‘Alias’ duo still pals after break-up
HOLLYWOOD — Michael Vartan insists a friendly atmosphere pervades the set of his hit TV show Alias.
On this spy-vs-spy adventure, Vartan plays the love interest of Jennifer Garner, the show’s sexy star.
For several months in 2003, Vartan, 36, and Garner, 32, were also lovers off screen.
Garner dumped Scott Foley, her husband of three years, for Vartan who’d been her Alias co-star for three seasons.
Shortly after the couple become public with their affair, Garner began filming her Daredevil sequel Elektra in Vancouver.
Ben Affleck — who’d played the blind superhero in Daredevil — flew in to film a guest spot in Elektra.
Garner and Affleck rekindled an attraction that had been rumoured on Daredevil and Vartan found himself playing third-wheel on a bicycle built for two. Understandably people worried the break-up would effect the chemistry Garner and Vartan enjoyed for four seasons on Alias.
“It’s not awkward. It wasn’t for a second,” says Vartan.
“Jennifer and I were best friends for three years before our little whatever-it-was happened. We’re still best friends.”
He feels it is other people who are turning the brief relationship into an issue.
“It’s so not anything. Even if it was, Jennifer and I are professional actors. We would never let it impact the show.”
He concludes by observing “there was not enough intensity in that relationship for it ever to be awkward.”
Now in its fourth season, Alias — which airs tonight at 10 p.m. on ABC — is enjoying its biggest viewership.
“Being positioned behind Lost has definitely impacted our ratings,” he says of the top-rated drama about survivors stranded on a mysterious island.
“We’ve been picked up for a fifth season on the strength of our new ratings so we’re finally a hit after three years of struggling to get viewership to match our reviews.”
Vartan says he has been contracted for six seasons and Garner for seven. “Though they gave us another season there were no negotiations for raises. The producers felt they’d like to see if we can keep up the momentum before they start talking more money.”
He points out the producers “are in a no-lose situation. We’ve already filmed 88 episodes and they’ve sold the syndication rights. They don’t really need us.”
Alias will wrap up filming its fourth season in early May and will not begin filming season five until late July, so Vartan is looking around for a summer job. During his hiatus last year, he filmed the comedy Monster-in-Law with Jane Fonda and Jennifer Lopez.
“If I don’t nail down a movie this summer I won’t panic because unemployment is not exactly imminent.”
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