Melissa George is living the Hollywood dream...

By Shereen Low

LIFE is certainly rosier for actress Melissa George since she packed her bags and said goodbye to Summer Bay.

It's been 13 years since the former Home And Away star swapped her native Australian shores for the bright lights of Los Angeles, like fellow soap actors Isla Fisher and Guy Pearce.

Since then, the 33-year-old has won a Golden Globe nomination and become a respected member of the Hollywood community, winning roles in Friends and Grey's Anatomy among others.

Melissa counts the Best Supporting Actress nomination by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association earlier this year, for her role in award-winning drama In Treatment, as her proudest achievement - even though she walked away empty-handed.

She got the news four hours after she did her last scenes on hospital drama Grey's Anatomy.

Leaving the show was a "gamble" which paid off.

"It was the last thing I thought would ever happen - almost like a joke really. I didn't even know I was up for one," she admits.

"Sometimes you think you're going to have a good year this year or I'm going to get this job', you almost get a sense. But with this, I had no idea, so it was an absolute, incredible thing. I had interviews all day and people were beeping me on the streets."

Flicking her blonde hair, she adds: "It's just nice to hear from people you admire, like Shirley MacLaine and Al Pacino saying, I've watched In Treatment over and over again'. Al Gore and former President (Bill) Clinton too. Barbra Streisand walked in and said, Oh my God, I'm obsessed with you!' "I don't think for a career it really means much, except you're getting accolades from people and maybe you'll work with better directors and get better quality work. But to me it means more than anything - more than what it brings, it means all that hard work was recognised.

"You can be such a talented actor, but your movies never make any money and no-one can ever recognise that, but when the Hollywood Foreign Press Association say that, it's kind of weird, it's a strange feeling."

SHE'S certainly had her pick of the plummest parts, and has worked with heart-throbs Josh Hartnett, Clive Owen and Michael Sheen.

Yet Melissa turned her back on big-budget productions for her next project, instead choosing Triangle, which doesn't star any A-listers.

"It's a very cerebral psychological drama about a woman called Jess who you think is a woman who boarded a boat and then an ocean liner, who starts to have cases of deja vu," she says.

"Throughout the course of the film, more Jesses appear but it could be a case of Groundhog Day, or a case of amnesia.

"What I love about it is you think you're watching a certain type of film and then 20 minutes in, it's not. I love those kinds of movies where you're constantly entertained, and also, when you finish watching it, you question moments of the movie."

Shooting the nail-biting thriller took its toll on Melissa, who cried all day to make her eyes bloodshot and tired.

"I wanted to make my eyes look really demented, like she's been living for like 200 years without sleeping and I think I achieved that," she recalls. "It was very hard, but there was something freeing about playing the role.

"I was sitting in that film thinking I haven't seen an actress doing a part like that or had that much screen time in a long time, so it was great to do that kind of film."

Having starred in fright films like 30 Days Of Night, The Amityville Horror and Turistas, Melissa now prefers to distance herself from the horror tag.

"I think I'm drawn to all genres, to be honest," she says. "For women, there are very limited roles. You either play the doting wife or the action girl who's out to get everybody.

"From an acting standpoint, it's nice to play something you're not and do something you haven't done before. I pick movies more for the character and their journey rather than the genre.

"Over the course of a career, I think you will double up on many genres from drama to thriller to whatever. I like them all. My TV work from In Treatment was definitely a drama, not a thriller, and Grey's Anatomy was fun, so I like to break it up."

So keen is she to avoid any sort of pigeon-holing she is now filming Swinging With The Finkels, a British romantic comedy also starring Martin Freeman.

"It's been so funny. I'm like, is someone really paying me to do this? This is hysterically fun. I'm having the best time of my life - Martin is incredibly funny."

Work aside, Melissa has been happily married to Chilean film director Claudio Dabed, whom she met in Bali, for nine years and is stepmother to his 15-year-old daughter from a previous relationship. The family split their time between Los Angeles, New York and Buenos Aires.

"I love my stepdaughter. I remember when she was three. She was in my arms, this little, little thing," she says.

She admits that motherhood has yet to knock on her door. "I am still young but I have got to have kids soon, big time. I am renovating my apartment in New York and I really want to raise my children in Manhattan and Buenos Aires, so I'm thinking I'm going to get pregnant next year," she says.

"My parents are always going on about it. When I called my parents to tell them that I'd been nominated for a Golden Globe, they thought I'd called to say that I was pregnant, and they were really disappointed!"

Triangle will be released in cinemas on October 16.