Backstage - Nathan Fillion Interview
ACTOR NATHAN
FILLION, STAR OF UPCOMING ABC SERIES “CASTLE,” DISCUSSES
VOICING STEVE TREVOR FOR “WONDER WOMAN,” THE NEXT DC
UNIVERSE ANIMATED ORIGINAL MOVIE
Nathan Fillion, star of Joss Whedon’s “Firefly” and
“Serenity,” will do double duty this March as the title
character in ABC’s upcoming series “Castle” and the
voice of Steve Trevor in “Wonder Woman,” the next entry
in the popular series of DC Universe animated original
PG-13 movies due from Warner Premiere, DC Comics and
Warner Bros. Animation on March 3, 2009.
Warner
Home Video will distribute the all-new “Wonder Woman,”
which will also be available OnDemand and Pay-Per-View
as well as available for download day and date, March 3,
2009.
Fillion, a fan favorite for his leading
role in Whedon’s space-age western series and film, as
well as the online phenomenon “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along
Blog,” has been featured in a string of primetime
series. After his four-season run on “Two Guys, a Girl
and a Pizza Place,” Fillion did his Whedon tour before
heading “Drive” for Fox, joining the ensemble of
“Desperate Housewives,” and now assuming the title role
in “Castle.” The latter features Fillion as a hugely
popular mystery/horror writer who helps police solve
crimes.
The Canadian-born actor has also enjoyed
memorable roles in several feature films, including
Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning “Saving Private
Ryan” and last year’s critically-acclaimed “Waitress.”
The latter film paired Fillion with Keri Russell, who
also provides the voice of the title character in
“Wonder Woman.”
Fillion found time away from his
upcoming series (“Castle” debuts March 9 on ABC) to chat
about his tendency to play the anti-hero, an unrelenting
Halo addiction, Canadian super heroes, and Keri
Russell’s tiara.
Intrigued? Read on …
QUESTION: Can you describe the challenges of
bringing Steve Trevor to life?
NATHAN FILLION:
The challenge I find is just trying to use my natural
voice and trying not to put on too much of a voice. I
tried to just keep it nice and easy and relaxed. He’s a
little bit wry, he’s a little bit dry. I can do that.
And a couple of times I actually slipped in a little bit
of a southern accent.
Steve Trevor is not a
complex guy. He’s got a façade up, he’s got a defense
up, but he drops it a little bit because he does care
about Diana. I like that he’s got a bit of an arc, he’s
got something to learn. I think that’s what makes a good
character and a good story.
QUESTION: Did you
have any preconceptions about this role?
NATHAN
FILLION: What I know of Steve Trevor is everything that
I learned from “Wonder Woman,” the television series
with Lynda Carter. And I don’t remember much. I do
remember his uniform, though.
QUESTION: Steve
Trevor is not a super hero, but more of a hero by
default. Does that kind of fall in line with many of
your acting roles?
NATHAN FILLION: I think I’ve
carved out a niche for myself in playing the
not-so-hero. He’s the guy, but he’s not really quite THE
guy you’d maybe turn to right away. Steve Trevor is a
real guy – he’s very natural, he’s very honest. He
doesn’t apologize for much. He seems to be a pretty
normal guy, or as normal as a guy hanging out with
Wonder Woman can be.
QUESTION: Prior to recording
this film, were you familiar with Greek mythology?
NATHAN FILLION: My brain is like a hard drive. Once
you start adding new information, you start cutting off
old information. About four years ago is when my
university art history lessons starting getting deleted
for new and more exciting information. Well, I don’t
even know if it’s really more exciting. But it sure is
new.
QUESTION: You’ve been involved in a lot of
primetime television and feature films in recent years.
What prompted you to accept a voiceover role?
NATHAN FILLION: I find that I’m in a spot in my career
right now where a lot of my jobs come around from people
I’ve worked with already. People keep inviting me back.
It's nice to work with the same people when you’ve had a
good time previously, and this is one of those cases. So
when you get a phone call saying, ‘How would you like to
be Steve Trevor in the new Wonder Woman animated
movie?’, you naturally answer ‘That would be great.’ And
you smile all day.
QUESTION: You’re paired
with Keri Russell again. What are her strengths for
playing “Wonder Woman”?
NATHAN FILLION: Keri
Russell is a really wonderful actress and truly a
wonderful human being. It’s excellent working with her.
Playing second fiddle to Keri, that’s a wonderful fiddle
to play. I’ve done it before, I’ll do it again. As for
her strengths as Wonder Woman, well, first of all, she
has a jet. It’s not invisible, but it’s close. And she
does wear a tiara. Not all the time – you’re not going
to see her walking down the street in it. But she’s got
it. And it looks good. She wears it well.
QUESTION: A decent percentage of your work has been in
the sci-fi/fantasy genre. Do you gravitate toward those
scripts, or is that just coincidence?
NATHAN
FILLION: Good question. I think people imagine that I
have about five scripts sitting in front of me and I
say, ‘I think I’m going to go with the super hero thing
and after that I’ll wrap it up with some more sci-fi and
then do a romantic comedy.’ But it doesn’t quite work
out that way. With scheduling and the way projects come
up, I take the first thing that interests me and that
moves me. If it’s going to be fun, if I’m going to have
a good time, and I’m going to enjoy the people I’m with,
then that’s a good enough reason to do it.
QUESTION: Were/are you a comic book fan?
