Again another interview that I’m posting too late; this one is from a conference call with Leonard Nimoy last week before that week’s episode of Fringe, in which he was guest starring. And to make sure it’s clear, no, this wasn’t a one-to-one interview (although I truly wish it was), this is a write-up of the all the questions asked by the bloggers on that conference call.

Q: I was wondering, did you have any reservations on taking another role with the potential of such a fanatic following?

L. Nimoy: [ed: lots and lots of laughing] I love this question. I can’t help but laugh because you’re absolutely right. It’s an interesting set of circumstances. What attracted me to it was several things. J.J. Abrams, Bob Orci, and Alex Kurtzman, who I worked with on the Star Trek movie, I admire their talent and the work that they do.The series is at the very least to say intriguing. The character was somewhat of a blank slate, but we began talking about it and, therefore, attracted because there’s an opportunity to build an interesting and unpredictable character. I’m enjoying it a lot.

Q: When will William Bell and Walter Bishop face off?

L. Nimoy: Unpredictable at the moment. In the episode tomorrow night, the scene in between myself and Olivia, I think we will learn a lot more than we have known in the past about what their relationship is all about and what William Bell’s intentions are, or at least we will be told what his intentions are. We’re not really quite sure that everything that he says is accurate or true.

Q: I wonder, what does William Bell do when he’s over there? Who is he spending time with?

L. Nimoy: William Bell is sort of a “master of the universe,” a brilliant man, very wealthy man, very powerful. We’ll find out a lot more about him in future episodes.

Q: Don’t you find it remarkable how what is science fiction today can become science?

L. Nimoy: It is remarkable. I was thinking as we began this conference call about the technology involved here. It is quite remarkable and so terribly useful. It’s a very convenient way to put out a lot of information, and this is the kind of thing that was only dreamed about 10, 15 years ago. And you’re right, science fiction very often leads the way for the scientists. Scientists watch science fiction, see an idea being presented, and say, “Well, gee, I wonder if that’s really possible.” They go to work at it on the drawing board, and a lot of it comes to fruition.

Q: I’m only trying to be slightly funny, but are you a techie?

L. Nimoy: Am I a techie? Is that what you’re asking?

Q: Yes, instead of Trekkie.

L. Nimoy: Well, I use a computer. [ed: long pause]

Q: Yes? That’s as far as you’ll go?

L. Nimoy: I don’t know if that qualifies me as a techie, but I’m pretty good on the computer.

Q: So lately it seems as if you’re J.J. Abrams’ muse of sorts. Can you tell us a little bit more about your relationship with him?

L. Nimoy: Well, I first met him I guess about three years ago when he first contacted me about the possibility of working together, and I went to a meeting with he and Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman and some of his production staff. They told me a very good and strong and touching story about their feelings about Star Trek and specifically the Spock character.

It gave me a sense of validation after all these years. I had been out of it for some time, as you’re probably aware. There were several Star Trek series in which I was not involved and Star Trek movies in which I was not involved. This was a re-validation of the work that I had done, the work that we had done on the original Star Trek. I felt very good about it and went to work for them.

I had a great time working on the movie. I think they did a brilliant job, and I think the audience response shows that that was the case and has reinvigorated the franchise. And when they contacted me about working on Fringe—the same people, the same attitude, the same creativity, the same creative team—it was very enticing.

Q: Had you seen the show? Had you been a fan of the show prior to that?

L. Nimoy: I watched it periodically. I think it’s extremely well done. It’s very nuanced. It’s complex. It’s a mixture of science and science fiction in a very interesting and intelligent way. And I think it has a long way to go in story-telling. It tells a terribly interesting story, and the character that I was offered was potentially a very intriguing and controversial and fascinating character, very inviting for an actor.

Q: I was wondering how you felt about the current state of science fiction on TV and film.

L. Nimoy: Well, I’m concerned about the positioning of story in terms of importance. When I see a lot of explosions and a lot of chases, I’m not terribly impressed. I think there are three terribly important elements that must be given a priority position in science fiction as well as in any other kind of drama. The first is story, the second is story, and the third is story. Story, story, story, story, story. If the story is compelling and interesting, I think all the rest will find its place.

We have great technology in our industry, and that technology can be overused at the expense of story. And that’s a problem for me, but when the story is in place, I think the special effects can find their proper place. I think Fringe uses the technology brilliantly, but in the service of excellent story-telling.

Q: You had not been acting for awhile, and then you’ve done Star Trek and Fringe pretty recently together. Having stepped away for awhile and then returned, are your feelings about acting what they were, or have they changed, do you find?

L. Nimoy: Well, I’m enjoying it. I’m very comfortable in the two offers that I’ve accepted. The Star Trek movie was a joy to do. I admire the production team that made the film. I admire the new cast. Zachary Quinto I thought was a great choice for the new Spock, and it was a pleasure to work with him and with all the other people on the project.

