Playing Lauren Reed’s Dead Body Wasn’t the End for Melissa George I have plenty of Melissa George talking about The Amityville Horror, but we spent such a lengthy part of the interview talking about Alias I have to share it with you right away. Of particular interest is the continued talk about returning to Alias, almost as if she hadn’t just played the dead body of Lauren Reed in a five second cameo, not even credited. I mean, usually stars of cult shows like Buffy and Alias, where nobody’s really dead, make jokes about coming back, but Melissa George really had some ideas! Do you miss Alias? I do because Jennifer and Victor and all those people are just the light of my life.

Could you ever come back? There’s been talk. What happened was I got Amity, then I went straight on to do Derailed with Clive Owen, so all of a sudden I’m begging the producer, J.J. at the end of the season finale. I’m like, “Please don’t put the bullet here. Just put it on my shoulder.” I remember it was seven o’clock in the morning and Jen and I had been doing the season finale fight and the sun was coming up. The guy had two jackets with the squibs in the jacket, and I took him aside and I said, “Can you just move it just a little bit to the left?” Because I was desperate to come back.

So is Lauren Reed really dead? No.

Even though they just showed your dead body? But did you notice that she was perfectly preserved? And I did one take... I just wanted to get back in that show somehow, so in one of the takes, I’m in the coffin and I just open my eyes and they all jumped and freaked out. It’s so cold that she’s not really dead. I was adding all these things and they’re like, “No, no, no, you better keep your eyes closed.” And I’m like, “No, she’s alive, she’s alive.”

Is there actual talk of you going back to Alias? There’s definitely talk. This is my ego speaking, not me in general, but I think you need Lauren Reed, the evil, blonde thing that shoots and puts away the gun quietly and walks and doesn’t run away. It gives Sidney something to be afraid of a little more.

So how did they explain they were asking you to play the corpse? They called me. I just got back from doing Derailed in London and I get a call from the producers saying, “Hi, it’s a really awful call, but we need you to come back and be dead.” And I said, “So I’m really gone?” And they said, “Well, not really. We don’t know yet.” And I said, “How much money do you have to ask me such a thing?” So we’ll see. I think it’ll be great. I have this image of Lauren in the south of France and she doesn’t have the British accent anymore. She actually really was French all along. The whole thing was a lie. Like I’m in the corner smoking a cigarette or something and she turns around with a black wig and a scarf and stuff, and she just has this beautiful French accent. Isn’t it great?

There is a cloning machine on that show. Was that the body? I don’t know. All I know is that the producer made me wear my knee high Jimmy Choo boots in the coffin. He’s like, “Can you put on these really gorgeous knee high boots just so we all know you had those sexy boots on?”

Maybe Rimbaldi could bring you back. Right, I mean, I have this image of Quentin and I being the boss of Lauren. Quentin, Isabella Rossellini and myself, all just so messed up.

Why is Alias so important to you besides the friendships? Look, I look at Amity and Derailed and I’ve had a really good seven months of high class projects and stuff, but there was something about Alias where I got to be beautiful and loving in the day and evil at night. And it was just a character not that I related to at all, but it was just such a fun, fun role and just to go to work every day with Jennifer and Michael and Victor and just have this cast that are- - okay, TV’s hard work. It’s probably harder than film I think. Maybe not Amityville Horror because it was really hard, but it’s just a beautiful situation. I even e-mail Victor and go around to his house for dinner. We just had a great time.