NATHAN
FILLION: I was a huge comic book fan as a kid. The only
problem I had with comic books is how expensive they
got. I didn’t have a lot of money, so I had to be very
specific about what I wanted to collect. I think they’re
all somewhere in the basement of my folks’ house. I
enjoy the art, and I enjoy drawing. I think my printing
to this day looks like the printing right out of a comic
book. Actually, I always wanted to be IN a comic book. I
watched cartoons when I was a kid, too, and both comics
and cartoons lit fire in my imagination. This realm
holds a lot of interest for me, a lot of passion for me.
So to be comic-ized, yeah, that’s cool.
QUESTION:
So you’re still a geek?
NATHAN FILLION: My mother
always tells me, ‘Nathan, you’re very much a geek, but
your strength is that you look mainstream. So no one can
tell just by looking at you.’ I think this is true. I do
have a light saber at my front door, but that’s for home
security. In case anything should happen, I’ll be there.
QUESTION: Aside from the light saber, has this cult
following in the fanboy realm led to any unusual
experiences?
NATHAN FILLION: I’ve had people
dress up like me at Cons and the like. That’s always
unusual. That the fans have such passion is amazing to
me, but you see a guy who’s dressed out to the “T” like
you, that’s kind of cool. Then there was a woman who had
created a costume that had a dummy behind her, but the
dummy was me. It looked like me, it was as tall as me,
it had a tattoo that looked pretty similar to the tattoo
I have which you can glean on the (Firefly) DVD … and he
was naked. It was me, naked, carrying her. Honestly, it
was kind of flattering, and really well done. Claire,
you know what I’m talking about.
QUESTION: In
light of experiences like that, do you ever see yourself
suffering the William Shatner “get a life” syndrome?
NATHAN FILLION: That’s a good question. I wonder if
in 25 years, I’ll feel that way. In the meantime, I go
to these sci-fi conventions with these people that dress
up and I still find it a joy because they’re passionate
about something that I’m passionate about. They’re big
fans of something I’m a big fan of. I’m a huge fan of
the sci-fi stuff I’ve done. I really thought it was
great. I love to watch it. I love being in it and
watching other people be in it with me.
QUESTION:
If you hadn’t become an actor, what profession would you
have chosen?
NATHAN FILLION: My parents being
English teachers, they always pushed the writing and the
grammar. You know, don’t split your infinitives and
watch those double negatives. But I tried my hand at
writing, I tried to write out a little script – and it’s
not too bad. Mostly, though, it let me understand how
incredibly difficult that job is. I can’t even imagine
doing it on a weekly basis for a series in any way.
That’s tough. I think I’ll try to leave that to smarter
people than me.
I always wanted to be an actor,
but in Edmonton, Alberta, that’s not a success-oriented
career. So I said, ‘I’ll get my (teaching) degree and
then I’ll see what happens, but I’ll always have that to
fall back on.’ So if anybody were to look at me and say,
‘Oh, you’re an actor,’ I could always say, ‘Hey man, I’m
a teacher!’
QUESTION: Have Canadian super heroes been
neglected?
NATHAN FILLION: We had a whole handful
of super heroes. Wolverine was Canadian. A lot of
Americans don’t want to hear that. You’ve got Guardian,
you had Sasquatch. You had those twins. You had Puck,
the little guy. I think maybe, if I could be a Canadian
super hero, I’d have some kind of freezing power and
some sort of maple syrup weapon. Could be a little
sticky.
QUESTION: Are you much of a gamer?
NATHAN FILLION: I’m a Halo guy. The Bungie folks
were kind enough to have me do a voice for Halo 3. So
there’s nothing like sitting down to a nice game of Halo
and shooting at myself. I like to get online, and the
reason I like it is I’ve got a lot of friends in Canada
and New York, all over Los Angeles and at great
distances. Sometimes I take off for months at a time to
go work, and my social time is on that box. You put on a
little headset and unwind with your friends. You hang
out, you laugh, it’s good times. And when it’s all done,
you don’t have to send anybody home. No one’s drunk all
your beer. You just say, ‘Good night, I’m going to bed,’
and it’s off and it’s done.
Please visit the
film’s official website at
www.wonderwomanmovie.com
Images/captions: Trevor-pilot-3.jpg Steve Trevor, as voiced by
Nathan Fillion, crash lands after a heated dogfight in
“Wonder Woman,” the all-new DC Universe animated
original movie set for distribution March 3, 2009 by
Warner Home Video.
Hippolyta-Artemis-Trevor-funny.jpg Queen Hippolyta
(left) and Artemis (center) don’t appreciate Steve
Trevor’s unrefined humor in “Wonder Woman.” Trevor is
voiced by Nathan Fillion, while Hippolyta and Artemis
are voiced by Virginia Madsen and Rosario Dawson,
respectively. “Wonder Woman,” the all-new DC Universe
animated original movie set for distribution March 3,
2009 by Warner Home Video.
Trevor-kick.jpg
Steve Trevor’s first fight of the film is with Princess
Diana, the soon-to-become title character of “Wonder
Woman,” the all-new DC Universe animated original movie
set for distribution March 3, 2009 by Warner Home Video.
Nathan Fillion-Andrea Romano.jpg Nathan Fillion
(pictured with casting/dialogue director Andrea Romano)
was a featured panelist at San Diego Comic-Con in 2008,
where he discussed his upcoming role as Steve Trevor in
"Wonder Woman," the all-new DC Universe animated
original movie set for distribution March 3, 2009 by
Warner Home Video.
Trademark information for the
images: "Wonder Woman" (c) Warner Bros. Ent Inc.
"Wonder Woman" and all related characters and elements
are trademarks of and (c) DC Comics. All Rights
Reserved.
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