GlobalGrind caught up with Australian actress Melissa George to talk about her upcoming film Bag of Bones, based off of Stephen King’s well-known novel.
The film stars actor Pierce Brosnan as Mike Noonan, an author who is going through a major writer’s block after the death of his wife, Jo.
Melissa plays Mattie, a town outcast that Pierce helps claim custody of her daughter after the child’s grandfather tries to shun her from society.
Melissa is not only stunningly gorgeous, but she has also entertained us over in the years in such films and TV shows as: 30 Days Of Night, Alias, Grey’s Anatomy, In Treatment and many, many others.
Check out our exclusive interview with Melissa to find out more below!
GG: We know you are in the process of filming Bags Of Bones, how is it going?
Melissa George: It is going really well. Meeting Pierce was great, he’s lovely to work with. Got a good attitude, and the costumes are great, the director’s great, the shoot is beautiful. I haven’t done the heavy work really, I’ve done two major scenes yesterday, but I’ve got the bulk of the work next week.
What is your preparation for a role like this?
Really it’s about reading the script. And then getting the director’s take on it and reading the book and the idea is that I’m the lead female in the book and I fall in love with Pierce’s character. There’s going to be a great age difference … an age gap. She’s very bouncy and happy. She comes across Pierce’s character and starts to represent the wife that he lost and she helps put the pieces together so he can discover what really happened to his dead wife. She’s almost like the woman who changes his life.
It’s just great. Look at the setting … it’s a log cabin in the middle of Nova Scotia on the river and my dress is sort of very 50’s. It’s a very happy role, very bouncy, very cheery. I tend to go for a more dramatic role, but it was a good one! So fun! So good!
When you start a new project, what are your biggest fears and what are your greatest hopes?
It’s going to be the largest thing I have ever had movie-wise. I think because it is a four hour tele-movie you’re going to get more and the fact that Pierce took it on, it says a lot about the quality of the job. Also, the director … I worked with him 10 years ago and the fact that he just hired me without even reading was such an honor and when I got on set, the camera crew was just so good between Pierce and I, that the studio is just very happy. It’s so great to be opposite a leading man, with such an amazing career and as a female, you know that for sure you always want to be put alongside the best possible leading man. You want them to [be] better than you in many ways, or their stature to be bigger and I think it makes me want to be a better actress. It makes me stretch myself a little bit. I just hope it comes out great, I think it will! The script is dynamite!
Who did you grow up loving as actors, or directors, or movies?
I’m really into cinema. I love anything like Belle de Jour, Catherine de Neuve, and Fellini films, I like Hitchcock movies. I love Almodovar films. One of my all time favorite movies is a Chinese movie called “In The Mood For Love,”…anything that tells a story in such a subtle way. I also like watching films, like for example the movie that made me want to be an actress was “Last Exit to Brooklyn” and when I watched that movie I said to my mother that’s so heavy, what it that? Is it a documentary? My mother said no, that’s the role of an actress … to portray a character in a way that makes the audience believe it’s really real. And I said and they pay you for that? She said yes. I didn’t know that you could go to work and portray all these different people and come home and have another life. It’s an amazing job. I don’t know how to say it but when people watch your work you hope that they feel something, and that they learn something about maybe themselves. It’s all about therapy.
What’s the one thing that no one knows about you that we should know about you?
That I am a roller skating champion. I was second in the world for artistic roller skating around the world. Some people know that.
Are you still an artistic roller skater?
Yes! Great roller skater, I’ve got all these costumes, sequins, I was traveling around the world since I was five. The other thing that people might not know is that I’m the inventor of Style Snaps By Hemming My Way, which is the highest selling product on QVC, and it’s at Bed, Bath and Beyond, Wal-Mart, K-Mart and we sell more than any other product at Bed, Bath and Beyond.
You invented it?
I invented it, yes.
That’s amazing!
So we have infomercials and they’re running on CNN, NBC, and CBS every single day. We’ve brought it down to 21 countries, and I’m the CEO of this company and I just come up with these products as I’m walking NY and the fact that we’re on TM style on PBC and we sell 4 times more per unit than any other product … it’s lovely, there’s 5 rows of it by the cash register. I get such a kick out of it that that’s something I was responsible for!
