Idle Hands' Jessica Alba shapes childhood ambition into a banner year By BOB THOMPSON Toronto Sun April 21, 1999

HOLLYWOOD -- So far, this has been a very good year for Jessica Alba.     She's had a co-starring role in Drew Barrymore's teen comedy, Never Been Kissed. She'll soon be featured as the collegiate love interest in the quirky horror spoof, Idle Hands.     Even better for Alba is her high-profile coming out party next fall, starring in James Cameron's TV series Dark Angel.     Oh, and there's something else.     "I just turned 18," reports Alba at a Beverly Hills hotelroom. "I'm legal."     Professionally, she can sign her own contracts, make her own decisions. "And," she adds, "now I can date older guys if I want."     Like in their mid-'20s? "Not that old," replies Alba, playfully grimacing.     Fact is Alba still lives at home with her parents "in an L.A. suburb." She has a private tutor, and a single-minded ambition to make it as an actor, not a movie star.     She's had that burning desire since she was an upstart but spirited five-year-old who proclaimed to her mother she wanted to act -- for a living.     She did the usual casting calls for commercials, while attending acting classes, and eventually landed a small part in the 1993 film, Camp Nowhere.     That led to her being featured on the syndicated TV series Flipper, but it also meant she learned about the sacrifice of the actor's life. Alba had to shoot the Flipper series in Australia, where she lived for two years. "I really missed my family," she recalls.     When she returned to L.A., Alba got down to business, enrolling in acting classes at the Atlantic Theatre Company based in New Hampshire. She was under the watchful eye of writer-director David Mamet and actor William H. Macy.     "I learned that you had to take things from moment to moment," she says, "and not create something that isn't there."     Meanwhile, back in the movie capital, Alba was impressing producers.     One of them happened to be Drew Barrymore, who hired Alba for her Never Been Kissed project as one of the "cool kids."     "Drew," says Alba, "is a sweet cherub of a human being. She inspires people."     Cameron was obviously inspired by Alba and her confident presence. The Titanic director handed her the coveted Dark Angel TV role.     It's Cameron's first venture into major TV production, so he's not taking the action series lightly. Neither is Alba, who understands the part could lead to fame and fortune, Buffy The Vampire Slayer style.     "I'm excited," says the actress who starts shooting the show in a few months.     "No, I'm not the Bionic Woman. I am a genetically enhanced superhuman living in the 21st century where government and police control everything."     Alba says that the series will be set 20 years into a messy future highlighted by political, economic and moral collapse. Alba's sexually alluring but dangerous character Max is being hunted by government forces, so she can be returned to her assigned military duties.     To escape, Max joins the underground in the decadent San Francisco of the 21st century.     It sounds like grown up stuff for a just-turned-legal person.     Alba smiles demurely.     "I was older when I was younger," she says.     You mean like Bob Dylan singing, 'I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.'     "No," says Alba, looking puzzled by the reference. "I mean when I was 12, they'd give me the wine list at restaurants."

Flipper scenes, characters, and logos are a trademark of SGM Productions in association with Tribune Entertainment Last Modified: May 8, 1999