Melissa George is a long way from home

Melissa George began her career in Aussie soap Home and Away. Now she has landed a starring role in the scariest true story of them all.

Melissa George is enjoying a rapid rise in Hollywood. The 28-year-old Australian actress has secured the lead role in The Amityville Horror.

In this remake of the 1979 original, George and the Hollywood funny-guy-turned-leading-man Ryan Reynolds (Van Wilder and Blade: Trinity) take over the roles that James Brolin and Margot Kidder made famous, as George and Kathy Lutz, the parents of a family subjected to paranormal terror.

"Even though Ryan made us laugh and there were some humorous moments, especially at the beginning of the movie, the whole set had a funny feeling to it," says George. "We were, after all, re-enacting a true story, and there were a couple of weird events that happened.

"On day five of filming the real Kathy Lutz passed away, which made me feel a little nervous. And, in the fourth week of filming, a dead body surfaced in the lake outside the boathouse where we were filming."

George's rise to success doesn't stop with Amityville. She will next be seen alongside Clive Owen in the crime thriller Derailed, a book adaptation, which she filmed back-to-back with Amityville.

"As soon as I wrapped Amityville, I went to London and worked for seven weeks with Clive there. It's a story about a husband and wife ... and we have a lot of secrets. One day he catches a train to work, hence the title Derailed, and many turns of events occur after that.

"It was the most amazing experience as an actress. Clive's so funny and down-to-earth, and you're working with one of the best actors in cinema today. He has a great time with it and doesn't take it all too seriously."

The former Australian roller-skating champion started her rise to fame when she landed a role as a 16-year-old single mother, Angel, on Home and Away.

She was hand-picked when she turned up to an audition her modelling agency had set up for her in her native Perth.

Unlike movie stars who are keen to forget their humble beginnings on soaps, George is proud of her early role on Home and Away. "Those days of my life shaped who I am. It was the best opportunity, all Australian actors start out that way."

George's success in Hollywood sees her join a long line of successful former Australian soap opera stars including Russell Crowe, Natalie Imbruglia, Guy Pierce, Kylie Minogue, Nicole Kidman and Alan Dale.

"As small as it is," says George, "the Australian acting industry is so well executed because of the acting schools there, and you have to exercise the greatest talent that you have, so the next thing to do is to come to America. We're also very brave Downunder. You can reject us 10 times a day and we'll just laugh and we have a sense of humour about the business. We don't take it seriously and we know if things go terribly wrong we can always get on a plane and go back home."

Besides an infamous role as a lesbian nanny on Friends, George says the cult TV show Alias was the turning point in her career.

"I think getting the opportunity to play a double-agent, where my character has this sweet demeanour in the day, and then at night she's this murderous vixen who assassinates whoever she wants, showed the audience, producers and casting people that I could play two roles, both believable. It definitely led to me getting the lead roles in both Amityville and Derailed."

George has her sights firmly set on becoming seen as a serious actress "I'd like to work with [directors] Peter Greenaway and Pedro Almodovar. I'm learning Spanish so that [Almodovar] will hire me one day. I know I don't look Spanish but hopefully he'll give me a chance. Making beautiful films is important to me."

The actress has already worked with David Lynch in Mulholland Drive, for which she was hand-picked by the director from a Polaroid.

"Joanna Wray, who does the casting for David's films, takes a photo of you. David then looks through a book of Polaroids and chooses who he wants based on a feeling of how they look in the picture. The first day I turned up on set, and I was looking at David Lynch, who has been my dream to work with, and he said: "Better than I expected'."

- Independent

* The Amityville Horror opens on Thursday.