Dollhouse

Can you talk a little bit about the genesis of DOLLHOUSE?

Eliza Dushku: I wanted to do another television show, but not just any other television show, I wanted to do something very special and very cool. So after meeting with my friends over at FOX, I called Joss [Whedon], who was actually the only person on my mind and we went to lunch where I asked him to write me the coolest show that he has ever written and he accepted.

It must be nice to have such talented friends!

Yes it is and Joss has delivered and then some. I owe him one.

Since you helped conceive the show with Joss, would it be safe to say that for the first time, you have a lot more of a say with regards to where your character goes than say on TRU CALLING?

Thank God! This is our, Joss’ and my baby. And so I’m definitely in a better position to be heard than on anything else I’ve ever worked on for sure.

What can you tell us about your character, Echo?

Echo is sort of hard to talk about because she doesn’t really have a personality. That said, in the series premiere, we meet a young woman who is broken down, in a jam and doesn’t really have any other option but to join this organization for five yearss. So she enters, signs away on the dotted line and next thing you know, she’s living in the Dollhouse. Echo is a doll for hire.

How much do you know about the person Echo was prior to entering the Dollhouse?

Joss and I have talked a lot about who Caroline was before she entered the Dollhouse, but it’s also being written as we go.

You mentioned that Echo has signed on the dotted line for five years, do you know how many years Echo is into her contract when we first meet her?

I do… and I believe all will be revealed.

As an actress/producer who is putting 110% into the production, has all the negative behind-the-scenes rumblings been disheartening to read and hear about?

People are interested and it’s exciting. We’re thrilled that people are talking about the show and for every crappy thing that is said there are thousands of fans who are jonesing for the show. Of course critics are critical and naysayers really don’t have anything better to do than to spread negativity but at this point it’s all about Friday the thirteenth [the show’s premiere date] when people can see it for themselves.

Do you read reviews?

Sometimes. Sometimes they’re helpful and sometimes they teach you something. I remember back in the TRU CALLING days, I think it was Entertainment Weekly that said, “the show has the tag-line what if you had the power to change the future by reliving the past… d’uh. Everyone has the power to change the future, that’s why it’s the future.” And we were like there you go! Thank you Entertainment Weekly. And we stopped running around thinking that we had some really extraordinary tag-line!

For fans who might be taken aback by the lack of action in the series premiere, can you assure fans who are tuning in to see you kick some serious bad guy butt that subsequent episodes will have Echo doing just that.

Rest assured, there is a whole lot of ass-kicking in the second episode. It takes place out in the forest where I’m hired to be ultimate adventure date for three days by this crazy guy. Naturally things go really off the rails and there’s definitely action, adventure amd ass kicking. But I think that we didn’t start of the series with that because it almost would have been too predictable to have me twirling and fighting. We wanted to create a foundation of thought provoking peices and material, which I think episode one does a good job of laying out.

And since I’m a huge fan of one of your earliest films, I have to ask the obligatory question knowing full well that it is probably never going to happen. When are we going to see TRUE LIES 2?

(Laughs) It was a great movie wasn’t it? Sometimes I’ll be in a hotel and it will be on TV and I’ll watch it and be reminded how much fun that was. And there have been rumors but I’m fairly certain they have all been undone.