Rising vamp; Profile: Peta Wilson

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Oct 12, 2003

ADMITTEDLY, it's set in Victorian times but surely someone must have noticed that The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (LXG) features at least one extraordinary-looking woman.

As the half-lady, half-vampire Mina Harker, Australian-born actress Peta Wilson looks likely to cross over from cult TV to the movie mainstream, joining the elite Hollywood band of antipodean actresses led by Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett and Naomi Watts.

Although LXG is her first major movie role, Wilson will be familiar to insomniacs as the eponymous star of Channel 5's La Femme Nikita, the small-screen adaptation of French writer/director Luc Besson's 1990 film.

The impenetrable espionage drama, almost operatic in its overblown intensity, has cultivated a cult following all over the world, and it's a good bet that most of these fans tune in for Wilson's slinky, morally tormented assassin rather than Edward Woodward or Wilson's love interest (an actor who bears an uncanny resemblance to Stephen Hendry).

Born in Sydney, Australia, on November 18, 1970, Wilson spent most of her childhood in Papua New Guinea, where her warrant officer father was stationed. With no TV or radio, she amused herself by singing along to eight-track tapes of Liza Minnelli and Neil Diamond, an early outlet for her urge to perform.

Athletic and sporty, much of her time outside of class was spent playing netball and swimming, but her mother, a caterer, eventually decided she wanted a slightly more feminine daughter, and sent Wilson to deportment classes.

Soon after, the striking Wilson - blonde, blue-eyed, nearly six feet tall - was signed by a modelling agent and spent the end of her teens travelling around Europe, earning her living on the catwalk.

In 1991, Wilson moved to the US to pursue her acting ambitions and after studying in Los Angeles, landed some small roles in cable TV and independent films. After five years of toil in LA, Wilson was ready to move to New York to try her luck there. But her last television audition before she left landed her the role in La Femme Nikita ahead of 200 others.

After five successful seasons of spying and assassination, La Femme Nikita came to an end. Wilson finally completed that move to New York in 1999 and lives there with fellow actor Damian Harris and their one-year-old son Marlowe. It was LXG star (and executive producer) Sean Connery who suggested her for the Harker role in the $80 million blockbuster. But despite all the kick-ass action and dangerous stunt work involved in the physically demanding role, Wilson was most nervous about a scene where she was required to impersonate Connery's character Allan Quatermain (who, it should be noted, just sounds like Connery always does). Apparently Big Tam was more than satisfied with her facsimile of his famous burr. And she could pinpoint his sex appeal.

"He's part-Gypsy," she said recently. "You know how Gypsies can attract you." She also noticed his handshake. "His hands are as soft as my baby's bottom. He's a movie star, and he's great and charismatic, but has he ever had to fix the pipes? I don't know."

lFilm reviews: pages 12 and 13