I’ve just got my first TV and now I’m hooked on Outlander and so want a role in it
IN THE past 25 years, Melissa George has appeared in almost 50 television shows. But it was only a few weeks ago that she bought her first TV – and that was mainly to help keep her young kids entertained with cartoons.
The Australian actress, however, has already developed a small-screen obsession with Scots romantic epic Outlander.
Melissa is so much in love with it that she is desperate for a part in the time-travel series.
The former Home and Away, Friends and Grey’s Anatomy star was in Scotland last month to launch her new movie The Butterfly Tree at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Melissa, who previously filmed here for HBO drama Hunted and indie thriller A Lonely Place to Die, said: “I’d work in Scotland immediately if I could.
“I’ve been watching Outlander and I cannot get enough. I’ve watched all three seasons.
“I never had a TV until three weeks ago. But my children are little, I don’t have nannies and I’m a single mum. I thought that if I had a TV, maybe I could get time to take a shower.
“I was like, ‘What’s this show Outlander?’ I think I’ve fallen in love with Scotland. Don’t you think they should get me for Outlander? I don’t think I can do a Scottish accent, though. But if they hire me, I’ll do any accent they want.”
Paris-based Melissa took Australian telly by storm in 1993 as roguish teen Angel in Home and Away.
After a successful three-year run in the show, she set out to make her name in Hollywood.
Melissa had roles in movies including David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive and she appeared as the nanny in Friends before movies The Amityville Horror remake, 30 Days of Night and Derailed.
She also hit the LA scene at just the right time and has been one of the stars of the box-set golden era.
Melissa, 41, won plaudits and a Golden Globe nomination for HBO’s In Treatment and then starred
Melissa George didn’t need much persuasion to come north of the Border to promote her latest movie. Now, the former Home and Away star has her sights set on getting a part in hit Highland drama
in Australian mini series The Slap. She then recreated the role in the US adaptation, as well as starring in network blockbusters Grey’s Anatomy and The Good Wife. Her success on the small screen has allowed her to indulge in indie passion projects, too. Which is why she came to Scotland to promote The Butterfly Tree. It’s an intensely personal project from Aussie director Priscilla Cameron about a burlesque dancer who changes the life of a heartbroken dad who has lost his wife to breast cancer. Melissa said: “Every time my Australian manager calls me, it’s always something so good because she has spent 12 months saying no to so many projects, that I just say yes. “I was so captivated by the role for so many reasons. It was sensual, touching, emotional and vibrant. It was about learning to love and live again. I loved the colours of the costumes and there was burlesque dancing – I absolutely loved it from day one.”
Having put off the film for seven years, Melissa refused to let anything get in the way of it, including nursing her son Solal, who is now two years old.
She said: “My son was almost four months old and I was playing a burlesque dancer. I remember being on set and having to pump milk.
“I’d have to say, ‘Sorry, my nipple tassel on the costume won’t hold as I need to feed my son’, so I’d need to take an hour off.’
“The cinematographer would say, ‘You didn’t empty both breasts, you only emptied one. Tou are uneven. Can you please empty the other one?’
“I played a burlesque dancer breastfeeding. If I’m not all woman, I don’t know what I am.
“We had a lot of fun. I love when I am personally fulfilled and professionally fulfilled at the same time – it’s a really great feeling.” ●The Butterfly Tree, 12A, is in cinemas this Friday.
I don’t think I can do a Scots accent. But if they hire me, I’ll do any accent they want