Joss Whedon: Inside Dollhouse
The Buffy/Firefly creator talks about his new series.
by Eric Goldman
US, May 27, 2008 - At FOX's recent Upfront event in New York, we had the chance to speak to Joss Whedon about his upcoming highly anticipated TV series, Dollhouse. The show stars Eliza Dushku as Echo, one of a group of "Dolls" or "Actives," a highly illegal and underground group who have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas. Whedon came up with the idea for the show while having lunch with Dushku, which was one of the first topics he discussed during our conversation.
Whedon also talked more about what the Dolls do; where the show might go, and working with Dushku and Dollhouse stars Tahmoh penikett (Battlestar Galactica and Amy Acker (Angel). We also chatted about Dollhouse debuting midseason next January, where it will be paired with 24, and how it is part of a new FOX campaign 00 along with J.J. Abrams Fringe -- called "Remote-Free TV", which will find the show airing with far less commercials than a typical netwrok series.
Make sure to also check out our other articles on what Joss Whedon had to say about the possibility of more Buffy the Vampire Slayer and his online project Dr. Horrible.
Question: Is it accurate to say Eliza convinced you to come back to TV?
Whedon: Well, when we had lunch she was asking "Who should I talk to? Where is it safe? How can I make sure I'm protected and make quality television that deals with the things I'm interested in?" I was mentioning some writers and talking about, "I can talk to so and so..." She asked, "Don't you want to do it?" And she's really cute! But I was like, "No, I really don't. But think about how I can help you with it." And then I came up with the idea and thought, "Ahh! My precious, my precious!" And when I came up with the idea, there was no convincing. I was done. Then, I still was only going to write [the pilot] and the ake a movie and oversee it. FOX heard the idea and said, "Make seven [episodes]," like in a heartbeat. They said, "Make seven of them." And that vote of confidence and that show of support I haven't seen a lot of in the movie industry.
Question: Would you say TV is still the kinder medium to writers?
Whedon: Yes it is. It absolutely is. I love movies though, I do. They're part of my DNA.
Check out the preview for Dollhouse.
Questions: Do you have this close a friendship with a lot of the actors you've worked with, or do you think you and Eliza have something very special?
Whedon: You know, it's different with everyone. Eliza and I aren't as close as some, like Aly [Hannigan] and Amy [Acker]. They're in my life day to day. I'm really close with Alexis Denisof. Eliza and I have seldom been in the same place for very long and I'm an old married guy and she's a lot younger and bubblier. But we started this tradition, and it started years ago, where I got frustrated with all these crappy horror movies she was making like Wrong Turn and Soul Survivor... That last one broke me. I literally said, 'Eliza, let's have tea. I'd like to talk to you." And I said, "I love you. I think you have something that no other actor that I've worked with has. What the f**k are you making these movies for? Why are you doing this to me? You're killing me. I just think you're better than this." And that was when she was really struggling with her agency and her identity and not really knowing what she wanted, but she knew she wanted to. And it kind of became a tradition with us over the years. I saw her in new York doing a play off-Broadway and we sat until 2:00 in the morning talking about, "There's this opportunity, and I'm trying to develop this." I could see that she was taking it further. And this lunch was just one of those [situations]. We always checked in with each other with this, 'Same time next year' relationship. We hardly get to see each other and when we do, I adore her and I'm pretty sure she's fairly okay with me.
Question: Your fans are very protective of you. Some of them heard "midseason" and there was a bit of, "The sky is falling! FOX is going to screw him again!" What do you say to those concerns?
Whedon: Well, you know, I get it. I understand that and I feel bad because I want to be able to explain, without sounding like an apologist, that it doesn't work the way it used to. The winter is prime time on FOX. Firefly came out in the fall, had to fight baseball, and lost. FOX has always been incredibly supportive of [Dollhouse], and they also said, "Well, you haven't finished it. These guys [at Fringe have finished theirs." And we were gunning for winter. We were like, "We hope we get January, because we want American Idol time, not baseball time." Not to say that they're not supporting Fringe, it's just that either one works for different reasons. I like the idea of making my episodes before they go out - it's how we did Buffy and it worked great for us. But yeah, for some people it has the stink of midseason, when in fact the whole concept for the season is deteriorating. So we're going up with the premiere of 24.
Question: I know you're a big Battlestar fan. Was it great for you to get to work with Tahmoh Penikett?
Whedon: I'm gonna go out on a limb here and tell the truth - I've had a man-crush on Tahmoh since the first episode of Battlestar.
Question: From the moment he stayed behind on Caprica?