The Fringe character was intriguing because, as I’ve mentioned, it was kind of a blank slate and we had some very interesting and intense conversations about who and what he could be and how we should perceive him, what we might or might not learn about him, what we might or might not trust about him. These are intriguing opportunities for an actor, and they came at a time when I and from a group of people that I had respect for. They piqued my interest and I went back to work. I did not expect to, frankly, be acting so much at this time in my life. My concentration was on my photography, but I’m having a wonderful time doing it.

Q: I was taking a look back at your career this morning, and it seems that, after your role on Star Trek, your projects weighed heavily towards the sci-fi genre. Were you always a big fan of sci-fi, or was that a—

L. Nimoy: Well, it’s a good thing if you can find your niche as an actor and be able to support a family. Very early on—I’m talking about many, many years ago, probably 1950 or ‘51— I acted in my first science fiction project, and I have acted in science fiction over the years ever since.

The first one was probably not terribly well known. I thought it was going to rocket me to stardom, if you’ll pardon the expression. It didn’t quite work. It was a great project called Zombies of the Stratosphere, and I was the third of a group of zombies that came to earth to take over earth’s orbit. It’s funny, as I think about it now, but it was a way of making a living. And science fiction has seemed to be a fertile ground for the kind of work that I do, the kind of presence that I offer. I’m grateful for it. I’m grateful for the niche that science fiction has given me.

Q: So in the season finale last season, it was very, very heavily implied that Peter Bishop came from the alternate universe, which suggested there’s a second Walter Bishop as well. Are we going to see a second William Bell?

L. Nimoy: A second William Bell? Is that what you’re asking?

Q: Yes.

L. Nimoy: Yes. I don’t think I can really answer that question very specifically right now. I think the most important thing is that tomorrow night we will get a sense of what his relationship is with Olivia. It’s very intriguing and very intense moments that take place tomorrow night, and the rest remains to be seen.

I’m waiting to see what these terribly imaginative writers come up with for the future. I’m expecting that I probably will be going back to work for them before too much longer. I’m looking forward to what they send me on the page. But, right now, I think we go a long way tomorrow night in discovering what William Bell is all about.

Q: Have they mentioned anything about their needs for you on an upcoming Star Trek movie?

L. Nimoy: No. My understanding is they’re working on a script right now. I expect there’s going to be some time before they really know exactly who they need and what they need. I frankly, frankly doubt that I will be called upon again.

I think I was useful in his last film to help bridge between the original characters, the original actors, and the new cast. They have a wonderful new cast in place, and I’m sure they’ll move ahead with them. I don’t see, at the moment, why they would need me in the next film, although, if they called me, I’d be happy to have a conversation about it.

Q: Now, your character, William Bell, believes the world has soft spots. I just wanted to know, do you believe in this as well?

L. Nimoy: Well, what the show deals with in this wonderfully intriguing way is a question of an alternate universe, through which one can slip through, from one universe to another. I’ve been involved in stories of this kind before. I did a series called In Search of some years ago in which we dealt with subject matter like this.

I think the question is one that you would, in terms of whether it’s scientifically accurate, you’d have to ask people like Stephen Hawking. I’m not a scientist, and I can’t really tell you whether or not there is a soft spot where you could slip through to another world, but I think the Fringe series deals with that idea in a very intriguing way.

Q: I wanted to find out what sort of acting challenges have you found playing the William Bell character so far, would you say?

L. Nimoy: Well, the first thing was some wonderful and creative conversations that I had with J.J. Abrams and Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the writers, and with Jeff Pinkner, who’s the show runner, to try to create from scratch a character that’s never been seen before, only been referred to. There are certain things that were given, which is that he’s a power figure and a very wealthy and obviously a terribly intelligent man with a scientific background.

But, in terms of characteristics, we started from scratch, and I think tomorrow night a lot more of those characteristics will be evident. It’s great fun to be building the character from scratch, with certain givens, but so much to be developed in terms of the way he talks, the way he walks, idiosyncracies, his tastes, is he difficult, is he gruff, is he charming, is he a nice guy, what are his real intentions. All of these are great exploration for an actor.

Q: And as a follow-up, I just wanted to ask if you wouldn’t mind talking a little bit about your photography and maybe where your love of photography came from?

L. Nimoy: Well, I became enamored with photography when I was about 13 or 14 years old. I’ve been at it ever since. I studied seriously in the ‘70s. I have a master’s degree in photography as a fine art, and I would call my work primarily conceptual. I don’t carry cameras with me wherever I go. I get an idea of a subject matter I want to deal with and I pull out my cameras.

