Dollhouse time of year two is on DVD , which means it ’s metre to rediscover Joss Whedon ’s most challenging show . We speak to whiz / producer Eliza Dushku about the show ’s challenges , the critique Dollhouse confront … and the Echo / Paul outtake that were too much for TV .
For those of you who miss it , Dollhouse was a show that run for two seasons on Fox , about people whose minds have been erased , permit them to be programmed to be whoever a paying guest wants . And in the second season , newly out on DVD , the head about the morality of this applied science get amped up massively , as we see the true evils behind treating people like prop — and we explore the idea that the revilement of this technology leads to the apocalypse .
We were prosperous enough to get about 20 minutes on the phone one - on - one with Eliza Dushku today , and here ’s what she told us .
So now that the whole serial publication is going to be on DVD . What do you think people will get out of it when they see it all in one go ?
We had diddle with the idea of having the show go on [ as a serialized risky venture ] , and not having stand - alone episode . The inevitable thing with Joss ’ characters is that you start to finger for each character . And with each installment , every character get down so deep , and so much was let out . I would know that even as I was watching , or reading the scripts from show to show , that expect time in between is beastly . So when you get to see all these characters and all story , strung together , it ’ll be just what the fan are waiting for .
So what do you hope the great unwashed get out of your performance in particular , when they watch a 2d time around ?
As far as the organic evolution of Echo , it was such a ambitious and awesome part to represent , especially in the second time of year as she ’s really becoming a person . She love who she is . She ’s flipping in and out of these personality , and get a line how to curb them and bring them out at different time . I ’ve never done something like that . The f number at which we shot – in a complete world , with all those unlike characters , it would have been coolheaded to spend more meter on each one , but I cerebrate also , there ’s something to be said for just lay it out there , and just watch out the dementia praecox of it all .
Halfway into the 2d time of year , there ’s that one episode where it alternate forward in prison term , and suddenly Echo has restraint over her personalities . It ’s really exciting , but also a substitute to see that . Was it a relief for you too , that you were at last able to play that ?
Yeah I have in mind … for Enver [ Gjokaj ] and Dichen [ Lachman ] and everybody who played a doll , the doll state was probably one of the most difficult things to do . It ply a deep connection — and I felt like you really root for Echo by the 2nd season because you see that she ’s coming into her own person . [ And since you did n’t know ] who you ’re rooting for when she ’s changing [ personalities ] , it was awesome to get to jazz her – and to open up the interrogation at the end of , “ What if Caroline [ is n’t desirable of Echo ’s forfeiture ] . I ’m saving this body for her , and what if we do n’t like who she is ? ”
I lie with it , I miss it . It ’s been so long since I ’ve done interviews about the show . I have all these beautiful , nostalgic feelings come back . It ’s bittersweet . I ’m so majestic of what we did , I care we could have gone on forever , we had so many fans , and now the great unwashed can show their friends and show their kids – once their kids are a certain age of grade . It ’s preserved , and it gets to live on forever .
So you mentioned about Caroline . The first few times we met Caroline , it was n’t clear if she was really someone we could root for .
She was a whiney little terror . Those are the accurate word I used to Joss . “ The Caroline character is kind of a whiny little brat , I do n’t know if we ’re going to be able to root for her . ” He was like , “ But you know , we have to be have some property to go . ”
Was that something you worried about , during the evolution of this serial ? Who mass could root for , and who they could n’t ?
One of the cool things about Joss and his characters is , I palpate like you ’re almost rooting for … the person you least expect to , in every installment . When you reckon at the character development with Fran [ Kranz ] ’s case and Olivia [ Williams ] ’ eccentric … and also , when I search back at my part as Faith , you have these characters who you call back you would n’t root for in a million years , and they do horrible thing . And then you have an episode where you really start to find some unexpected beauty there , and pity for these people . By the end I sort of feel like you were settle for everybody , because that ’s the beautiful thing about the true human characters that he creates . They ’re blemished , and they ’re not everlasting , and they sometimes do frightful things and in the last you look at them as a whole . [ Laughs ] The tragic humans that we all are .
And of row you were producing Dollhouse as well as starring in it . What do you consider you learned about being a producer from Dollhouse ?
