September 21-27, 2002

Spy Games

By Shawna Malcom

Scans courtesy of Souris. :)

Scans courtesy of TwinnerA, Vartan Ho #95. Thanks! :)

Cover Story

More disguises! Cooler gadgets! A sexy but sinister mom! All this and more lies ahead for superagent Sydney Bristow as Alias returns, seeking bigger ratings to match all the buzz

The season premiere of Alias airs Sunday, September 29, 9 P.M./ET on ABC.

Caption: Family Business: Lena Olin joins Jennifer Garner and Victor Garber on Alias.

Jennifer Garner is about to plummet seven stories from a Los Angeles office building at 50 mph with little more than a harness and a flimsy-looking wire to keep her from smashing into the pavement. You might expect her to sweat bullets. Or at least bite her nails. Instead, while several crew members of ABC's Alias hover in nearby windows and on the ground, prepared to spring into action in case of complications, Garner breaks into a wide smile and waves. Look, Ma, one hand!

Then, on cue, she snaps into steely action-hero mode. She swiftly maneuvers her sleek, catsuited form down the side of a building that, on this mid-August evening, is standing in for a sinister lab in Helsinki, Finland. Just when it seems as though the 30-year-old actress might go splat, she slows and lands with a grace that comes from 10 years of ballet.

"That was nothing," says Garner, who plays double-agent-next-door Sydney Bristow, after doing the stunt flawlessly four more times. She lowers her voice to a near whisper and confides, "I'm gonna drop from the top."

But that's 14 stories.

Garner, who is wearing one of Sydney's glossy undercover wigs, eagerly nods her head. "You didn't think I'd come all the way out here at midnight on a Saturday to just drop seven, did you?"

As if. This is a woman who rarely calls on her stunt double. She's crawled between buildings on a wire 100 feet in the air and been submerged inside a car in 25,000 gallons of water. By choice. Garner's also managed to pull off another impressive feat, helping turn creator and executive producer J.J. Abrams's hard-to-classify series - It's a spy thriller! No, it's a heartfelt drama! Wait, it's sci-fi! - into one of the most exhilarating (and addictive) shows on TV.

The densely plotted Alias follows the exploits of grad school student Sydney as she works as a mole for the CIA to bring down the nefarious intelligence agency SD-6, run by the slithery Sloane (Ron Rifkin). All the while, she attempts to maintain some semblance of a normal life, complete with friends like restaurateur roomie Francie (Merrin Dungey) and nosy reporter Will (Bradley Cooper); her emotionally detached dad, Jack, who's also a double agent (Victor Garber); and a potential love interest, smitten CIA handler Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan).

Caption: Blue crush: Vartan and Garner flirt with danger - and romance.

Ever since Garner donned that scarlet wig in the pilot last fall, fans and critics alike have been caught up in all the intrigue. Viewers have flocked to Internet message boards, feverishly dissecting everything from Sydney's dizzying array of disguises (particularly a second-skin electric-blue number) to the show's labyrinthine mythology (just who is this 15th-century Rambaldi guy, and could his inventions really cause the end of the world?). No less than Quentin Tarantino who guest-starred in two episodes last season, and Steven Spielberg have copped to being fans. And in July, the show received a jaw-dropping 11 Emmy nominations, including one for Garner. Alias's success has been a welcome plot twist for ABC, which lost 24 percent of its audience last season when Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? went bankrupt. "We look at Alias as the beginning of the rebuilding process," says Lloyd Braun, ABC Entertainment Group chairman. "We hope it [will] become one of our signature dramas and be around for a lot of years."

To do so, Alias will have to succeed in its toughest mission yet: Score higher ratings. While it did well attracting the 18-49 crowd advertisers are after, the drama ended its freshman season ranked 65 out of 191 network shows, with an average of 9.7 million viewers. In an effort to help ratings catch up with the buzz, Abrams (Felicity) is aiming to streamline Alias's storytelling. "Last year the show required some mental gymnastics," he says. "We're trying to make it easier for new viewers to know what's going on." Still, Stacey Lynn Koerner, an industry analyst at Initiative Media, says layers of complexity are essential to the show's appeal. "I think we'll see more people tuning in because The X-Files is off the air," says Koerner, while acknowledging that Alias still faces stiff competition from NBC's Law & Order: Criminal Intent and HBO's The Sopranos. "The viewers who watched X-Files love mythology and piecing together intricacies of plot."

How's this for intricate? Sydney spent most of her life believing her mother was a saintly English professor who died in a car crash. That is, until she found out halfway through Season 1 that "Laura Bristow" was actually Irina Derevko, a KGB operative who faked her own death after having Vaughn's CIA-agent dad killed. In last season's cliffhanger finale, Syd finally caught up with her traitorous mom, but according to Abrams, don't expect détente when the show returns September 29. "Mom is really the catalyst for all the stories this year," says the executive producer. "She is clearly a manipulator, and the question is, how do you know when the liar is lying?"

Casting the pivotal role took nearly as much patience as one of Sydney's top-secret ops. Abrams immediately set his sights on film fatale Lena Olin (see "Mommy Dearest," page 21), but because the actress lives in New York and has two children at home, it took five months to hammer out a deal. (In the meantime, show insiders say, Abrams briefly flirted with the idea of casting Faye Dunaway.) Ultimately, Olin - who, with her dark locks and buff biceps, bears a striking resemblance to Garner - agreed to a contract that calls for her to appear in 16 of the season's 22 episodes, allowing her more time with her family. So far, the actress - who'd never seen Alias before she was cast - is relishing her first regular TV series. "I look at this sort of like a treasure hunt," Olin says. "I can already tell there's going to be so much to take in on the journey."

