EXPOSED to the camera, Melissa George projects a startling magnetism.

Some may suggest she has that rare, hard-to-define “it” factor – a seemingly effortless ability to light up the screen.

It’s a theory, though, that underestimates George’s commitment to her work.

She is able to get under the skin of characters because she tackles roles through vigorous preparation and implicit faith in her instincts. But she is so unpretentious in her willingness to bare her soul you forget she’s acting.

In the acclaimed Foxtel series In Treatment, there were no stunts or special effects. All the “action” took place in a therapist’s (Gabriel Byrne) room. George, as conflicted patient Laura, could be seductive one minute, but dissolve into a mascara-streaked mess the next.

In Treatment was a TV production of such rare creative synergy it was hard to imagine George being handed another opportunity to dig so deeply into her bag of acting tricks.

That opportunity has come in the form of the eight-part ABC drama The Slap – the screen adaptation of the much-debated novel by Christos Tsiolkas.

The Slap traces the shattering repercussions on a group of family and friends of a single event that takes place at a backyard barbecue.

Harry (Alex Dimitriades) assaults a misbehaving child, Hugo (Julian Mineo), who is not his son. The boy’s parents (George, and Anthony Hayes) are so outraged they call police and legal action results. Friends and family are forced to take sides in this examination of parenting, the rights of children, race, class, sexuality and the perspectives of men and women.

George, who plays mum Rosie, says filming the slap scene had a profound effect.

“It’s my (character’s) little boy who gets slapped. We’re all in the backyard and it’s all very messy. It was surprisingly emotional. The director was crying, the cameramen were wiping away tears,” she says.

George, whose co-stars include Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda), Jonathan LaPaglia, Essie Davis and Sophie Lowe, says her emotions were frazzled.

“When Harry (Dimitriades) comes and bloody smacks and bashes her son across the face, Rosie does what any mother would do,” she says.

“If you hit my kid in front of me, I’d do the same thing – when they called ‘action’ for the slap scene I forgot who I was. I drew blood from Alex Dimitriades. It was primal. You touch my kid, I’ll rip your face off. I went totally nuts. I scratched his neck, it wasn’t part of the script. I couldn’t tell the difference between reality and filming.

“One minute Rosie is bohemian, the next she is violent, the next she is breast-feeding her four-year-old.”

George expects some viewers will recoil at the sight of the breast-feeding.

“Rosie is from nature. In Chile, you’ll see a mother and the kid is walking along playing with a ball and opens her blouse and has a drink and walks off. I see nothing nothing wrong with it.”

George, meanwhile, couldn’t be happier with life away from work. She’s in a relationship with hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, 53.

George, who has just filmed Bag of Bones alongside Pierce Brosnan in Nova Scotia, was first linked to Simmons, who has estimated worth of $340 million, in July.

“It’s just, you know, fun … so much fun,” she says of Simmons. “I can’t stop smiling. It’s absolutely lovely.

“To be around such an inspiring person is just great. I’m not going to get gushy and talk about it too much, but it’s out there. I think I have great taste,” she adds with a laugh.

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