Well , on the one handwriting , citizenry would say , “ A show about prostitution and human trafficking on Fox ? It vocalize like a perfect tantrum . ” Looking back , it may not have been the good fit for the show . We in the beginning pitched a show and felt like that everyone get it and everyone was on panel , and then before the show was supposed to air , I guess Fox panicked and mat up the show was croak deep than they had mayhap expected and it was beyond fun one - off instalment where we ’re go out , being assassins or … it really start to make hoi polloi uncomfortable . Which I suppose , was what we had intend to do . masses have say , Joss has definitely got to go do a cable show , where you may really have the freedom to get fucked up . Maybe when he ’s eat up Avenging .
Have you talked to him lately ? Has he told you anything about it ?
A little bit . We got to see each other . Nathan Fillion had a barbeque lately . I ’m just so psyched for him , it ’s just the double-dyed project for Joss . He has an awesome ensemble mold , and nobody works with an tout ensemble like does . I ’m just thrilled to see what find .
You mentioned human trafficking and harlotry . Some masses felt like Dollhouse was a show that was about rape , more even than prostitution . Do you think there was anything to that ?
Well , I mean that ’s in spades sort of the question , the moral dubiousness , of the show . Is it morally right to have this kind of technology and maltreatment technology , and then the question is , like , are they volunteers ? And they ’re voluntary , does that negate [ the idea ] that it ’s violation ? And so that was , I think , the black and white and gray areas that we research . In some position , utterly . In Sierra ’s case , she was take advantage of in her doll country , and it was dismay . It go to search what those edge are , and what they are n’t , I guess .
Do you finger happy with how the show ended ?
Yeah , I thought it was beautiful . It was really full circle and make the cast and the Revelation of Saint John the Divine back from “ Epitaph One , ” which I just loved , and sobbed when I first saw it at Comic Con . It ’s such a complex show , and so much had happened , and yet the way they tied it up and really brought closure , not just to the quality but to everybody that was on the show , the actor … it was just comforting to see it end that way of life , to have that closure .
What do you call back it would be like for Echo to be pin in a cellar for a year with Paul Ballard in her head ?
That should be the next show . It would be great manoeuvre , would n’t it ? Would they ever go out the house ? We did a few outtake of the last scene with Paul in Echo ’s brain , that were not appropriate for television . All the affair we could do , the places we could go . But it ’s beautiful , you know .
I cry when I read it . Joss would just off people – anyone – you just take the book , and you see a bullet just go through Paul ’s pass , and you go , “ How could he ? ” But there ’s always a reveal and there ’s always a payoff somewhere . He does things so by choice and so much vision .
What about Echo and Boyd ? He was such a maternal number to her , and then he turn out to be this completely different person . How do you recollect that changes how you view their relationship from the origin ?
I think it make it all that much heartbreaking , for both of them . He absolutely was this paternal father figure . [ But ] what we need and what we do are dissimilar things sometimes . And he was tainted from the get go , and it makes you look back and [ see that ] there were minute of true connectedness and true phylogenetic relation between them and it made it all that much more grievous . And it feel like something we did together with the part of Faith … the great unwashed will do horrifying things , and yet that ’s what pull in it all the more worrying and riveting , that the great unwashed connect to it . Yeah , in the oddment he was really , really , really bad , but we have it away that the show was going to be ending , and whether or not Joss had it in his mastermind program all along , that was a twist . That was the form of twist that I feel like people shout and go crazy over , and go , “ No , no , how could he ? ” But that ’s riveting storytelling right there . The treachery and the abandonment and the terrifically juicy clobber that makes us react and chemical bond and have these belief for the part .
speak of Faith , do you think there ’s any hazard at this item you might trifle Faith again ?
After twenty years in this business , I finger like you never know . I know for trusted that Joss is a womb-to-tomb friend and talent , and we ’ll be seeing each other again for certain .
Dollhouse season two isout on videodisk now . Eliza Dushku will be in The Big Bang Theory on Nov. 4 .
dollhouseEliza DushkuJoss WhedonTelevision
Daily Newsletter
Get the good tech , scientific discipline , and culture news in your inbox daily .
News from the future , delivered to your nowadays .
You May Also Like
