Misc.
60 AMERICANWAY
JANUARY 15 2009
She’s also clearly in her element, and her excitement
about her new project is palpable. The movie, set
to air this month as a two-part miniseries on NBC,
is called
The Last Templar
. It’s based on the best-
selling novel by Raymond Khoury, who cowrote the
script with Suzette Couture. Sorvino stars as an
archaeologistonanadventurous trek, and thevaried-
genreactress—whohasplayedaditzyhigh school–
reunion attendee and a brilliant scientist with equal
aplomb—gives another convincingperformance.
“She’s fabulous,” says executive producer Robert
Halmi Sr., who alsoworkedwithSorvino on the film
Human Trafficking
. “She’s captivating as this tough
archaeologistwho can knock aguydown. Itwas de-
manding emotionally, but she pulled it off.”
Thecast—whichalso includesScottFoley,Victor
Asanentomologist, Sorvino’s characterbattlesgiant
mutant cockroaches living in the subways of New
York. She may be the one that causes the problem
in the first place, but at least she’s sharp enough to
figure out the solution.
MiraSorvinoplaysawhip-
smartarchaeologist in this
month’s
TheLastTemplar
.
The real-lifeHarvardgrad
hasplayeda lot of similarly
brilliant charactersonTVand
film—and some less-savvy
onesaswell.We showwhere
someof our favorites fall on
the intelligence scale. —K.P.P.
YOU COULD SAY LIFE
looks awfully good from
whereMiraSorvino sits,whichrightnow is the inside
of a seaside café that dangles miraculously from the
edgeofa cliff on the coastlineofMorocco. She’shere, in
adustymiddle-of-nowhereNorthAfrican village, for
the waning days of a nearly two-monthmovie shoot
that has crossed several continents. Having survived
the grueling experience, Sorvino seems downright
giddy just tobe intact.
Garber, andOmarSharif— survivedMoroccan tem-
peratures that swelled to 126 degrees Fahrenheit
anda swirling sandstorm that nearly shut downpro-
duction. But Sorvino never balked. “It’s not often in
an actor’s life you’re asked tohelmone of these,” she
says. “It’s this huge big-action adventure/romance/
drama/comedy. I’ve done somany different kinds of
movies, but nothingquite like this.”
Sorvinocertainlyhasmadeher fair shareofflicks;
at her busiest point, she made nine movies in three
years, including
The Replacement Killers
,
Romy and
Michele’s HighSchool Reunion
, and
Summer of Sam
.
After going full speed for so long, she took amuch-
deservedbreak fromfilm.
“I just had to get away,” she says. “I felt I’d been
workingnonstop, just jumping frommovie tomovie.”
So she retreated to Europe for a time. Then, in
2004, she married baseball-player-turned-actor
Christopher Backus, with whom she has had two
children. Now that she’s a busymom, Sorvino is be-
ingmore selectiveabout the roles she chooses, wait-
ing for parts that best fit into her family life rather
than trying to fit her family life into a movie shoot.
Her approach seems to be working— she already
has three films set for release later this year.
“I’m in a great place,” Sorvino says, smiling. “I
can only gauge it by how things are going for me
and what I want out of life. What I want most is
my family. My children are the best thing that’s ever
happened tome. The fact that I’m doing interesting
work is just icing on the cake. I guess I could have
had a bigger career. But right now, it’s perfect.”
TheLastTemplar
On-Screen IQ
BRAINY
In an episode of this popularmedical series, Sorvino
guest stars as a psychiatrist conducting a research
mission at the South Pole. When she falls ill, she
must perform surgery on herself, receiving instruc-
tions fromDr. GregoryHouse viawebcam.
HouseM.D.
,
2008
Mimic
,
1997
