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THE SUNDAY CONVERSATION
These days, he's taking the lead
By Choire Sicha, Special to The Times
April 15, 2007

NATHAN Fillion was late for this interview because he was helping a neighbor get a cat out of a tree. He had just finished shooting Episode 5 of "Drive," Fox's mid-season replacement. Fillion was the star of Joss Whedon's series "Firefly" and the ensuing film, "Serenity." He also stars in Adrienne Shelly's final film, "Waitress," coming out next month.


You were recently on the set of "The Office." Whatever were you up to there?

James Gunn is a friend of mine, and his lovely wife, who is also a friend of mine, plays Pam, behind the desk. I'm a huge fan. Was trying to get there a week before because Joss Whedon was directing an episode — was trying to scramble down and have lunch. So I did a little tour of the set, a little personal tour from Pam — rather, Jenna.


That show is really working well — and we were all so up in arms when it started!

Recently there was another American television program that took the success of an English show. But boy, you've got a lot of extremely talented people. I'm very entertained. It's rare that I will say something aloud to or laugh at the television. It just gets me. It's hitting me just right.


"They" say we're in the golden age of television.

Are we? I don't know about that. There are a few shows — "Lost," "The Office" — I don't want to do without. There's a couple others that entertain me, but those are ones that I will not miss. This is good, because I've been working.


Have you guys got a handle on shooting all that green screen yet?

I've done some of that before — most of it spaceships though. Now I've got this. We started off in this big old truck. You're acting with this 1930s-style directing; for the silent movies they didn't have to worry about the director's voice, so they shouted: "Crack the window! You're very afraid! No, not that scared. Pull it back! Good. So go to the table!"

We do that a lot during green screen. "He's behind you! Bam! Now on your left! Check your rear view! He's against you!" It's crazy. It's hard not to feel goofy. I won't lie to you. There's a guy with a 2-by-4 wedged under your truck, so you've got some motion. If there's two cars that are involved and they're side by side, they'll put them up on the rigs. It's like riding a puck in an air hockey game — they pump air in.

"There's four or five guys under your car. You get in your car via ladder and these guys push your car back and forth. It's really cool, but it feels goofy. Later when they put in the effects, you go, "Oh my God, I'm an amazing driver!" These amazing stunt guys, they have 2 1/2 miles of freeways out there. They lock it up. And they have me pretend I'm driving and they marry the two shots together.


It looked insanely seamless in the pilot.

Yeah. Agreed. They did a really good job, for as goofy as it can feel pretending.


So when you're not green-screening, what are you doing?

Well, I do work — so you work a 14-hour day, you come back and there's time for very little. Just recently I had my brother in town, up from Canada. So he gets spring break — he's a principal of an elementary school — for my birthday every year. I haven't had a birthday without my brother coming on eight years. We're very tight. He came to town, I had a BBQ, saw a whole bunch of friends at once, that was great. You know, I love to hike in my off-time. I love to go see movies.


And what have you seen?

"300"! I'm always waiting for an opening for someone to say, "This is crazy" or "This is weird" — it has to be "This is" — and then I kick them and say, "THIS IS SPARTA." You have to have it ready. In your holster, cocked and loaded.


Joss Whedon: madman or genius?

All of the above. He's — oh, man. First of all, I owe that guy a great deal. No one would look at me in Hollywood to play a lead role. "Oh he's good, but probably as the second or third. He's just not leading man enough." Those are things I would hear all the time. I don't have anything on my résumé! He comes along and says, "You're the guy."

But then afterward, people won't look at me for anything other than a leading man. "Oh, he's good but he's too leading man." Eh, if you don't get a part you don't listen to why. But there's Joss Whedon. "Firefly" translates to: Now you can do lead roles. Joss very much is a comic-book nerdy guy; like my mom once said to me, "You're very much a comic-book nerdy guy. You look mainstream, but inside you're a nerd."

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