A genetician become a profiler
By Isabelle Caron, Télé 7 Jours, 1999	Home   Cette page en Français

This is in the skin of Doctor Samantha Waters, the brilliant psychologist and conspicuous hired by the FBI to fight against the criminals, that Ally Walker became a star of the small screen. "My life changed into one night thanks to Profiler, recognizes the 35 years old actress. To play Sam on TV is more interesting than all the proposals than one could make to me on cinema." Born in a village in Tennessee, Ally grew in the State of New Mexico. Then she followed studies in the faculty of Santa Cruz, California, and left certificated in biology and chemistry. "I fell in love with comedy in London where I lived six months but that did not prevent me from considering a scientific career." She exerts her first job in a laboratory and collaborates in a project concerning genetics. At the time, the beautiful fair girl increases her ends of months while being a model.

An evening, whereas she dines alone with her promised in marriage of the moment in a restaurant in Los Angeles, Ally is noticed by a producer. The meeting will be decisive : he hires her for a small role in Aloha Summer, a movie of 1988. "I never saw myself on screen because my role had been removed during the editing. But in spite of this disappointment, I had caught the virus of the comedy. I knew that I could not return in a laboratory anymore after this experiment."

This is thus that she has been found in Santa Barbara for one season before being selected for some episodes of Matlock and L.A. Law. "Each new role has been enriching, sometimes physically testing." The actress thinks, in particular, of the shooting of Universal Soldier, with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren. "I broke myself a rib at the time of a cascade. To prepare me to my role, I spent my days in a room of gym with Jean-Claude who showed me the exercises to be made." Ally is disgusted of the action movies forever. "I will always remember a scene where we had to pass through a wall with a car. At the time of slowing down, it did not answer any more and we crossed three partitions before stopping." Her last movie, Kazaam, is a comedy for children with the basketball player Shaquille O'Neal in the role of a genie. It is directed by Paul Michael Glaser, the unforgettable Starsky from the Seventies show.

"When Profiler arrived on my desk, I was coming back from a stay in New York where I prepared to shoot the pilot of a sitcom." Surfing on the promising wave of The X-Files, the writers of Profiler imagined a new show on the topic of the paranormal : "The word profiler indicates an unusual form of art. It qualifies a person able to feel the actions of a psychopathe. In fact, this specialist goes on the place of a crime and analyzes the objects placed there as well as the evidence of the murder. He can thus put himself in the skin of the criminal and understand his reasons and his gestures." This psychological approach of the crime is an innovation in the investigations of the FBI in the difficult cases of the serial-killers. "It is about assembling the elements of a puzzle. Each part allows to understand a part of the problem. When you have placed all of them, you have a clear idea of the profile of the assassin."

Profiler brought glory and happiness to its main actress. "Apart from Jodie Foster, when you are a girl in Hollywood, you have to accept what is proposed to you without posing any question. Profiler is unique in its kind. An exceptional role for an independent and strong woman, which is rare on television." It is on the stage of Profiler that Ally met the man of her life, John Landgraf, vice-president of the network NBC which airs the show in America. They both quickly became inseparable and on last 6 August, Ally gave birth to their first child John Junior.