Dollhouse

Marking just under one month until Dollhouse’s premiere (Feb 13th) we are proud to present the concluding part of our exclusive interview with Amy Acker which began December 15th. This time we talk about her career after her breakout role as Fred in Angel all the way to Dollhouse.

You went and used a lot of technology in some of your work or played very technological people how are you good with technology really?

I’m not even good at checking email so not really.

Were there any plans to do tie-in videogames for Angel?

I haven’t heard about that so no.

Are you into videogames?

I don’t know. I have never really been into that, I mean my husband’s [James Carpinello who played Bobby Saint in 2004’s The Punisher] big into Guitar Hero and Rock Band. My sister has a Wii and I think my favourite thing about it was at Christmas last year my whole family were playing Wii bowling so I was like this is pretty awesome, that we can all play this together.

That seems to be the draw for the Wii really as it’s aimed at all ages with its unique control system.

Yes I like that it’s a little more active, I get stuck in a trance doing the other ones and also I’m just not very good at it and I like doing things that I’m good at.

Your role in Alias was very different from Angel, did you enjoy playing the bad guy?

I did and you know, every day that I got a script on Alias I just laughed so hard. How in the world did I ever get this part because it was just so funny to me that I got to just like kill 15 people at once with two guns in my hand. So I just loved that I got to do something that I just never thought I would be cast as that in a million years. So it was really fun to get to do something so out of character.

What can you tell us about your character in Dollhouse?

Well I am Dr. Saunders and I take care of the dolls at the Dollhouse. I’m kind of the one who seems to be looking out for everybody and there’s a lot of maybe not so nice people at the dollhouse. I keep trying to turn things around to do what’s best for the dolls and I guess the trait that is most noticeable is that I have these huge scars across my face, like five scars scraping up my face which look pretty painful.

It must be pretty difficult on the makeup side to do that one.

It is, were still trying to get it mastered it’s been very challenging to get it to work every time, but I think it looks really cool. Yesterday I got to do them with stitches all over them so that was really neat looking.

How long do the scars usually take to get done in makeup?

Usually about 2 hours.

So it’s not as bad as the Illyria then?

No not quite. Illyria was only a pain, but this has the glue and all of that so it tends to be trickier.

Will you be a series regular or recurring?

Right now I’m a recurring character, but I’ve been in every episode, all but one, so I feel like I’m definitely around. When there at the Dollhouse you usually see me and hopefully if there’s more episodes after these first 13 then I think you’ll see a lot more of Doctor Saunders in the future.

You had an important role in another recent Fox show Drive, why do you think it failed?

I thought that was like the most awesome show ever and I don’t know why that didn’t work. I think that it was in how they marketed it. They showed like the first four episodes in this period of two days then it was over. It was also a super expensive show as it was all green screen and going from car to car so it was really cool and I mean Nathan Fillion is about the coolest guy there is so any show with him in it, I don’t know how it could not be a success.

Nathan’s got a new show this year also with Castle, you might end up with the same timeslot.

Oh dear! Well it will be hard not to watch him.

How similar will you be playing Dr. Saunders to Fred?

She is not really like Fred at all because she’s much more mysterious and she’s a little bit sad, Fred was very bubbly and up and kind of goofy with lots of energy moving around a lot. Dr Saunders is very still, I feel like they’re very different.

What’s it like being in another Joss Whedon show?

It’s awesome, ever since Angel whenever I see Joss I keep asking “So when’s the next thing were doing?”, “When do I get to be on another show of yours?” like “Can I do craft service?” So finally he decided to do another TV show and I’m so excited there was a part I got to play even if it’s just an excuse to hang out with all the old friends.

If there was any other character in Dollhouse you could have played as an acting challenge which would it be?

I just think all the dolls are, any of the dolls would be [fantastic], it’s like an actor’s dream you get to, be like Jennifer Garner on Alias you get to be a different character each week. You get to have [different] accents and be some different places and different personalities. I think he’s created a show where the dolls get to do so many cool things. That would be fun.

What would you say has been your best or most memorable audition?

Probably Angel because I had just gotten out here and was so excited. I mean it just went well and getting the job, everything about that was, I guess I was much more naive at that point thinking that’s how it works you go and audition and get the job every time. There’s been some bad ones too.