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ARTICLES - "Michael Vartan: Natural-born Pessimist"

Michael Vartan: Natural-born Pessimist by Jamie Portman
Edmonton Journal, September 18, 2002

Michael Vartan's problem is that he's a natural-born pessimist. He maybe starring in a popular new TV series, 'Alias', as intrepid CIA agent Michael Vaughn, but as far as he's concerned, the spectre of unemployment is always lurking around the corner.

"I've never had the luxury of making movies back to back or of working consistently,"he says."It's always been a case of get a job, film it and then be out of work for 6 to 8 months, which is horrible."

This is why you'll never hear him complain about the stress of filming a 1-hour drama series and working a 12-hour day. "This is the first time I've had consistency, so the longer the hours the better. I really love it and in a weird way,it's made me alot better actor; because basically for almost a year I'm acting everyday as opposed to working 6 weeks on a movie like 'One Hour Photo' and then not working at all for another year.

In 'One Hour Photo', currently in release, Vartan plays a straying husband whose extracurricular activities earn the wrath of Robin Williams. But the harrowing drama was actually shot 2 years ago before 'Alias' came Vartan's way and he well remembers the succeeding barren period.

"There was once a period when I didn't work for 4 years and that certainly wasn't by choice, "he recalls. Vartan, 33, is proud of his movie credits, which include The Pallbearer and Never Been Kissed, and the TV miniseries The Mists of Avalon. But he says those credits don't tell the whole story: they don't mention the times when he had to work as a waiter or a busboy between jobs.

His attitude towards Alias is to enjoy it while it lasts because - who knows? - he may never work again. "I was confident going into the series, which was very rare for me because I'm a traditional pessimist. It was at the table reading when I realized I was with people like Jennifer Garner, Ron Rifkin and Carl Lumbly and all these amazing actors that I understood something was happening. It's very well written and our leading lady, Jennifer, is hands-down fantastic on so many levels. It's a fun show. We're not trying to save the world. It's a fun comic book and from the beginning I thought it had a lot of really good ingredients. It's very rare fo me to feel this positive about my work".

Vartan, who was born in Paris and raised in both France and U.S., never wanted to be an actor. But when he was a teenager, a director friend of the family invited young Michael to be part of a documentary he was making on the history of the black leather motorcycle jacket. "I said, 'No, are you kidding? 'Then he said, 'I'll pay you $600 a day, 'so I said, 'Sign me up! 'That's how it started."

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