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Sci-fi woman
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Michelle Ryan, who plays Jamie in Bionic Woman, identifies with her character
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OTHER WORLDLY The character Michelle Ryan plays is a great mix of strength and feistiness
Twenty three-year-old Michelle Ryan feels “Bionic Woman” is ‘a normal girl with everyday concerns’. “What’s even cooler is she can leap from building to building if she needs to.” The British actress who acte
d in Sean Ellis’ “Cashback”, Stephen Surjik’s “I want Candy” and the BBC series “East Enders”, now stars as Jaime Sommers in the updated version of “Bionic Woman”.
Michelle Ryan who has been acting since she was 16 says, “My journey as an actress has been unpredictable. I don’t think I have followed a pattern that anyone else has. I think I just very much got my own way. And I work very hard. I am willing to take the risk and challenge myself. I work with good people and take advice from people around me.”
She feels that she didn’t do anything deliberately to separate herself from the original “Bionic Woman” series. “I just focus on the script and I just love the character which is a great mix of strength and feistiness.”
Her move from a British production to a Hollywood one, she admits, has been quite a leap. “Though I’ve worked quite a bit on ‘EastEnders’, this is the first big break. So it’s amazing, it’s exciting, scary and everything.” She feels, “When you’re on set, it’s the same everywhere you go. But in the US, the scale it’s just so much bigger. ‘Bionic Woman’ is a huge set, and there are hundreds of crew.”
She admits that she has not seen the original because it was before her time. “I read the script and it’s a really strong character and that’s what sold to me. It’s going to be quite graphic and different.” Accent training wasn’t much of a problem. “I have been pretty good at doing the accent. The American accent is pretty easy to pick up and I have a really good dialect coach.”
She chose to move from the UK to the US because she wanted to broaden her horizons. “It just seems so exciting over there. This was such an amazing opportunity that I never thought would come up so soon and it did.” But she is open to anything for the moment – staying in the US or considering a British production. “I am just going to go with the flow and see what will happen.”
Her biggest challenge in “Bionic Woman”, is leading the show. “Everyone looks at you and you set the tone on the show. I guess the challenge is also learning the stunts and doing it very quickly before you go on set.” Michelle trained five weeks before the show started.
The production “Bionic Woman” was suspended because of the writers’ strike. “There’re so many places to go with Jaime’s character and it’s such a great cast. It’ll be amazing to go back, I would love it!”
Michelle does feel she is similar to her character Jaime’s. “I think we are both at the same place in life where we are working out who we are, growing up and becoming a young woman. I can identify with Jaime, on trying to move on. But we are also scared about the future and at the same time being very excited.”
Though there have been quite a few different offers that she is auditioning for in the future, for the moment Michelle is just hoping “Bionic Woman” comes back, now that the writers’ strike has been called off. “The show is still the priority. It has so much potential and there is so much I could do with it.
She believes that “Bionic Woman” will always be Lindsay Wagner. “She is great and she’s the original. I just bring what I do to it and hope people like it. And I just enjoy the whole experience.”
“Bionic Woman” airs every Tuesday at 10 p.m. on Star World.
AYESHA MATTHAN
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