Meet 24's Virus Villain
Actor Greg Ellis (Pirates of the Caribbean) loves wreaking havoc as 24's Michael Amador, who's been brokering the sale of that pesky lethal virus. "In last week's episode, it seemed like I was selling it, but I've actually kept it for myself," he cheerily reminds TV Guide Online. "So there's more to me than meets the eye. Who knows? I intended to blow up Nina, but instead blew up Ramon Salazar. It all just went haywire because Ramon grabbed the suitcase from Nina — and opened it up, silly boy, not knowing I'd switched the virus for a bomb!"
Tonight's episode "Day 3: 1:00 am — 2:00 am" marks Ellis' fifth appearance on the show. He says he's signed up to do nine or 10 episodes in all. Of course, there's no real job security on 24, except maybe for star Kiefer Sutherland.
"You get the scripts a couple of days before you film the episode," the 36-year-old Brit says, "and you just hope you're doing the killing rather than being killed. There's no guarantee. In an early draft of one episode, I died! They called me like, 'Yeah, sorry. You're done. You're dead.' I was obviously disappointed.
"Then," he excitedly adds, "they rewrote it and Michael Amador came back to life, like a phoenix from the flames. They had a change of heart and decided to kill someone else instead of me. I'm not at liberty to say who it was, because that episode hasn't aired yet."
Darn! At least Ellis doesn't mind tattling about who dies in the upcoming Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie movie, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which he began filming this month. "Brad and Angelina play a bored married couple who are surprised to learn they are assassins hired to kill each other," he explains. "Basically, when you first see Brad Pitt, he comes into this seedy Irish bar I'm at. He flashes his money around during this illegal card game and pretends to be drunk, but he's not. And he ends up killin' us.
"Yeah, Brad whacks me," he says with a laugh. "It's tough."