Transcript of STARLOG interview with Nathan Fillion
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Firefly: Commanding Rogue
Flight of the Firefly

Nathan Fillion has spaceship, will travel-for a price
January 2003 Page 36-39

Captain on Deck
By Bill Florence

At the edge of the wild new frontier, Firefly's Nathan Fillion leads a motley crew of space cowboys & planet outcasts aboard Serenity.

On Firefly, Captain Malcolm Reynolds is the hardened, edgy captain of the small transport spaceship Serenity-Firefly class. A defeated soldier who fought the Alliance, Mal's troubled past has cost him, among other things, his faith in God. Now he ekes out a marginal living among the border planets by undertaking almost any transport job-legal or not-while avoiding the long arm of the Alliance.

What kind of man is Nathan Fillion, the actor who plays Malcolm Reynolds? "First, how about I apologize for not being able to get a hold of you the other day," he begins, before his STARLOG interviewer can let fly a single query. It's true, Fillion did miss his scheduled appointment, but these things can happen when TV shows are in production. Next, Fillion expresses gratitude on behalf of himself and the rest of the cast and crew for STARLOG's Firefly cover story in September (#303). "We all read the article," he says, "and we were all really happy. I want to thank you guys for that."

Clearly, Fillion and his functional counterpart are two separate and distinct personalities. Although Malcolm isn't a bad guy, he's more likely to do his talking with his fists than with apologies or expressions of gratitude. During his audition for the role, Fillion remembers thinking, "This guy is so dark! He's so brooding. This is so not me." Of course, he got the part.

"I thought, 'Oh my God, I sure hope they haven't made a terrible mistake, because I'm such a happy guy,'" Fillion recalls. "But when I put on the pants, suspenders, boots, jacket and holster, and I thought, 'I am this guy.' On the first day of filming, I walked up into Serenity's big cargo bay, and a crew member turned and said, 'Captain on deck!' A bunch of people saluted and applauded, and it felt so good. I felt very comfortable on the set from that point on."

Indeed, Fillion is having a field day portraying Mal. "I'm a captain of a starship-I mean, a spaceship," he corrects himself, regretting the use of a term which he perceives to have Star Trek connotations. "I've got my own spaceship, and I'm really excited about having a gun and a holster and being a tough guy and punching people out. I'm excited about coming to work and doing that kind of stuff all day. I'm also excited because it's from [creator-executive producer] Joss Whedon, and it's a quality project. I don't have to come to work and think, 'Oh, I have to say that today?' I come to work and go, 'Yee-haw! Look what I get to do today!' I get to be so cool as Mal, but I'm not cool in real life."

The Westerner

Firefly marks Fillion's first experience on a TV series in which he didn't join the cast after the show was already in progress (as he did on the sitcom Two Guys and a Girl and the soap opera One Life to Live). "I've been in this project from the beginning," he notes. "That makes a big difference. I get a really neat sense of pride, and of belonging. I feel very close to Firefly. I don't feel like I'm a guest in someone else's house."

At this early point in the series' run, Fillion says his greatest challenge is simply getting to know who Captain Mal Reynolds is. "It's a journey of discovery," he offers. "You get to know the character as the series goes on, as do I. I don't have advance knowledge. I get each script the night before filming the episode, and that's when I find things out. So it's a journey for me too. I'm discovering all the time what Malcolm is like. I'm still getting comfortable in his shoes. Of course, I do have a hand in translation of the character from script to screen, so I have some control of that aspect [of the character's development], but for the most part, it's a learning experience for me as well as the audience. And so far, I really like the direction Mal is taking. I admire him, and I fear him. I'm vitally interested in how he thinks and how he's going to react to things."

As a borderline outlaw with his own code of ethics, Malcolm as emerged as a complex anti-hero in the first half-dozen episodes. In "The Train Job," Mal has no compunction about killing a captive thug for threatening to hunt him down, once freed. Yet in the same episode, the captain returns a stolen shipment of medicine to its rightful owners when he could have made off with the goods and turned a hefty profit. In "Bushwhacked," Mal protects Simon and his troublesome sister, River, neither whom is especially well-likes, when it would have been much easier and safer just to turn them over to the Alliance.

In some ways, Mal is not much different from any of us, Fillion reflects. "We all sometimes think, 'I would really like to smack that guy in the mouth for the way he's driving' or whatever it might be. We know we can't do that, we know it's not right, but we all have something inside of us that says, 'You know what? That guy deserves it.' We all have our sense of justice inside. But Malcolm Reynolds lives in a world were you act on your sense of justice. He will not be a victim; he will not be pushed down. He's his won moral guide. In Mal's world, his word is the last word, and I really like that about him. If someone says something off-color, he comes in there with fists flying. I like the freedom he has. "Even so," the actor admits, "I wouldn't want to live in the world he lives in, because it's a pretty dark world, pretty depressing."