I have published two books. One was called Shekhina about the feminine aspect of God, and the second was called The Full Body Project, which deals with body image issues in our society.

Q: So you had your scene with Olivia, with Anna Torv. Did you get a chance to meet any other actors, and did you get an opinion of them?

L. Nimoy: No. I have not worked with the others. Only Olivia so far. I’m looking forward to meeting and working with all the others. They’re very talented people, and I admire the work they do. But so far, all my work has been with the Olivia character, and I think she does a wonderful job on the show, by the way. They all do. They’re very good.

Q: What do you think of Anna Torv as an actor and as a person?

L. Nimoy: I think she’s really excellent in the role. We spent a bit of time working together, and I was impressed with the way she works. I’ve seen quite a bit of her work on the screen. I think she handles a very wide range of activities, from very internalized psychological questions to very, very physical stuff, and I think she handles it very well. She’s very competent, very interesting to watch. I think she’s terrific.

Q: I know Mr. Spock’s character could be kind of complex at times, I would think, and I was wondering about your character as William Bell. Is there a particular character flaw or even something good that you would like to have highlighted in future episodes?

L. Nimoy: This is a wonderful question. I’m really looking forward to this character unfolding in a very interesting kind of way. I think you’ll see, tomorrow night, one very strong aspect of him and certain idiosyncracies that are being developed. But I do think there’s a long way to go. I think there’s a lot to be discovered, and I’m looking forward to discovering it with the audience.

It’s really not up to me to write the scripts. I don’t do the writing, but the writers are clever, inventive, creative. They’re very bright people. I’m counting on them to give us some really interesting character touches in the future.

Q: Have you found that there’s anything different in the way television is done these days or what it requires of you as an actor, or is that aspect of work still pretty much the same?

L. Nimoy: Well, I’d say that’s a good question. I think it’s safe to say that what an audience is seeing today on screen in the television episode is far more complex than what we were doing when we were, for example, making the original Star Trek series in the ‘60s. We were very, very heavy on pages and pages of dialogue and very little special effects, but because the technology has advanced so greatly, it’s possible to do some very complex and very exciting and very useful technical stuff on the shows these days, so we don’t have to rely quite so much on the story being told by the actors speaking.

On the other hand, there is a danger, as I mentioned earlier, of going too far with the special effects at the expense of story. But if the story is well done, if the story’s in place strongly, the special effects can be enormously helpful to the actors, far more so than they were years ago when we were making the original Star Trek series.

Q: But are you saying that these days you’re allowed to do a little more nuance in the acting and not have to so much deliver the exposition because that—

L. Nimoy: Oh, thank you. Thank you. Exactly, exactly, exactly. Delivering the exposition is the toughest part of the job, and if it can be done visually and physically, it’s a big help. Exactly.

Q: I was just wondering, looking to the future, do you have any goals in mind, any invisible time line where you wanted to just get out of the spotlight and retire, focus on photography—

L. Nimoy: Well, thank you. I thought I had reached that point some years ago. I think about myself as like an ocean liner that’s been going full speed for a long distance and the captain pulls the throttle back all the way to “stop,” but the ship doesn’t stop immediately, does it? It has its own momentum and it keeps on going, and I’m very flattered that people are still finding me useful.

I try to pick my spots so that I have a balance between the work and my personal life, which I enjoy very much. I don’t know that I would actually any longer say, “No, I’m going to stop ten, twelve, fifteen months or two years from now.” I don’t know. I still feel strong and healthy and active, and as long as there’s interesting work to do, I’ll probably keep on doing it.

Q: Obviously, with Star Trek, you set the gold standard in science fiction. What do you think about the products that have come out in recent years, things like Lost or Battlestar Galactica, or even Fringe for that matter?

L. Nimoy: Well, I’m really impressed. I’m impressed. I think there’s some very, very good work being done, and certainly in terms of production value. It’s head and shoulders above what we were able to do years ago. I keep coming back to my baseline, which is the story. If the story is good and all this new technology can work to the service of the story, I’m excited about some of the work that’s being done. I look and I say, “Wow.” In tomorrow night’s episode, there are things being done that I wouldn’t know how to do.

I directed two of the Star Trek films and I produced one. I don’t know how they’re doing some of these effects that they’re doing now in these TV shows and on TV budgets. I’m terribly impressed. I think it’s a very exciting medium to be working in today, particularly if the script is good, the story’s in place.

Q: What is still on your “to do” list with all the things you’ve done in the world?

L. Nimoy: Well, I’m looking forward to developing the William Bell character further. I hope the writers are interested in working with the character. I am. I don’t know how much further we’ll go with it, but the character, so far, has been very intriguing and the whole Fringe company has been very good to me. I’m delighted to be involved.

