Starlog interview 2003

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Captain on Deck

Nathan Fillion leads a motley crew on Firefly's rough-and-tumble final frontier.



By BILL FLORENCE

© STARLOG, January 2003



On Firefly, Captain Malcolm Reynolds is the hardened, edgy captain of a small transport spaceship called 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.

How does Mal compare to Nathan Fillion, the actor who plays him? "First, how about I apologize for not being able to get hold of you the other day," Fillion says, before his Starlog interviewer can let fly a single query. It's true, Fillion did miss his pre-scheduled appointment, but these things often happen when in-production television shows are involved.

Next, Fillion expresses gratitude on behalf of himself and the rest of the cast and crew for Starlog's Firefly cover story last October (#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 fictional counterpart are two separate and distinct personalities. Malcolm's not a bad guy, but 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 then I put on the pants, and the suspenders, and the boots, and the jacket, and the holster, and I thought, 'I am this guy.' On the first day of filming I walked up the Serenity's cargo bay doors into the big cargo bay, and a crewmember 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 Captain 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 space ship, 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."

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Firefly also 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 comedy 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 we start 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 the 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 has emerged as a complex antihero in the first half-dozen episodes. In "The Train Job," Mal had no compunction about killing a captive thug for threatening to hunt him down, once freed. Yet in the same episode, the captain returned 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 protected Simon and his troublesome sister, River, neither of them especially well-liked, 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'd 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 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 where you act on your sense of justice. He will not be a victim; he will not be pushed down. He is his own moral guide. In his world, Mal's 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 couple of months into Firefly's first season, Mal had already been involved in several fist fights and barroom brawls. Lapsing into his character's colloquial style (he's been shooting all morning, after all), Fillion chuckles and says, "The captain doesn't mind gettin' beatin' 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. Everybody 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," or even vengeance. "My Mom would tell you it's true," he says. "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 has suffered. I haven't experienced war; I haven't experienced something that has made me lose my faith in God. And I think that's an interesting thing about Mal -- it's not that he doesn't believe in God, it's that he has lost his faith. I think he feels that God is out there, but that God has betrayed him. That's more interesting, and darker, than just no longer believing."

It's those dark elements of the character that Fillion most enjoys exploring. "I do like that Malcolm is funny, dry, smart-mouthed and sharp-witted," the actor remarks, "but I love the dark places Mal goes to when the chips fall. He has a dark view of the world and the universe around him. There's an episode coming up called 'War Stories' that I cannot 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 [in future episodes]. For the most part, Mal is able to separate himself from that darkness, but it irks him every day.

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

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 crippled Serenity and forced the crew to abandon ship, with the exception of Captain Reynolds, who stayed with his vessel in hopes of finding help. "I enjoyed the work in that one, and I liked what we learned about the interpersonal relationships of the crew," says Fillion. "It also had interesting bits explaining how everybody in the crew came together, with the exception of Simon, River and Shepherd Book, who are introduced in the pilot."

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

The episode helped to establish a spark of attraction between Mal and Inara (Morena Baccarin), the high-class courtesan traveling with Serenity's crew. "I love playing that chemistry they have, this love-hate relationship," Fillion says. "Inara is a 'Companion' -- a prostitute in a future society where this is a legal thing. She is trained, registered and licensed, and she is 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 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 would Mal do about it? What could he say -- 'Don't go to work today'? So he's torn, and he is angry at himself for having those feelings for Inara."

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Behind the scenes, Fillion gets a kick out of the transformation actress Morena 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," Fillion says. "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 Jewel Staite has been told not to get too thin as the ship's engineer, Kaylee. "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 is a little girl, so she got right to work on that. She started eating. I remember coming up to her on set one time and she was chowing down on a big donut. I said, 'Hey, how you doing?' She just said [dejectedly], 'Full!' and kept chowing down on the donut."

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 can truly trust is Zoe (Gina Torres), Fillion insists. "I like the relationship between Zoe and Mal. The two of them are counterparts; I don't think either one could function very well without the other. They look at each other and Zoe knows exactly what he's thinking, what needs to be done. She is so in tune with him that she's a perfect weapon and an invaluable tool for Malcolm. It's a good thing 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 is 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 is 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! Okay, whatever.'"

Ron Glass, who plays Shepherd 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 can read the phone book and I'll be listening, because of his voice. Ron is a real professional; if you're in a scene with him and you feel yourself being distracted or whatnot, you can always look to Ron Glass 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 deal 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 know 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 social structure of the crew goes. That's because he's new and out of place on Serenity. He doesn't really fit. But I really admire the character because he will do anything for his sister. He has left his wealth, luxury and an excellent job, to take his sister away from the government that was hurting his sister. When no one else would help her, he did it."

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 is 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 of River, I want to help her but at the same time I am repulsed by her, because she gets this kooky look on her face. She looks right through you and says something weird, and you wonder what planet she's on. I think that's fascinating, what Summer Glau is doing with the role."

Moving on 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 fascinating 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 didn't 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 the border planets, where you have a gun on your hip because if there are 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 than some of the other SF genre 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 food for you."



Well said, but nonetheless, Firefly has been on the verge of cancellation almost since its September 20 premiere. Fox did give the fledgling series of faith in early November by vowing 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 the baseball playoffs. But Fox is not out to get us. They want our show to succeed just as much as we do. They make their decisions in the hope that things will work out all right, and they are 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 he would watch Firefly even if he weren'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 have 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 of three of them already on Firefly, and we're only in our first season!"

Small pleasures, perhaps, but Fillion is grateful to Joss 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 Girl, and when that sitcom got canceled, 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 one for you.' Then they gave me a meeting with Joss Whedon, who's a very interesting man -- and here I am."

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

Before he goes, Nathan Fillion ponders the possibility -- however remote -- of a long run with Firefly. "I'd be happy doing this show for a few years," he 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 their doing. You can't ask for much more than that."