Whedon: I had a feeling about him. I just had a feeling about him. I know, he gave up his seat to Baltar! Not bright, but cute! But no, he just has a presence. Tim Minear watched the dailies and he said, "I can't believe you found this guy. This guy is so hard to find. A leading man that has a real soulfulness and a real unique quality" and I just felt that from Battlestar, and he brough it completely [to Dollhouse]. When I spoke to him, he was the first perosn to mentions Never Let Me Go, the novel, just from hearing the premise of Dollhouse. The beautiful sadness of that novel so suffuses what we're trying to do, and it was so beautiful when he brought it up that I just knew this guy [was right]. And it follows my rule with Nathan [Fillion]. Hire a Canadian! They're gentlemen and they're very tall.
Eliza Dushku in Dollhouse
Question: Was that book in your mind when you were coming up with Dollhouse?
Whedon: Id read it, but I hadn't thought about it when I was making Dollhouse. But then I went, "Oh, there are real parallels and real emotional kind of similarities."
Question: Can you talk about Amy Acker's character?
Whedon: Amy plays Dr. Claire Saunders. She works in the Dollhouse and she's a very moral force and she's very, very broken. She's scarred. Something happened - she's literally scarred. Something happened at the Dollhouse awhile back and she was scarred and she just sort of lives there and her whole mission in life is to take care of them. Topher, the programmer, he programs them and has a very amoral kind of point of view, and she's sort of his couterppoint.
Question: What exactly are the dolls used for? In the clips, one guy seems to be using Eliza for a date essentially, right?
Whedon: Well, they will. One of the things Eliza first talked to me about is the idea of sexuality being something she wanted to explore before I'd come up with a concept. And the idea of the hiring what we refer to as an "active" - the dolls, basically - is that you get to have the perfect experience. And if we are going to stand here and say for a lot of people the perfect experience doesn't involve sex, that would be disengenuous. So, there is an element of something about it that's very romatic and there's an element that's very creepy. And the two things, what's interesting to me, is that they're joined. That need for that perfect moment - feeling love for somebody that's simple and real and not something they were faking, because they're not. She'll fall in love with him. That's how it works. Whether or not it has to do with sex, that's how it works. That's how she's imprinted. But our need for something like that is sort of what's worst about us and what's best about us. What she ends up being in most cases is kind of a life coach; whether she's coaching you through a criminal act or going into rehab, she's the person you need to meet the most at that time and combining a very lofty sort of goal with what is considered by most people to be a very base part of us, sexuality, is what interests me, because there's arguments that it's uplifting and there's arguments in different ways for both of those sides and that's what we want to talk about.
Question: If you do six years of this show, do you know the end?
Whedon: I don't know the end zone, because you've got to leave that up to the viewers to an extent, but I know the arenas. When I pitched the show, I said, "here's the pilot, here are the characters, here's episode six and sort of what we do every week and here's the first two years, second two years, third two years." So yes, because the show has to progress. Especially a show like this, where while it's a week to week show - she'll go on a different engagement every week and it'll have a complete story - like Buffy, ultimately what people will become invested in is the arcs of the characters. You cannot just hit reset. Somebody, I forget who and I apologize to them in advance, but somebody said, "Scully was pretty much like a doll that they imprinted and she kept forgetting that there might be monsters." You can't do that. You have to let them grow. So I said, "The first arc is this, the second arc is this, third is this." There's room for change though, but they know I have a five year plan and that's important.
Question: So people can hire the dolls for anything?
Whedon: As long as the doll is not in any danger. People are background checked and vetted very, very seriously and nobody who might harm a doll is allowed in.
Question: So this is a profitable operation?
Whedon: Yes. But where the money is going is something we haven't talked about.
The cast of Dollhouse
Question: The early impression was that it was more of a secret agent thing; like they were assassins. Is that part of it?
Whedon: Well, she's not never gonna tote a piece, but that's not what the show is. People though it was like an Alias thing. the two things we have to disabuse people of is one, she's not toting a gun every week. That's not what it's about. It's a human drama with some action and there's always suspense, because as she becomes self-aware, the dollhouse becomes kind of a dangerous place for her. So there's always that friction. But it could be a romantic comedy one week. Eliza jokes that this is a cure for her ADHD. I say it's a cure for mine.
Question: It had been four years since you directed Serenity. What was it like filming the pilot.
Whedon: Well, it's been awhile, apart from shooting The Office. I also shot Dr. Horrible. I tell you what was different - shooting The Office and the shooting Dr. Horrible, I scouted locations that were really tiny and I forgot... I haven't had a wall that flies since I can remember. So I was like, "You know, I probably should have scouted bigger locations! This is awkward."
Question: What do you make of this whole "Remote-Free" concept? You have to do another few minutes of your show, and then afterwards, for repeats, presumably cut a few minutes.
