Dollhouse

The appearance of Alan Tudyk on last week’s "Dollhouse" episode, "Briar Rose" was a horribly-kept secret, taking some of the surprise out of seeing Tudyk switch from the twitchy, agoraphobe Stephen Kepler to the face-slashing Alpha. But, it was still a crazy entertaining performance. Fox hosted a conference call with Tudyk where he talked about the role, the upcoming "Dollhouse" season finale, "Omega," and playing Pictionary at Nathan Fillion’s house and reading Shakespeare at Joss Whedon’s house. And Tudyk is just as funny as many of the characters he has played.

In the last episode of "Dollhouse," Alpha swept in and took out Echo/Caroline after implanting her with a different personality — the other half to the "Natural Born Killers" duo. Tudyk got a laugh when asked if that meant he and Echo would live happily ever after.

Tudyk: "I think that’s Alpha’s plan, sure. Everything he’s done has been to get Echo. Whenever you see Alpha, he’s screwing with the Dollhouse and it’s always around Echo. Now he has her; he gets to fulfill his plan now. Which is to make her like him. Alpha is not really Alpha. What he is is this composite of people. He’s 43 people in once. He’s ascended in his mind to a god-like place."

The 43-personality part hasn’t been explicitly explained on "Dollhouse," but given the way the Dollhouse work, it seems to be the effect of taking in one too many personalities and suddenly being able to inhabit them all at once.

Tudyk: "In the coming episode, you’ll see the effect playing 43 people has on him. He has a little trouble controlling them. He’s a little less in control of his opinions — they are full people who all want voices. He’ll say one thing and then say the exact opposite and then say something similar because he’s all these people."

"I love how Briar Rose ends, that whole Sleeping Beauty thing, you knew somebody was going to get kissed at the end. We take it on the road, maybe a kidnapping or two in the episode. Mainly for Alpha it’s about fulfillling his plan. Getting Echo is the second to last step in his plan. There’s one more thing needs to be in place before go on world-wide world denomination, killing spree. He wants to bring her up to his level in multi-personalities."

One of those personalities we got a glimpse of — the Southern-fried, blood kissing psychopath. But Tudyk said Alpha does have a main personality, too.

"There’s an overall Alpha, composite guy, there is a center where he’s in control of things."

Since almost everyone has reacted favorably to Tudyk’s guest stint on "Dollhouse," the logical question was if there’s a Season 2, will he be a part of it?

Tudyk: "I can’t say. Alpha might not make it through the next episode. He does have Echo and that’s playing with fire that could blow up in his face."

Tudyk was set up nicely by Joss Whedon in taking on the Alpha role. During a game of Pictionary at Nathan Fillion’s house — yes, that really happens — Tudyk asked Whedon about his new show before it was on the air.

Tudyk: "(Joss) didn’t tell me he wanted me for the role. He was telling me all about Alpha — he does this and he does this and he’s a composite of these people. He’s this person obsessed with Echo, he’s 43 people at once. And because he’s 43 people at once, he’s mad. I was like, ’Oh my God, that sounds amazing. Who’s playing him?’ And he said, ’I want you to play him.’"

"I think my team won last time. Joss did well, he was on my team. It’s a lot of very famous people, very shi-shi," Tudyk said, tongue-in-cheek.

Between Pictionary and reading-from-the-Bard nights, Tudyk had met several of the "Dollhouse" cast members like Dichen Lachman and Olivia Williams. He already knew Amy Acker and of course Tim Minear — who is directing the "Dollhouse" season finale — since he worked on "Firefly," including directing Tudyk’s favorite episode, "War Stories."

Tudyk said he loved playing the Stephen Kepler part of the Alpha role, especially the comedic parts with Tahmoh Penikett.

"I had so much fun playing the buddy cop movie. Ballard’s the hard-nosed FBI agent, I’m the guy who hates buddy cop movies. Then turning into a badass was also fun."

Tudyk was asked whether her prefers playing the funny guy like Wash on "Firefly" or a bad guy like Alpha.

"At the end of the day, I like goofing around on set, joking around with the crew," he said. "Playing someone as intense as Alpha is, I have to be quiet. If I was signing up for seven years, I’d go with the fun-loving, funny guy. Luckily, I don’t have to choose. Joss gave me this guy, who is great."

He did try to head off some of the news that he was going to appear on "Dollhouse," and even some reports he’d be playing Alpha, so more viewers could be surprised. Tudyk stumbled across that the news that his casting was out when a friend got a Google alert from an Alan Tudyk fan site.

"I read it and was like, ’No, no, no way. You’re supposed to be on my side and here you are giving out secrets that aren’t going to help me.’ I started writing this e-mail...then thought, ’Why am I writing this?’ and deleted it. There’s no way to stop it once it’s out. Then somebody had a photo of me on set; I don’t even know where these people are. That is one leaky boat."

When it came to shaping the Alpha character, Tudyk relied a lot on the ideas Whedon had developed for the character.

"I think I had space to create him, but I was hungry for anything (Joss) gave me. Any idea he had or information to fill in his vision. I’m adding up everything people have said about him. Are all of these impressions of Alpha true? He’s had this guy in mind from the beginning. In the playing of it, shooting of it, we got to have fun."

A lot of people had mentioned seeing a similarity in Stephen Kepler’s mannerisms to that of Topher Brink, speculating that Kepler might even be Topher’s father.

"It’s nothing I can confirm or deny, but certainly there are a lot of similarities. In a world where personalities can be uploaded or downloaded, where people can be composite personalities, there seems to be a little in there. Alpha knew Topher from when he was a doll. You’ll get to see some of that in the next episode when you see Alpha as a doll."

But that’s not Tudyk who was sitting naked on the coffee table in the season premiere with two dead bodies (Caroline’s parents?) next to him.

Tudyk: "No, I have pictures of me naked on a coffee table, but it’s a coffee table book of me naked; I only have one copy."

Next up for Tudyk is that he’s been cast in a "V" pilot for ABC, a remake of the original miniseries and TV show. He said he couldn’t talk about the pilot, but that it’s "really good." "V" reunites Tudyk with "Firefly" alum Morena Baccarin.

"I hope that they pick it up," he said. "If you go back and watch the original ’V,’ you think, ’Oh I thought this was great.’ But it’s kind of cheesy."