I am still actively involved with my photography work. I’m working on a current project, which is called Secret Selves, which is about hidden or fantasy or private personalities that people bring for me to photograph. And there will be an exhibition of that name, Secret Selves, at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art opening next summer, a solo exhibition. I’m excited about that.

Regular readers here know how much I love The Nightmare Before Christmas (and it’s almost that time of the year again that I can watch it a couple of times without it being too creepy… okay, maybe watching it more than twice in one month (even if Halloween is in that month) is a teeny bit creepy), so when I heard of a tNBC wedding cake?!? Wow:

According to one of the people at the wedding:

this is the cake that was at my cousins wedding i went to in California. it was such an awesome cake. it was really tall and i heard it cost $8,000.

Ouch! $8000 for a cake?!? Still it does look gorgeous!

Via Great White Snark

Episode 143: “Your resistance to my charm now ends, when I belt these power chords”

I’m pretty much addicted to Neil Patrick Harris’s singing (wish he sang more at the Emmy’s), so when I found out he was a musical villain on Batman: The Brave and The Bold I knew I had to see it. Mind you, I’ve never caught a single episode of this version of Batman, so wasn’t even familiar with who’s in it (besides Batman, that is).

Having watched though I have to say I love this musical episode! I’m not sure if I’d watch more eps beyond this one, but Mayhem of the Music Meister is completely worth it. Here’s the entire episode:

Two weeks to go! I can’t believe it’s only two weeks until BarCampLondon7. I’ve been putting so much time into organizing this lately, and I can’t wait to see how it all turns out. We’re releasing one final round of tickets TODAY (Friday 9th October) in an hours time. 13:00 on the dot. Check out the BarCampLondon blog for more details.

If you have been unable to get a ticket for BarCamp London7 so far, don’t despair, loads will be released today. Like previous BarCamps, this will be on a first come, first served basis so be prepared for high demand and make sure you are there refreshing your browser to snap a ticket!

Good luck!

I’ve blogged about Blurb before (see the photo book I made with them), and you know how much I love them. Blurb is a publishing company providing a print-on-demand book publishing service for the public. In other words: you can create your own books! Blurb offers a free downloadable book layout software client, BookSmart, with which you can create your own books with your own text and images. The completed book can then be uploaded to Blurb, and you can order any amount of copies.

Blurb is currently running a competition for their photo book users, where you can enter a photo book you’ve created for a chance to win $3000. All you have to do is submit any photo book you’ve made  before the 22nd of October (it has to be published though at least once after 17th September 2009). There are 3 different categories (Family, Travel, Pets) that will be judged and each has a $3000 category winner and a $1000 runner-up.

The wonderful people at Blurb have offered me 3 vouchers of £30 to give away to my readers, so that they can create and enter their own photo book into the competition. Just leave a comment behind here with your best photography tip. The contest closes on Monday 12th October 15:00 and the 3 winners will be drawn at random.

I’m loving participating in all these conference calls, even though so far I haven’t been able to ask anything myself. I’ve got one arranged tonight again with Leonard Nimoy (!!) about his guest role on Fringe. This interview with Eliza Dushku took place last week, but I’ve only found the time to write it up now.

Q: I’m wondering, how do you feel the direction of this season is different from the last one?

E. Dushku: Well, there’s so much being cracked open and explored, especially with Echo having this new place that she’s in, in terms of what we picked up from last year. She had all of the personalities downloaded into her in one swift punch and they’re not going away. So every pick up this year, she’s still tapping into these personalities. Sometimes it’s not in her control, and other times it is. But overall, she’s really absorbing things from her engagements, and from the dollhouse, and she’s really becoming self-aware, but not necessarily as Caroline, but as Echo, as her own person. So it’s definitely complicated.

It’s a little darker all around. We’ll explore sort of some of the things, the origins of some of the other dolls and the other characters. And then bringing in a bunch of guest stars and fabulous people coming in, so there’s a lot of exciting stuff happening with those things as well.

Q: What trouble will Echo run into in her attempts to save everyone?

E. Dushku: I’m sure every kind and all kinds because it’s a Joss Whedon show. We’re starting episode seven, and there are so many directions and so many layers, and it’s all over the map. Of course, a main story line is Agent Ballard, who spent last season trying to get into the dollhouse, and now that he’s in and Echo’s handler, he’s working with her, and they may possibly be trying to bring the Dollhouse down from the inside out.

Also, we get some back story with Adelle and her superiors, and other Dollhouses around the country and around the world, and just to give you an idea of how big the Rossum Corporation is. Summer Glau will join us and play a programmer from the D.C. dollhouse, and we’ll get an idea of the way the other houses are being run.

Q: How does a Watertown girl become Joss Whedon’s muse?