Whedon: That's a good point. They didn't bring up the repeats. But you know, we've always had to cut out a couple of minutes of a show for repeats. That's always been the way. But i don't really deal with that that much. But they've also said, "We want longer versions for the DVD." Ultimately, I tend to shoot long. Our shows tend to go long. Some come in short - it will happen. But generally they go long. So this just means a little less heartache in the editing room. but we also have to make sure that when we cut a show down to 40 minutes, you make it the best 40 minutes. So we're not going to be like The Office and shoot way too much, but yeah, we're going to have a production issue about shooting just a little bit more, because even if I love it at 46 minutes, there's a chance it could be tighter. But I never want to vamp. You're not gonna get a bloated first cut - you're gonna get a 46 minute story.
Exclusive: Will be see the Slayer in live-action again?
by Eric Goldman
US, May 27, 2008 - Back in March, Joss Whedon and Sarah Michelle Gellar, along with many integral members of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer cast and writing staff, reunited at the William S. Paley Festival, held by the Paley Center for Media.
At the recent FOX Upfront event, where Whedon was present to promote his upcoming series Dollhouse, I had the chance to ask Whedon about the experience of attending that reunion, and what the future could hold for Buffy.
IGN TV: What was the Buffy reunion like for you?
Joss Whedon: very surreal. Some of those people I see, some of them I haven't seen at all. And you know, it was just a weird evening. It was nice to see sarah and the questions got so strange that Sarah and I just sorted of chatted onstage for awhile, which was nice; to catch up.
Joss Whedon meets his fans at the Buffy reunion
IGN: Yeah, the iPod question was pretty out there. [Editors Note: One fan asked the entire panel the time-consuming question of what their favorite movie was and what they were listening to on their iPod]
Whedon: [Laughs] That took like an hour and a half! We thought we were supposed to be talking about Buffy!
IGN TV: I think I'm legally obligated to ask - Did that reunion inspire you to think, "Maybe one day we could do something again with Buffy in live-action"?
Whedon: I never don't think that, but I also [think about] the legal reality of the thing and the busyness of all our schedules - I'm happy to say they're all working and so am I. It didn't make me thing about it more, because it's always a part of me. I'll never let go of the story. I'm still working on the damn comic! But the reality of the thing is so complicated that I'm like, if somebody comes to me and says, "Everybody's signed on and it's all good.." Otherwiese, it would just be like I'd start to obsess about it. I shut it down, because I will break that story, and I've got to stop myself.
Whedon on his musical oddity, Doctor Horrible.
by Eric Goldman
US, May 27, 2008: - During our recent conversation with Joss Whedon about his new FOX series Dollhouse, we also spoke to the Buffy/Firefly creator about a very unusal project he also has coming up, which features quite a noteworthy title: Doctor Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog.
Starring in Doctor Horrible is Firefly's Captain Malcolm Reynolds himself, Nathan Fillion, How I Met Your Mother's Neil Patrick Harris as the title character, and Buffy alumni Felicia Day. We;ll let Whedon explain more about what Doctor Horrible in his own workds.
Question: So Dr. Horrible - How did it come about, what is it about and where will we see it?
Joss Whedon: It should be on the internet. We don't know how - We're literally just finishing it. Then we're gonna show it to people at CAA and a bunch of other people and sort of discuss, "How do we go about this? Where is the venue for this?" It's about a low-rent supervillain, who's trying to get into the Evil League of Evil and defeat his nemesis Captain hammer and work up the nerve to talk to the pretty girl at the Laundromat. It's an idea I had awhile ago that I thought would be just right for a weird little internet venture. I wrote it with my brothers and my brothers fiance and somehow got the best actors to jump in, which was very scary for all of us. And the we got this amazing crew and everybody just sort of said, "We'll just jump on," and in six days we shot this 36-minute, three part oddity that I think is the most fun I've had in about seven years.
Doctor Horrible stars Nathan Fillion (left) and Neil Patrick Harris
Question: And it's a musical, right?
Whedon: Yes, it sure is!
Question: How did your cast take to the musical numbers?
Whedon: neil Patrick Harris is a Broadway star. He's the real deal. And so he scared us the most. Nathan, he sings fine. He sings very well - he's not a Broadway voice, he's a good voice. But he's Nathan! He fears nothing and he plays Captain Hammer, who's a complete idiot. So he can sell anything, and if he couldn't, he'd still sound great. But actually, he sounds really good. And we didn't do any tweaking - we didn't have the technology or the money to do any tweaking. He just got out there and did it. And Felicia; classic Felicia Day, she's like, "I don't know... I don't know if I can sing. I sing a little. I did four years of opera training, but if you want me to come and audition..." That's so Felicia. She was amazing. The first time she sang with neil, there was something in my eye. They have a duet that just kills me.