Just a few months into Firefly's first season, Mal has already been involved in several fist fights and barroom brawls. Lapsing into his character's colloquial style (he has been shooting all morning, after all), Fillion chuckles and says, "The captain doesn't mind gettin 'beaten up,' cause he does it all the time. He takes some hard knocks, this kid. He gets knocked around, stabbed and shot, but it doesn't make him shy. At the same time, Malcolm ends up trying to do the right thing, and in that way I think he is an Everyman. Everyone wants to do the right thing pretty much, and Malcolm's no different."

Fillion says that he shares his alter-ego's "overdeveloped sense of justice [and vengeance]. My mom would tell you it's true," he grins. "She calls it my 'high horse.' I have these things in me. But I don't haul off and smack people around, and I don't have Mal's deep darkness, the personal tragedy he suffered. I haven't experienced something that has made me lose my faith in God; it's that he has lost his faith. Mal feels the God is out there, but that God has betrayed him. That's more interesting, and darker, than just not believing."

It's those dark elements of the character that Fillion most enjoys exploring. "I do like it that Malcolm is funny, dry, smart-mouthed and sharp-witted," Fillion remarks, "but I also love the dark places that Mal goes to when the chips fall. He has a dark view of the world and the universe around him. There's an episode called 'War Stories' that I can't wait to see. Some really dark things happen in that one. Malcolm goes to a dark spot within himself to survive. I would like to see more of that kind of thing. For the most part, Mal is able to separate himself from that darkness, but it irks him every day.

"One of the things I really like about the Serenity's crew is that each member represents an aspect of Mal Reynolds," Fillion adds. "Kaylee [Jewel Staite], our mechanic, represents those things that Mal has lost: hope, a wide-eyed wonder at life, the ability to see beauty and happiness everywhere. He has lost all that, and I think that's one of the reasons he keeps Kaylee around. She keeps it alive for him."

The Wild Bunch

The bleaker, grittier Mal Reynolds was on display in the episode "Out of Gas," Fillion's personal favorite to date. In that hour, a fire cripples the Serenity and forces the crew to abandon ship, with the exception of Captain Reynolds, who stays with his vessel in hopes of finding help. "I enjoyed the work in that one, and I liked what we learned about the crew's interpersonal relationships," says Fillion. "It's also had interesting hits explaining how everybody in the crew came together, with the exception of Simon, River and Shepard Book, who are introduced in the pilot ["Serenity"]."

The actor also appreciated "Our Mrs. Reynolds," in which a beautiful young woman pretends to have married the Captain in a border planet rite. What she really wants is to deliver Serenity to a couple of pirates, who would then kill the crew and salvage the ship. "That one was very funny," Fillion comments. "For me, it started off as one story, took a twist in the middle and became another story altogether. I thought that was really neat, and a seamless job, too."

That episode helped to establish a spark of attraction between Mal and Inara (Morena Baccarin), the high-class courtesan traveling with the Serenity's crew. "I love playing that chemistry they have, this love-hate relationship," Fillion emphasizes. "Inara is a 'Companion'-a prostitute in a future society were this is a legal thing. She's trained, registered, and licensed, and she's of a higher class than anyone else on the ship could ever be. Money couldn't buy us her status in society. She's a real juxtaposition on the Serenity. Mal feels something for Inara, but he cannot bring himself [to act on it]. I mean, how could you possibly be in love with a Companion? Even if she said, 'Yeah, I do love you,' what could Mal do about it? What could he say? 'Don't go to work today?' So he's torn, and he's angry at himself for having these feelings for Inara."

Behind the scenes, Fillion gets a kick out of the transformation Baccarin undergoes to become Inara. "Morena is a very nice, relaxed girl, casual and sweet. Then she gets into her outfit and they curl her hair, and she becomes very regal, almost like royalty. It's a wonderful thing to watch. Inara is the one thing of beauty in Firefly. Her shuttle, and she herself, are the only bits of beauty that we see, and I like that."

According to Fillion, actress Straite has been told not to get too thin. "They have contractually asked her to keep weight on," Fillion explains. "They want her to be a little heavier, like maybe 10 pounds, because they don't want Kaylee to look like a skinny waif. But she's a little girl, so she has the right to work on that. She has started eating. I remember coming up to her on set one time and she was chowing down on a big doughnut. I said, 'Hey, how you doing?' She just said [dejectedly], 'Full!' and kept chowing down on the doughnut."

Adam Baldwin, who plays the big, tough mercenary Jayne, "has the energy of a 12-year-old boy," Fillion remarks. "Adam attacks everything with that energy, but also with the clarity of an adult. He makes incredible choices and he's always thinking, putting real-life moments into everything he does."

The only person aboard Serenity that Mal truly trust is Zoe (Gina Torres), Fillion insists. "I like the relationship between Zoe and Mal. The two or them are counterparts; I don't think either one can function well without the other. They look at each other and Zoe knows exactly what he's thinking, what needs to be done. She's so in tune with him that she's a perfect weapon and an invaluable tool for Malcolm. It's a good thing that she's there for him. Gina plays tough without raising her voice, without being mean. She says something and you listen, because of the way she says it."

