Acting since the age of five, 15-year-old Alexa Vega has grown into the role of OSS agent Carmen Cortez over three hit films. But her experience is much wider than these larger than life adventures. Her other films include "Ghosts of Mississippi", "Twister", and "Nine Months", while her television work includes appearances in ER and Chicago Hope.
For the second film running you get to sing on the "Spy Kids" soundtrack - do you hanker for a career as a rock star?
That would be nice! Robert asked if I wanted to try a song again and I said "definitely". Then a couple of days before the premiere he asked if I wanted to sing the song live. We were trying to practice everything on stage and it was kind of chaotic. But when it happened it was fun. When I finished I told my mom I wanted to be a rock star, because the rush you get on stage is so great.
On screen you are trapped in video games - do you play them much in real life?
We used to have a whole lot of video game sets at home, but then my mom decided that we weren't doing our homework so she kind of flunked that idea. While we were on set we played video games and we have the GameBoys when we travel. But for the most part we don't play them at home.
Your big stunt sequence has you surfing through a sea of lava. How was that to do?
There was this contraption shaped like a really wide U, it looked like we were either on a skateboard or snowboard, and we had all these stunt guys pulling us back and forth. I thought it was going to be really weird going up there, and it was, but it was really cool because you really felt like you were up there surfing with all the wind blowing and hearing Robert shout: "There's a monster behind you!". I have to say, that was the best stunt we did. Apart from that it was mostly just walking around in front of the green screen.
Robert Rodriguez has said this is definitely the last "Spy Kids" movie. Were you sad when you heard that your association with Carmen Cortez was at an end?
I cried like a baby. On the last day of shooting Elijah Wood was on set, telling me it was OK. I was a little embarrassed that he was there and I was crying, but then I was a little embarrassed in front of everyone. It's sad because we've worked with everyone for four years, they've become like my family and they've seen me grow into a teenager. But it's been a wonderful experience, because Robert's given us a real boost and hopefully we can go far in our careers.
