Without a Trace's heartache storylines are tough on the cast

By MICHELE MANELIS

Poppy Montgomery, who stars opposite fellow Aussie Anthony Lapaglia in the surprise TV hit Without A Trace, says portraying a member of the FBI Missing Persons Squad can often be heart-wrenching.

"Of course you get affected. All of the storylines are tragic on some level,"
Montgomery says, on the set of the Emmy award-winning show.

"There was one episode [Maple Street] which was based on a true story about two little girls who went missing. One of them ends up dead. And because they were about my younger sister's age, that was hard for me to film. No matter how hard I tried not to think about my sister, she was in my head the whole time," she says.

"And it seems that children are more susceptible to abduction. As we know, a lot of what you see — kids on the milk carton are usually young children."

Lapaglia, 45, whose daughter, Bridget, is 18 months old, says, "My wife Gia [Carides], 40, can't watch the episodes about kids.

"And I pride myself on being able to drop it when I drive out of the studio, but it seems that you always take something with you. You carry it around and it's very hard to shake it off. Some of the stories just get inside your psyche and you're helpless to it."

Montgomery agrees. "That's right. So, you're always dealing with a very heavy subject matter. And the way we, as a cast, deal with it is to joke around with each other," she says. "There's a levity on set that's necessary."

Without A Trace is the partner to CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Cold Case, all produced by Jerry Bruckheimer (Pirates of the Caribbean, King Arthur).

The episodes of Without A Trace are often based on real life and the programme has helped many victims and survivors of various crimes.

Says executive producer, Jonathan Littman, "We had 250 teachers contact us to request copies of a particular episode about bullies. They wanted to show it to the kids in their classrooms as a deterrent.

"Obviously, we were more than happy to oblige. Actually, the suicide hotline number we put up on that episode quadrupled in the number of calls. So, when you have an impact like that, it's extraordinary."

The high-rating show is sensitive to its viewers, however, Littman says, "Obviously, we don't want to sell a lot of gruesome-ness or horrible-ness but there's a way to do everything. And as far as the storylines go, truth is always stranger than fiction."

Montgomery, 32, who plays the brainy blonde detective, has become somewhat of a thinking man's sex symbol. Like countless young hopeful wannabe actresses before her, she moved to Los Angeles at 18 determined to carve out a career as an actress. (Five out of Poppy's nine siblings are named after flowers, and her brother is named
Jethro Tull).

Her story is not unusual but success hasn't been an overnight process.

She has played in various B-movies, including The Other Sister, Dead Man on Campus, The Cold Equations, and her TV credits include Relativity, Party of Five, and NYPD Blue.

Montgomery's parents — her father is a restaurateur and mother is a market researcher — live in Sydney.

Her demeanour is down-to-earth. Like her co-star LaPaglia, her native Australian accent is gone, replaced by a generic American twang.

"I can't flip in and out of the accent. I think Nicole Kidman can do it. She does an amazing American accent and then just goes right back into her Australian. When we did the movie, Blonde, [in which she played Marilyn Monroe] we shot it in Australia. I was so paranoid about my accent coming back that I started sounding like I was from Brooklyn.

"I guess the American accent is ingrained in me now pretty much. My whole family is just like, 'You don't sound like you'!" She smiles.

"I have dual citizenship so I really consider myself to be both American and Australian. I feel comfortable in both places."

* Without a Trace, Monday 8.30pm, TV2