Nathan Fillion's just a stand up guy. It's not like I had that much time to spend with him, but the man just exudes trustworthiness. It's a good thing that Firefly came along, because the guy needed to be in a cowboy role. It suits him.
I had a chance to get a one on one with Fillion at the Serenity press day. When I came into the hotel room where I would interview him, he was checking out his press day goodie bag - which included a Mal Reynolds action figure.
How do feel about the toy? Is this your first toy?
This is. There are two versions. This one has a lot of forehead, I noticed. It’s not so much a forehead as an eight head.
But it’s nice. You ever see the movie The Specials?
James Gunn! Of course.
The Academy Awards of superheroes. It feels pretty good.
Are you going to play with it or keep it in plastic?
This one I’m going to keep in plastic because I already have one that’s unwrapped at home. And they gave me the comic books.
You got the comics. I heard the story about how you couldn’t get that
You heard that story? I was pretty mad about that.
What ended up happening? Did you ever hear back from that comic book store that wouldn’t sell you the first issue of Serenity at a reasonable price?
I never heard back from them. I don’t imagine they’re the kind of people who would say, ‘Yeah we were lying about gouging you.’ I don’t see those people being redeemed. They’re not going to change their business practices. But certainly it was vindicating to get the support. There was a ripple when I called out for the Browncoats. That was pretty cool.
You have this army that you can mobilize at a moment’s notice.
My mom got very concerned that it would get out of control. She’s very level headed. But I was very upset. You can charge what you like. Price gouging is your call as a businessman. But what you can’t do is lie and say that’s what it’s worth. When it came down to that he lied and stole money from my mother, I became very upset. I don’t know what his mother is like, but my mother is a saint. Everything I’ve heard about this fellow is that he has poor business practices anyway.
You have Serenity now and Slither in January – this is a new phase for you, the leading man phase of your career.
I’m completely unprepared. We just did a couple of junkets in the UK. I felt like it was a good warm up for actually doing it now.
Man, I can’t believe – this has been such a long time coming, I can’t believe we’re actually here. It’s a couple of days before the premiere now.
Is this the direction you saw yourself going in, being the leading man?
I dreamed about it. Was it my plan? No. My plan was to just to keep going and get the next job. My plans were small. My dreams were specific. I wanted to be shot on TV. I wanted to shoot a gun on TV. And I wanted to ride a horse on TV. And in Firefly, the pilot, I got to do all those three – including shoot a horse.
Then at that point you have to have new dreams. It was always a dream of mine to be on a movie poster – done. In a comic book? That was something I thought about when I was in a kid, being in a comic book. But the potential was never really there – how do you pursue that? But now I’ve got it. Being an action figure, having trading cards, these are all new to me.
Listening to the commentary on the Firefly box set, I was struck by how your voice – not your actual voice – but the way you talk and phrase seems similar to Mal. Is Joss writing Mal specifically to fit you?
He says that in writing that he hears voices. Which you know, can’t be good. But he says he hears them speaking and then he’ll write a scene. He’ll go back and ask, ‘What was itcdsa that they said,’ and educate himself by going back to read what he wrote.
That must be amazing. I think what Joss did when he hired this cast is that he hired people who – this is a very specific way of speaking, and this cast is made up of people who understand it. They look at this and understand exactly what it is, what the rhythms are of this Joss speak.
Then it started permeating my real life. I started saying things like, ‘Them as can.’ What? Yes, actually. Why did I say that. ‘Gorram’ worked into my vocabulary.
So you do say gorram?
Not on purpose. I remember saying it one time, and that was like a month or so after we got cancelled.
It’s satisfying to say.
It’s guttural. It’s got a snarl.
Joss is similar in his specific dialogue style to Mamet. People who do a lot of Mamet can talk naturally, and sometimes talk outside of Mamet movies, like Mamet.
[laughs] I think you’re right. It rubs off on you. It’s very natural. And very unnatural at the same time. You find it. Like I said, this entire cast found it and understands that and makes it live.
At the press conference you said that you’re the clueless good guy in Slither. What is your role exactly in that?
He’s the chief of police. He’s the quintessential high school football hero who had life handed to him in a small town. It’s a depressed small town in South Carolina, and here he is with a cushy kind of government job. He’s a cop in a town where there’s no crime. He doesn’t do much during the day, it’s not a dangerous job, it’s not a technical job. He just sits back and doesn’t have to worry too much. He and the other characters in this movie (one of them Elizabeth Banks and another Gregg Henry, who also spent some time on Firefly – he played a sheriff in the first episode, The Train Job. He’s the mayor this town, Wheelsy ) they’re just simple folk. Flawed people. Regular people who are blissfully unprepared for an alien invasion and potential world domination. These people react as you think real people would react in that situation. These people are clueless, they don’t know what to do, they don’t have a plan. This is a guy who has never had to be responsible for his entire life, and now he’s faced with saving the world. He’s not prepared.
The Thing is obviously a touchstone here, but you’re not playing the Kurt Russell character here.
Certainly not. Kurt Russell had it together. Kurt Russell is one of those guys you look to when the shit hit the fan. Bill Pardy, not so much.