THE long-distance call was meant for white-hot film star Mili Avital, but best “Friend” David Schwimmer answers the cell phone instead.
“Oh, you’re looking for Mili,” Schwimmer says, mumbling over the din of a busy London cafe in full afternoon rush. “She’s right here.”
Avital is perhaps better known in the U.S. as Schwimmer’s significant other – but that is supposed to change after Sunday night, when the Israeli-born actress makes her bow as the star of the ABC mini-series, “Arabian Nights.”
The pair – who met and started dating two years ago while co-starring in the film “Kissing a Fool” – were stealing a few days together in London before separating for work. He’s still shooting TV’s most-watched comedy in Los Angeles and she’s expected in New York.
“I love dating him,” she says.
Avital is now used to sharing the spotlight with Schwimmer – a relationship that has resulted at times in some hounding from magazines and gossip columns.
“It doesn’t bug me,” she says. “There’s a big separation between my personal life and my work.
“And because I was an actress before I met [David], to me the thinking is … whatever.
“People want to know about us, that’s okay. I’m very focused about what needs to be communicated in interviews and I understand the curiosity.”
In “Arabian Nights,” Avital stars as Scheherazade, the eldest daughter of the grand vizier of an Arabian kingdom.The film, a lush re-telling of the fairy-tale classic, features stories like “Aladdin” and “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.”
Scheherazade, spins these yarns after marrying a nut-job king named Schariar (Dougray Scott), who is paralyzed by anger at his first wife’s betrayal and plans to have her killed the morning after their wedding night.
In real life, Avital, 28, has been telling stories since she was a kid growing up in Tel Aviv.
She attended a drama-oriented high school similar to one portrayed in the movie “Fame,” and after appearing in two Israeli films became one of the most celebrated stars in her country before she was 20.
Soon after, she left for New York where she lived with family in Soho while attending theatrical school and working as a waitress.
Even though Avital had already been a star back home, her “big break” arrived while serving a meal to the woman who would later become her manager.
The woman asked if she had ever worked as an actress and about a week later Avital had landed a starring role in “Stargate” with Kurt Russell.
“I was working as a waitress and a week later I was on a Hollywood set,” Avital says, explaining how she landed a starring role in the 1995 sci-fi film.
Since then, Avital has appeared in at least 10 other big-budget films with stars ranging from Johnny Depp to Jason Lee.
But it’s silent film star Charlie Chaplin who’s had the most influence on her life, the dark-haired beauty claims.
“I wish I could be like him,” Avital said, explaining how she was 5-years-old when she first saw Chaplin’s 1931 film “City Lights.”
“I love what he invented, I love how he wrote, directed, edited and performed all of his films. And I love the human character that he portrayed – he was so moving and was able to capture the essence of humanity.”