The Film That Lit My Fuse is a Deadline video series that aims to provide an antidote to headlines about industry uncertainty by swinging the conversation back to the creative ambitions, formative influences and inspirations of some of today’s great screen artists.
Today’s subject is Melissa George, the Australian actress who stars with Justin Theroux in the Apple TV+ series The Mosquito Coast. They’ve just wrapped the second season of the drama in which a radical idealist and his wife and kids find themselves on the run from the U.S. government in Mexico. George began her career as an instant sensation, starring as Angel Parrish in the Australian soap opera Home and Away, this after becoming a national artistic roller skating champion, and looking for a new way to express herself artistically. The early success led to a series of films that began with Dark City, included Steven Soderbergh’s The Limey and David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. She found a seam in genre, starring in The Amityville Horror remake, the superb 30 Days of Night, and Turistas. Next came stints on the American series Alias, Grey’s Anatomy and Heartbeat, before a standout turn on HBO’s In Treatment that got her a Golden Globe nom. George is also an inventor. Here’s how she found her mojo, and it was a dream path to stardom.
