasn't been injured in any of the fight scenes.
"The fight scenes are very well choreographed," he said. "The most I have got is a paper cut. Office work can be so dangerous."
© Nationwide News Pty Limited
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