E. Dushku: That’s such a funny, good question, and I have no idea. I literally remember when I made my audition tape for Buffy. I went to the Arsenal Mall. And I got my outfit at Contempo Casuals in the Arsenal Mall, and bought some safety pins in my jeans. And I remember telling whoever the clerk was that I was making a tape for Buffy, and they were so excited. And then I was actually emancipated by a Boston judge who was also a Buffy fan, so I could go out to LA and shoot Buffy, which obviously dealt with vampires who come out at night, and I was still technically a minor, so I had a great judge that emancipated me so that I could come and do the show. I was already out of high school at that time. I guess I always have gotten by with a little help from my friends, Boston and everywhere.

Q: What do you like about working with Joss and doing his shows?

E. Dushku: I would say, first and foremost, that I just love the guy as a friend. He’s been a friend, a brother, a teacher, a mentor, but the other obviously is just his talent. His skill is so beautiful to me, and he’s just wildly creative and smart and feminist and funny and dark and scary and twisted, and he just combines it all so, you know, in such a sweet little package that I just, he gets me every time.

Q: So far as great as the show is, and as talented as the cast is, and as clever as Joss and his team are, obviously you want people to watch the show, and I’m just wondering, do you think Fox has put you in a position for that to happen, airing you on a Friday night after a comedy?

E. Dushku: Well, I think they realized last year that people who want to find the show did, and obviously there’s been a lot of talk about DVR and Tivo and how we really are alive for a second season because of that in a major way. And so I can see how they would say the people that found – people found the show last year, and so we’re just going to leave it where it is, and hope that that continues.

Ratings are obviously important, but, having a professor for a mother, she always taught us about qualitative versus quantitative research, and I know that we’re making a quality show and that we have quality fans and people that come to experience something different and out of the ordinary. There are so many shows on TV that are instant hits, and we’re not that, but we have a core following, and I think that people that check the show out and aren’t intimidated by it, find themselves being sucked in pretty easily.

I mean, it’s sharp, intelligent, fun. It’s sort of sometimes off-the-wall TV, and I know that when I’m spending an hour of my life sitting down to watch the boob-tube, I love getting a rich experience out of it, and I’ve always found that with Joss in particular and, in particular, his shows. So we just do our thing, and given the second season, we’re grateful to the fans, and we’re grateful to Fox for giving us another chance, and we’re making the most of it. We keep doing what we were doing, yes.

Q: Now you and Summer shot the promo last year. Your two shows then kind of were fighting for the last spot in the lineup, and now she’s obviously a part of your show. What’s the dynamic like between you and her?

E. Dushku: She’s great. I love her. We’ve had such a good time the last two episodes. She has come in with her A game, and she’s just a sweet, positive, fun actress. You know, she’s great to play off of. Our characters have some back story that we have to fight out, and so that’s a lot of fun, and I also – anyone that sort of is from Joss’ past, and he’s bringing back, I assume he had a great working relationship with them. He wouldn’t bring any bad eggs into our house, so I always can pretty much safely know that we’re going to have the cream of the crop coming back and coming in.

Q: You mentioned just a little bit ago that Echo was kind of all over the place as a character and, as an actor, how do you approach that?

E. Dushku: Yes, she’s a schizophrenic.

Q: But as an actor, how do you find that through line that you can kind of grab onto when you’re playing the different parts that she plays?

E. Dushku: Well, again, it’s almost, it’s more, it’s easier this year because we don’t have as much of that sort of dumb down doll Echo because with sort of the – first of all, the personalities and now this core Echo being a sum of all these parts, including Caroline, but not really any of them, she’s Echo.

She’s actually – there’s something grounded in that, and there’s a strength in the personality that she’s forming through that. And she’s sort of picking and pulling information from all of the different people that she’s been, and as a result, she’s sort of coming to understand and form her own ethics and morals.

But she’s absorbing, and she’s thinking, and she’s processing, and so whereas last year it was from dumb down doll to this singular imprint, and it was always different. This year, there’s – you never know, but you always know at the same time that there’s something going on inside Echo that’s not just what you’re seeing on the surface. So it’s sort of a little more grounding in that way, and fun for me to play.

Q: You guys had such a strong fan base, it seemed, before the show even premiered. Do you guys pay attention to the blog sites and what the fans are saying when you’re coming up with like how to shape the episodes and the series?

E. Dushku: I know that Joss and we’ve always paid attention to the fan love, and we love the fans right back, absolutely. I don’t know how much he takes tips from storylines from the fans. I mean, on the contrary, from what I’ve seen, when he sees someone falling in love with a character, he’s known to assassinate them or do something terrible. So I think, maybe that is a blessing in itself, so maybe yes. But he definitely has a mind of his own. Within the group of writers, they aren’t really conformists, I can confidently say. So whether it’s fans or critics or studios for that matter, they do their best work when they’re sort of left alone and they reveal things as when they feel they should be revealed, and that goes for me and the other actors as well.

