Dollhouse

Dollhouse at Paley Fest 2009

Does Joss Whedon have a plan in mind for a second season?

US, April 16, 2009 - The Los Angeles branch of the Paley Center for Media is currently conducting their annual William S. Paley Television Festival, AKA Paley Fest. This two-week event spotlights a group of noteworthy television series and television luminaries, with each night devoted to a different show or person. Be sure to check out the rest of IGN TV’s coverage of Paley Fest 2009.

Sometimes the show that’s being honored by the press and fans at the Paley Fest is one of those "dark horses." It’s not always a show that’s been given a second season and sometimes, as in Dollhouse’s case, that decision has still yet to be made. Dollhouse has been a show that’s been picked apart and analyzed from all angles, dating back even to before the first episode even aired. Creator Joss Whedon is such a beloved force of nature that anything he touches receives immediate attention and/or reverence. I had a chance to talk to some of the cast of Dollhouse, which itself will be back on the air on April 24th with its 10th episode. There was an air of hopefulness in the air, as Joss himself had revealed that the executives at FOX "get" the show. They understand the story that Whedon is trying to tell, and they also know that the once-powerful Nielsen Box is no longer a viable way of tracking a show’s success, or even actual viewership.

First up, I had a chance to speak to Miracle Laurie, who plays Mellie/November. Laurie knew, at the outset, that she was going to be playing a doll, but did that stop her from maybe doing some of the more extensive character work, as an actress, for Mellie? "No, I’m kind of picky when it comes to that," smiled Laurie. "When they gave me Mellie to play with, I had to explore her. When you’re imprinted on the show, you’re given a personality and a goal and all this background. Mellie thinks she exists. Mellie has a job and…I gave her a cat. (laughs) Nobody knows that. I created her just as I would have any other role."

Which personality has Laurie been able to relate to the most so far? "I really relate to Mellie, actually, confessed Laurie. "She’s probably a better cook than I am, obviously. The proof is in the lasagna. She’s very sweet. Probably a little sweeter than me too, but she’s just very simple and she loves to love and I feel that I’m that way. She loves her man and that’s kind of her M.O. So she’s a very easy fit for me. And she’s kind of goofy too, so that was fun to play with. A little silly."

On a show that has her running through a gambit of emotions constantly, what’s been Laurie’s biggest challenge? "Actually, being a doll was a little challenging actually, because there’s no wrong or right way to do it because no one’s ever done it before. Dichen’s (Sierra) got her doll, and Eliza’s got her doll. Each is different, but still blank and innocent."

Next up was Dichen Lachman, who plays the oft-abused doll, Sierra. When we as viewers first met Sierra, it was as a doll. We’ve only known her as an imprintable slate, with occasional moments of trauma seeping through. I asked her, out of all the roles she’s gotten to play on the show, which was her favorite? "It’s the dorky Australian girl," revealed Lachman. "Everyone’s just a big dork inside; I know I am. I’m just one big massive geek. We’re all fans of someone and we all look up to people. No matter where we are in our lives, there’s always someone to look up to. We all try to put on this front and try to act slick. But deep down, we’re all just like that girl. So I could just explore that openly without any kind of front and just be really excited and really happy."

What does Lachman think of Sierra’s budding Dollmance with Victor, and will that go any further in Season 1? "I think it’s a really beautiful relationship," said Lachman. "They’re drawn to each other on a really basic, fundamental level. On a subconscious level. They’re just drawn to each other. And I think that could go places, and I hope so. But maybe not in the next three episodes."

The girl of the night, and the Dollhouse doll who has inhabited the most diverse amount of roles, was most certainly Eliza Dushku. I wondered which character had been her favorite, whether it was the attitude, the acting challenge, or even just the costuming. "I really liked…(thinking)…one of the last ones we aired was a lot of fun, but it hasn’t aired yet so I don’t know how much I can tell you about it," said Dushku. "It sort of had a Natural Born Killers type theme to it, so I was rockin’ a little bit of Juliette Lewis in Natural Born Killers and it was kind of fun. And kind of eff’d up and crazy."

What could we expect from Dushku’s doll-character Echo in the remaining Season 1 episodes? "Well, in every episode she’s becoming more and more self aware and I feel that as that’s happening and as she’s becoming more aware of what’s going on, each personality that’s she’s been imprinted with is starting to become more vivid," remarked Dushku. "They’re becoming sharper. In the last few episodes you get the feeling that she’s retaining all of the personalities that have been coming into her and, you know… she’s a glitcher (laughs)."

I asked Joss Whedon himself if he had even started thinking about a story arc for Season 2, if the show get picked up. "Yeah, I have thought about it," said Whedon. "I don’t have an absolute total arc, but there’s a bunch of stuff that we’re already chomping at the bit to get to. We feel like this story is just too rich and we’ve barely scratched the surface. I tell you though, for the next four episodes we scratch it really, really hard. It’s gonna bleed."

After the press rounds, we headed downstairs to join up with the auditorium filled with Dollhouse fans as they were finishing watching the Whedon "handpicked for the crowd" episode, "Needs." During the Q&A session, Whedon himself described the final three remaining episodes as "fierce." "They’re ridiculous," he added. "We’re going out with a bang." Now certainly the fate of Dollhouse is still up in the air, but Whedon, albeit hopeful and full of good cheer, still recognized that they couldn’t hold anything back in Season 1 since it might be the only chance they get. They couldn’t risk saving things for future seasons and they had to fire all the torpedoes.

Whedon, able to look back now on the whole production of Season 1, claimed that it was "an abnormally difficult birthing process that I was abnormally whiny about." But he did want to give credit to all the actors since, as he said "we didn’t shoot a single episode in the order in which they aired." That meant that all the actors had to change their characters according to what they would have known or been through for that episode. Whedon also addressed what he referred to as the "floating episode," or the 13th episode. He made an extra episode for FOX studios for international and DVD sales, which require a hard 13. He chose to make it a "weird post-apocalyptic horror episode with a whole new cast and peppered with scenes of these people [the original cast]." Whedon was asked if he ever just thought about including the unaired pilot as number 13, and he responded with "not only would it not make sense, but we cannibalized it for parts. Bits of it appear in each episode." Whedon did then go on to say that the first scene from the unaired pilot, in which Adelle DeWitt (Olivia Williams) does a Dollhouse "sales pitch" to potential clients, was actually repurposed to episode 13.

Dushku herself beamed over Whedon claiming that he’s been the only one in the biz that’s been able to see another side to her – with most everyone else seeing her "in leather pants and a push up bra, kicking ass." She ingratiated herself to him for giving her more dramtic work to do, and seeing her as someone that could don a sundress, or play a blind cultist.

Many people have called Dollhouse the "non-Whedon" Whedon show. He responded with "my goal in life is for there not to be the term "a typical Joss Whedon show." "That’s not to say that I don’t do the same thing over and over," Whedon added with a laugh. He then launched into a mock voice of him pitching a show to network - "She’s a young woman of extraordinary power!" and then the network – "That sounds great, Joss. We love it!"