Hi Niki,

I really liked playing Amy Hastings, especially because I was able to work with Raymond Burr, a man I greatly admired. He was such a philanthropic man. His partner still sends Ian and me bottles of wine from the Raymond Burr Winery each Christmas, which is so lovely and the wine always gets rave reviews from my friends and family! The reason my character no longer appeared in the Perry Mason tv movies after 3 episodes was that the network brass at NBC wanted Billy to have other girlfriends in future shows, instead of one fiancee, which I was. I was very disappointed, but was grateful to have filmed the 3 tv movies that I did. I know, it was rather abrupt – as far as I know I just no longer show up in the storylines, with no explanation. So no, Amy doesnt end up with Ken, although I worked with William (Billy) Moses again on the 2005 movie, A Lover’s Revenge, which was really fun. He was trying to kill me in that one, though, not marry me.

Happy New Year!

Alexandra

Dear Danny,

I looked at your website and I want to congratulate you on your athletic accomplishments. Good luck attaining 1 million bicycled miles and please let me know when you attain that goal!

When I filmed American Flyers, I was not at all a cyclist and had no idea I would become immersed in triathlon and then marry a triathlete and bicycle enthusiast. I am very proud to have been involve with that movie, as it stands as one of the best cycling movies ever. It was great working with Kevin Costner, and I was honoured to meet Eddie Merckx, who had a cameo in the film. I also met 3 of my closest and oldest friends on that movie – my friend Kate Sullivan who is an accomplished set decorator; Jim Dunlap who works all the time and all over the world as a production accountant, and Daniel Sladek who started Young Artists United with me and was my manager for 10 years. American Flyers was an important film for me professionally and personally.

I am planning to cycle more in 2010, as I have only ridden a handful of times in the last 10 years! Ian loves to ride, but I was never enamored with cycling on city roads, so after I stopped racing triathlons, my bike was put away in favor of running and swimming.

Best wishes for many beautiful, safe, emission free bike miles for you in 2010!

Alexandra

Hi Anna, You can see a list of my favorite movies here. I think my favorite movie of the last few years is the German film, The Lives of Others. I also loved Closer (film). I need to update the list, I guess!

A favorite movie in which I acted … well, all my roles teach me something… I have been in over 75 projects in the last 27 years, so it is hard to decide! The most important personally was American Flyers, because of the very close friends I met, Kate, Jim and Daniel (see my response to the letter above). Filming Christine, I met William Ostrander and Barry Tubb. In my 20s, they were both very important to me. Barry subsequently directed me in Javelina last year. I had a wonderful time working in Yugoslavia on Nightwatch and Deathtrain with Pierce Brosnan, and with Sacha Baron Cohen in Borat (my scenes were edited out, but you can see a bit of me in the DVD extras). I loved filming The Frankenstein Brothers, as the character was a challenge. I love working in Ottawa, Canada on all the Lifetime movies I have shot there (A Woman Hunted, Saving Emily, A Lover’s Revenge, Demons from her Past, A Sister’s Secret, The Boy She Met Online). And filming in Australia and New Zealand was awesome (GreenSails, Exposure). My Kiwi stand-in on Exposure, Julia Ryan, is a wonderful friend whom I saw a couple times this year. I also filmed an interesting Italian movie in Rome and Cannes, Millions, and filmed twice in the Caribbean (Trapped and Murder.com) I have worked with my Baywatch co-star, David Chokachi on 2 movies (Murder.com
and
12 Bucks) which was great. I love playing mothers (too numerous to count! My first foray into being an onscreen mother was when I was 23 in After the Rain, and I am still in touch with one of my sons (Chad Tucker, who was 6 then and is now a chiropractor and engaged). Since then, I have worked with incredible young actors, including most recently Tracy Spiridakos in The Boy She Met Online.

I guess I would say the movie in which I appear that I hold most dear to my heart is Who Killed the Electric Car?. I wasnt an actress in it, ironically, although I am seen throughout. The issue of emission free vehicles is very, very important to me, and I am proud to be associated with the movie.

Thank you for allowing me to reminisce!

Alexandra