Sometimes it’s really exciting for me I don’t want to know necessarily what’s going to happen in three episodes because it may affect the way I’m playing Echo today, and I’m always – that thrill, that adrenaline from reading the next chapter and the next layer that Joss, you know, brings in is one of the most exhilarating things that I know as an actress.

Q: I was wondering, is there a particular role or character in an upcoming episode that you’re going to play that was kind of hard for you to get into, and if so, why?

E. Dushku: Let me think. Well, I’ll tell you, playing a mother was certainly something I hadn’t expected, and that, you know, I’m an auntie, and I’ve always loved other people’s children and babies, but playing a mother and trying to tap into that maternal instinct was a challenge, but also a thrill, and a beautiful thing, so you’ll have to let me know how you think I did after this week’s episode.

Q: Was there anything funny or unusual that happened on the set, like behind the scenes while filming that you could tell me about with the Instinct episode or any episode?

E. Dushku: Yes, trying to breastfeed someone else’s baby is difficult. I’ll just leave it at that. When you’re not an actual mother, and trying to breastfeed a baby is harder than it looks.

Q: This season, because Echo is a little bit more self-aware, but is sort of got fragments going on through her, is that easier or harder to play when she thought she was entirely one person?

E. Dushku: Well, that’s sort of touching on that with the few questions ago. There’s something a little more grounded about it. I mean, when the pieces start to fall apart, and when she starts to be taken over by a memory, that she can’t control, I think it’s difficult. But at the same time, there’s that processing going, and there’s that authentic self that’s holding on and that’s sort of keeping her from completely losing it and from completely being controlled by the personalities. She’s starting to gain control of the personalities, and there’s something grounding about that and something really strong about that. And so for me, I find it a little – I don’t know if it’s easier. It’s more complex, so I enjoy it more, I guess, because there’s more going on besides just blank slate doll and engagement Echo. There’s Echo, who is a sum of all the parts.

Q: And when you get a script going she’s, now she’s flashing on this, I mean, do you sit down with the script and break it down as to how aware Echo is, or do you just sort of do the scene and see what feels right in how to play it?

E. Dushku: No, we’re absolutely breaking it down more this year because those realized moments are so much stronger. I mean, I definitely would not say it’s been easier. It’s been, it’s actually been deeper work for me, but again, it’s deeper work for me is sort of more interesting and more challenging to play. I have to say it’s been a blessing this year to also be shooting on HD because we have more time, and so I get to spend a lot more time with the material and with these characters and with these glitches, and so that I feel like that’s paying off for me a lot this year. And I feel like my performance has gotten stronger and even more, you know, more honest.

And even in that first episode with Jamie Bamber when we had the scene in the office where it goes from him catching me, and then bashing my head off the table, and then me sort of in the backspin, in that tailspin. I sort of famously now burst into tears in the middle of that scene because it was just so emotional, and I now feel this real connection that is sort of came from the inception of the show.

And Joss and I are making this character a little bit based on me where it’s this struggle, this battle of like who am I, and even with all the pressures of society and things pouring in on me, where does that break, and where is my authentic self, and how it feels to stand in that and to live in that? So it’s very personal and very exciting and terrifying and gratifying.

Q: So you talked before about how this show reflects your experiences as a woman and trying to be all the people that people want you to be. Do you feel like Dollhouse is really about the experience of being an actor in particular, like in LA, like people expecting you to kind of fulfill their fantasies and the dark side of that? Is this something you’re putting into it, when you’re playing Echo?

E. Dushku: Yes, I think there’s absolutely a layer or a few layers of that. When Joss and I had our infamous lunch, that was one of the threads and one of the themes, but I think it also translates to young women all over world. I remember my mother; I was the only girl in a family with three boys, and my mother did extensive reading about – I remember her reading this book called Reviving Ophelia, about adolescent girls and sort of breaking the way young women are broken down, and at the early age in their teens where they’re starting to get hit from all sides by media and just images and the way the men in their lives, their fathers and their peers and everything starts to change. And it’s like, the spirit of young women is so fragile and can be so toyed with and broken.

And my mother was always really aware of that and really tried to fight against that, and to teach me to sort of stand in my authentic self and be comfortable in my skin, and with all of that research that she did and applying it, it still haunted me, and it still, you know, at various times in my life has almost wounded me or come close to breaking me.

And so when I sat talking about that stuff to Joss, he just, you know, as a man, it’s so extraordinary that he taps into that in such a profound and intelligent way, and I can’t think of anyone else that gets that or that gets that and can create an entire fantasy show that encompasses such a universal and serious thing in our society. So it’s absolutely parallel to me, and I also feel like to women all over the world.