The road won't be as smooth for the show's dysfunctional Bristow clan. "I think we're going to see Jack [have] a meltdown," Garber says of his character. "This family is a bunch of nuts who just happen to be spies." That's the idea, according to Abrams: "It's really a metaphor for a divorced family. You have these two parents who are rivals, and the child is sort of bouncing back and forth between them."

What else lies ahead? Ask the cast and they plead ignorance. "They don't tell me bubkes," claims a wide-eyed Garner. Protests aside, here's a little classified info. SD-6 director Sloane, who poisoned his cancer-stricken wife (Amy Irving) at the end of last season, finds himself haunted by his actions. Squeaky-clean Will, whose SD-6 exposé was about to be published, wiggles his way out of the paper jam in a surprisingly seedy fashion. Syd's SD-6 partner, Dixon (Carl Lumbly), gets an unexpected visit from his younger brother. And gadget geek Marshall (Kevin Weisman) whips up more inspired spy gear - including a briefcase that transforms into a luge.

But what inquiring minds really want to know is whether Agent Vaughn, presumed drowned after a mission gone awry in the season ender, survived. "All the women are like, 'You can't kill Vaughn. He's so hot!'" Garner says.

Rest easy, ladies: Sydney's dashing CIA handler lives to see another day, only to be swept up in a much more complicated situation. Syd and Vaughn "obviously and increasingly love each other, but it's forbidden" because of their jobs, Abrams says.

Vartan, for one, is in favor of the slow burn. "There's not a script that doesn't say 'All Vaughn wants to do is kiss her,'" he says. "But I like that he doesn't because it keeps it real in a way. Otherwise, you've just got a bunch of agents having sex with each other and it becomes V.I.P."

Of course, in Hollywood becoming a VIP is hardly a bad thing, as Garner is finding out. Little more than a year ago, the dimple-cheeked West Virginia transplant was a relative unknown. But since Alias's debut she's been racking up magazine covers as often as Sydney jets off to exotic locales. In January, she beat out Edie Falco and Sela Ward for best actress in a drama at the Golden Globes and wowed a worldwide audience with her funny, spontaneous speech ("I know I was good in 'Dude, Where's My Car? but seriously..."). And then, over her summer hiatus, she shot not one but two high-profile Hollywood films: the comic-book adaptation "Daredevil," in which she stars as a sword-swirling assassin opposite Ben Affleck, and Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can," in which she has a pivotal role as a prostitute. "I was impressed by the variety of characters [she plays] each week on Alias. That allows her to show her range," Spielberg says. "She's going to be a movie star - it's not a question of if, it's a question of when."

Still, Garner doesn't hesitate when asked what her biggest professional thrill has been. "The state [of West Virginia] read a declaration basically saying, 'She's our girl and we're proud of her,'" she says, sitting in Alias's production office, popping pink bubble gum. "My family got all dressed up and went to the Senate for it, and then they sent it to me. It's up in my house."

But surely, Garner's rapid rise must have gone to her head at least a little. During a recent week spent on the show's Burbank set, you look for signs of divaesque behavior. Perhaps she demands that the poppy seeds be picked off her bagel? Hardly. The closest she comes to strong-arming her assistant is politely asking for her cell phone so she can check for messages from her real estate agent. She and her husband, Scott Foley (Felicity), who drops by the set, are buying a new house (one that's - get this - smaller than the one they live in now). "We just sort of fell in love with it," she says with a smile.

"Jennifer is a person who insists on retaining who she is," says costar Rifkin. "She's not really interested in being a star. She's very respectful and mannerly. She's who you want your kid to grow up to be."

And like any daughter, Garner occasionally disregards her parents' concerns. "I'm sure they'd love it if I wasn't throwing myself off buildings time and again," she says, primed to tackle that 14-story drop. "But, man, it's just so much fun."

Mommy Dearest

With Alias, Lena Olin takes a wicked turn

WANTED: Actress to play sexy, mysterious mother to TV's hottest spy. Must be believable as leader of an international crime syndicate and look at ease assembling a sniper rifle.

When Alias creator J.J. Abrams needed to fill that tall order, he turned to Swedish-born film star Lena Olin ("Chocolat"). "She was at the top of the dream list," he says. "Nobody else had obvious perfection."

Ultimately, the juicy role of Irina Derevko was one the Oscar-nominated actress couldn't refuse. "She's this fabulous toolbox," says the 47-year-old Olin, who is married to director Lasse Hallström ("The Cider House Rules") and has two children - son August, 16, and daughter Tora, 7. "She has [everything] she needs to manipulate people. I love it."

Abrams admits he was unsure whether the show's tight-knit cast, which has been known to gather for dinner and Alias viewing parties at one another's houses, would be as intrigued by Olin. "But I felt that even if Lena didn't get along with us, it would just strengthen us," he says. "The mom is supposed to be an outsider anyway."

In the end, he needn't have worried. "The cast and crew have a collective crush on Lena," says Garner, who has spent breaks in her trailer catching up on Olin's oevre. "It makes us all sit up straighter."

Olin is certainly no slouch when it comes to sidestepping inquiries about Alias's closely guarded twists and turns. "I can't tell you [anything]," she says with a wink. "But I promise, it's fascinating." - SM

© TV Guide 2002

Back To All About Alias 2002