Zoe's husband Wash (Alan Tudyk), Serenity's unassuming pilot. "That kid, he kills me," Fillion laughs. "I listen to Alan talk about his character, and I can't believe the depth he gets from reading his lines and playing his bits. He's kind of happy-go-lucky as Wash, and then we see something like 'Out of Gas' where Wash hits a low point. Wash is a different kind of man [than Mal]. They live in the same world, but Wash doesn't let the world affect him the way Mal does. Mal sees everything as terrible. Wash sees everything as, 'Hey! OK. Whatever.'"

Ron Glass, who plays Shepard Book, commands attention on the set with his vocal timbre. "Ron has amazing pipes," notes Fillion. "He's always telling funny stories, and he's always interested in what's going on in your life. I'll listen to anything he says. He could read the phone book and I'll be listening, because of his voice. Ron is a professional. If you're in a scene with him and you feel yourself being distracted or whatnot, you can always look to Ron to put you back in the spot you need to be in."

The doctor on board Serenity, Simon (Sean Maher), hasn't had a great to do in the early episodes, other than get pushed around by Jayne. "When Simon is serious, I find him almost reptilian," Fillion says. "In the pilot, before we know who he is, he looks like a villain. Now that we know him, we realize that's just his face. Simon kind of gets crapped on by some of the crew, and they see him as a lesser person almost, as far as the crew's social structure goes. That's because he's new and out of place on Serenity. He doesn't really fit. But I admire the character because he'll do anything for his sister. He left his wealth, luxury and an excellent job to take his sister away from a government that was hurting her. When no one else would help her, he did."

Summer Glau plays Simon's sister, River, a borderline psychic with some real social and communicative problems, courtesy of the Alliance. Says Fillion: "Summer intrigues me. I look at the script and see Summer's stuff, and I think, 'What's she going to do with that?' Her lines are often nonsense, just rambling stuff that I don't understand. Somehow, Summer takes that and makes it incredible, and very believable. When I look at the character, I want to help River but at the same time I'm repulsed by her, because she gets this kooky look on her face. She stares right through you and says something weird, and you wonder what planet she's on. I think what Summer is doing with the role is fascinating." The Way West

Moving to consider Firefly's future, Fillion acknowledges the show's struggle to draw viewers, conceding that its blend of SF and Western formats may be intriguing to some but perplexing to others. "I've heard people ask about our show, 'Why is it a Western?' To that I say, 'Why not?' It's about the frontier," Fillion declares. "When settlers pushed westward across America to settle the United States, they had hardships. They did not have machines and gas-operated drills to make their fence post holes; they had horses and wagons. Things were simple. That's why Firefly has a frontier mentality. We stick to border planets, where you have a gun on your hip because if there are any problems, you can't call somebody-you have to deal with it. People are still settling these planets. The towns will grow and become cities, but you don't just slap down a big city. If you think about it, [Firefly's future] is probably more realistic that some of the other SF stuff we've seen, where everything is great, poverty is abolished, no one's at war, you don't need money and you've got a machine that will make your food."

Well said, but nonetheless, Firefly has been on the edge of cancellation almost since its September 20 premiere. Fox, however, did give the fledging series a vote of confidence in early November when it vowed to keep Firefly flying a while longer. "Rumors are just rumors," Fillion says of the frequent speculation that the series is doomed. "All you can do is go to work every day and do your best. We have had some setbacks, as far as not having our pilot aired first and being pre-empted by baseball playoffs. But Fox is not out to get us. They want our show to succeed as much as we do. They make their decisions in hope that things will work out all right, and they're showing some support by giving us some time to find our audience. Friday night is a difficult spot for anyone; it's not a TV-watching night."

Fillion, who affirms that he would watch Firefly even if he wasn't a part of it, calls himself a "huge, huge fan" of science fiction. There are also a few elements common to Westerns that the actor places high on his "to do" list. "My actor friends and I often talk about our dream jobs," he reveals. "We've asked each other, 'What do you want to do on TV before you die?' On all of our lists are these three things: to shoot a gun, to ride a horse and to be shot. That's not the whole list, but these things are on there. I've gotten to do all three of them already on Firefly, and we're only in our first season!"

Small pleasures, perhaps, but Fillion is grateful to Whedon and Fox for giving him the opportunity. "20th Century Fox was very kind in giving me a holding deal," he explains. "I was on Two Guys and a Girl, and when the sitcom got cancelled, they put me on retainer, essentially saying, 'Hang tight. We don't have a job for you just yet, but we'll try to find you one.' Then they gave me a meeting with Joss, who's a very interesting man-and here I am."

Fillion is needed back on the set, where cast and crew are busy filming an episode called "Heart of Gold." "It's about an acquaintance of Inara's who leaved the Companion Guild in order to operate her own bordello on a border planet," Fillion relates. "She calls Inara because she's having trouble out there with the powers-that-be, and we all go to help. Today, we're in the middle of a great big shootout."

Before he goes, Fillion ponders the possibility-however remote-of a long run with Firefly. "I would be happy doing this show for a few years," Nathan Fillion announces. "There is nothing I like more than going to work each morning and enjoying the people I work with, and liking the people I work for. We've got a good group here. Everybody is comfortable with each other and happy with the job they're doing. You can't ask for much more than that."