Q: I wanted to know how much closer Echo will get to rediscovering her true self this season?

E. Dushku: Every single episode, it’s been a little bit more. We’re on 7 now, and we have 13, and this next episode is very – this episode 7 that we’re doing, we’ve been building; we’ve been building. And we have a real kind of, a really extreme. I’m scared to say too much because the way, the feeling I get when I read these scripts and I get the sort of surprise of what’s next, I would never want to ruin for the viewers. But she really is becoming an entirely different character in many ways because she is getting sort of farther away from Caroline, even though Caroline is still the initial, her original self. So Caroline is in there, but I think she starts to realize there are things about Caroline that she’s discovering are not – are unsavory or that are not Echo.

The development of the character of Echo now has just been so exciting and so fascinating because when the way our writers and the way Joss can pick pieces from each of her experiences and weave them into this new character is just fascinating. So you’ll absolutely see a whole new Echo this season.

Q: I noticed in episode three, you’re imprinted with the personality of a college student. Now does that trigger any memories of Caroline’s?

E. Dushku: It does. You’ll have to watch the show. Definitely I start out as a college girl, but when an imprint goes sort of haywire, I spend more of the episode – I think it’s more serial killer than sorority girl. Also, I don’t think Echo, I don’t think Caroline was a sorority girl. She’s a college kid, but far from who Caroline was.

Q: Now I’m sure obviously Dollhouse has been keeping you busy, and yet you still find time to kind of squeeze in some features on hiatus and, I don’t know, weekends and everything. First of all, when was the last time you actually slept a night?

E. Dushku: I slept this weekend, and it felt so good because the weekend before, I went to Italy for a day to see the Robert Mapplethorpe Exhibit at the Michelangelo Museum. So we left on – I worked Friday night, slept a few hours, flew Saturday morning, you know, and everyone is like, oh, it must be easy when you’re flying first class. I did not fly first class. We bought cheap tickets for under $1,000. We flew economy to Rome, took a train to Florence, and went to see this exhibit for some research for Mapplethorpe, and it was definitely an exhausting weekend, and then I came right back to work, and we shot all day, but I signed up for it, and I just love it. It’s my drug, you know, and it’s just – I sleep when I find time. You know people say, I’ll sleep when I’m dead. I have too much to live for right now.

Q: Now they just released a film that you did called Open Graves, that kind of flew in under the radar. Can you kind of tell us a little bit about it?

E. Dushku: It did. I shot Open Graves about 2.5 years ago, and we shot the movie in Spain, and such as this business. There are some times movies don’t come together at the pace or with the expectation that was initially intended, so I actually haven’t even seen the movie. It premiered on Sci-Fi the weekend I was in Italy, but I have yet to even watch it on my Tivo, and it was a cool experience. I was interested in working with the director who had worked very closely with Pedro Almodovar, and I thought the script sort of had some interesting and different sci-fi horror twists to it. And I enjoy working in that genre, but it never quite gelled into the movie that sort of I had anticipated, but you know, it happens. You keep going. You don’t quit. I certainly won’t quit horror and that genre forever.

Q: How much of a factor does Epitaph One play into season two because it wasn’t originally broadcast, but it was part of the DVD set, and Joss Whedon was talking about that he’d like to revisit that future. Could you tell me a little bit about that, please?

E. Dushku: Yes, Epitaph One was so well done. I was so impressed. It brought me to tears. Truly when Joss sort of told me about it, I wondered how the hell he was going to do it, how he was going to pull it off, but I was just so impressed and so proud of him and everyone involved, and I thought it was such a beautiful episode. I think it’s a shame that it didn’t air here. But the reason that we came back was that they didn’t want to end the story, and it didn’t end the story. Getting picked up for a second season, I feel like the network probably wanted to just pick up where we left off.

And I know that Joss had originally in the first episode this season planned on weaving some of that into episode one, but there was so much to cover in the first episode. You know, we had Amy Acker, who we’re not going to be able to have with us for the entire season, so we had Amy’s storyline, and we had to have a sort of big, fierce engagement, and there was just a lot to do, and it was a little bit too much. So we took it out of that, but I do know that Joss wants to slice in some stuff in the future episodes, and I love Felicia Day. I loved the way the future looked, as dark and terrifying it was. It was just so raw and so fascinating to me that I hope we see more of it.

Q: Another thing that Joss Whedon brought up was that this season, Echo is going to be kind of looking for allies and to form some kind of a team or a family based on all the memories that have been imprinted and how she, as you noted, as you said before, is changing this season. I was just wondering if you could give me any details in terms of specific characters or what Echo is looking for in a sense of sharing what she’s learned and also sharing a similar experience with other people.

E. Dushku: Absolutely. She is looking for allies because, as she is becoming aware of her surroundings and what’s going on and all of these personalities that are creeping up and out of her, she’s also, of course, always in an entirely vulnerable place because if anyone, if the wrong person catches on to what she’s experiencing and what she’s remembering, she could very well be sent up to the attic and cancel Christmas. She could be done forever. So she’s being very careful with the tools and the knowledge that she has gained to sort of sniff out who she can trust, who she can manipulate, who she can use.

Agent Ballard was trying all last season to get in, and now he’s in, and he’s her handler, and I think it remains to be seen if he can be trusted. But in the beginning of the season here, and actually the first episode, it seems like there’s a pretty strong connection there. Then with the introduction of the other Dollhouse and some of the other players, it’s just makes more of a maze for Echo to navigate and to find her way through, realizing that one wrong, one bad step and she’s done.

I’m not exactly clued in on what people are listening to nowadays (as I’ve said before, I think like 80% of the music I listen to comes from movie or TV show soundtracks). So when the whole Kanye West debacle happened a couple of weeks ago, I’ve got to admit I hadn’t seen either of the two videos.

I finally watched Taylor Swift’s one though, and while it is cheesy as hell (and aimed for 13 year old high school girls), I can’t get this song out of my head:

In short: they should have called this show Spartacus: Blood and Sex. Cause that’s basically all it seems: lots of gore and blood, and loads of nudity and sex. Nothing wrong with that, mind, but for a TV show to hook me, there at least has to be some interesting story line and so far it doesn’t really show. I’m keeping an open mind though, cause I’m basing this all solely on the trailer.

Initially I was pretty curious, because it’s being produced by Sam Raimi. But then I realized he also produced: Xena, Hercules and more recently Legend of the Seeker. Not exactly shows that had me screaming for more. Spartacus: Blood and Sand reunites Raimi with Xena/BSG star Lucy Lawless, playing here Lucretia, who together with her husband Batiatus (John Hannah) own the gladiator camp that Spartacus (Andy Whitfield) is from.

Check out the trailer:

So what do you think? Discuss in the comments.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand premieres in January 2010 on Starz.

Episode 142: “Google”

Cute little animation from Google Japan to explain how Street View works:

Via Geeks Are Sexy

I know, I know, this movie has already been for ages in the cinema (well, 4/5 weeks), but I loved it so much, I thought I have to blog about it (and convince all you people who still haven’t see it yet to go see it). As I’ve said in some of my previous posts I’m extremely busy, mainly with organizing BarCampLondon7. I haven’t been to that many movies lately, cause I frankly can’t find the time! I’ve still got District 9 and Coco Before Chanel on my list of movies-to-watch-in-the-cinema, and this month there are loads of cool things coming out (Pandorum, Up, Fantastic Mr Fox, 9, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus).

All that aside, Inglourious Basterds is the latest film by Quentin Tarantino. Set in Nazi-occupied France during World War II, it’s about a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as “The Basterds” who are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers.

What I found surprising of Inglourious Basterds is that while the movie is named after ‘The Basterds’ it actually isn’t really about them. Yes, they feature quite heavily in the movie, but I don’t think I’d call them the main characters. There are a slew of interesting characters that are focused on as much as The Basterds, some maybe even more.

As most people who have seen the movie will tell you, one of the highlights is Christoph Waltz’s performance as Colonel Hans Lauda. His character walks that fine line between being genius and unbelievably creepy; some of his monologues are just brilliant and one of the main things that make this movie worthwhile. Like most Tarantino movies the dialogue in general is pretty topnotch, and the way Brad Pitt pronounces ‘Arrivederci’ will be imprinted in my brain forever.

I liked Tarantino’s previous movies, but I must admit I always found them a bit too… bloody. Gruesome. Over the top unnecessarily violent. (Feel free to disagree with me, but I seriously got a bit squeamish with his previous films) Here in Inglourious Basterds he’s toned it down somewhat. There are still one or two ‘icky’ scenes (always with The Basterds), but most of the real gruesome stuff happens off screen.

The movie has a couple of plot problems (like how does Shoshanna suddenly own a theatre?), but I’m guessing this is because of the cuts made after the criticisms at Cannes. The problems that were reported there though, like the slow pacing, are nowhere in sight. Inglourious Basterds runs for almost 2.5 hours, but it doesn’t feel that long. Still I’d like to see a longer version to straighten out those missing story lines gaps.

If you haven’t seen Inglourious Basterds, you should definitely try to catch if before is disappears from the cinemas. I loved this movie, more than Tarantino’s previous ones. And if you’re hesitant, because you’re scared it will be gory, don’t be; this is one of the mildest Tarantino movies. Inglourious Basterds provides a couple of hours of great dialogue, absurd plot and lots of killin’ Nazis.