Eliza Dushku

Eliza Dushku has kicked many, many butts over the years on ’Buffy the Vampire Slayer,’ ’Angel’ and ’Dollhouse.’

Now, the actress is ready for a different challenge: making people laugh their butts off.

Dushku called TV Squad to dish about her future plans, which include getting back into comedy (first stop on the laugh tour: ’The Big Bang Theory’), and which ’Dancing With the Stars’ celebs are the biggest competition for boyfriend Rick Fox.

Plus, we spoke about her satisfaction with the end of ’Dollhouse’ (season 2 now on DVD and Blu-ray) and whether she’ll ever work with creator Joss Whedon again.

The end of ’Dollhouse’ seemd to wrapped things up nicely. Were you satisfied with the second season and how everything turned out? I was. I mean, we all felt like the second season was a gift. We didn’t think we would go past the first season after our Friday death slot. It was definitely a surprise and a gift, and I felt like we got the chance to give a complete, full circle. By the end of ’Epitaph Two: Return,’ every character and their story was wrapped up in a really beautiful way. It’s definitely special for us to be able to have closure both for our characters.

Is it difficult to always be on the verge of cancellation?

It can be, but we seized the day every chance that we had. We just took the approach of "game on, let’s give it everything we have" while we have the stage, go even darker and deeper, and really challenge the people that have followed us this far. It was such a deep and dark powerful show to be a part of and we’re really proud of what we did. Regardless of people that didn’t get a chance to catch it while it was on.

We had such amazing response internationally. I’ve been traveling a lot this year doing press and I’ve been in Japan, Australia ... Similar to the ’Buffy’ world, this show transcended Friday nights on Fox and it’s made its mark ... The people that were following it really got the chance to be a part of it and come to love these characters. Our DVDs will live on forever and we’re really proud of that.

If by some miracle there had been more seasons, do you know what would’ve happened? Honestly, if I had even a corner of what’s inside Joss’ brain, I’d be a multimillionaire. [Laughs] He is just so extraordinary and creative and the things that he comes up with — the twists and the turns — he’s so extraordinary. I was a part of the collaboration but ... there was Joss and there was the amazing team of writers from the ’Buffy’ days and Joss’ brother, Jed, and Tim Minear and they all speak a different language and they’re so generous with us as actors. It would’ve been incredible, I can only imagine, but I guess we’ll never know.

After ’Dollhouse’ got canceled people started talking about if Joss can be appreciated on network TV or whether he should do something for cable. What do you think? I would think from some of the things I’ve seen on cable and even looking at shows like ’True Blood,’ it just gives you more freedom to go darker and deeper. And I think hell would have to freeze over before he would step back in Fox. But I think that he really, despite the circumstances, created such a powerful show for network and that would be something he would have to decide if he would sign up for that kind of torture again. [Laughs]

When you think about the premise of the show — just the profound way it showcased the depths of human nature and the darkness that is found when you go there — it challenged people and really put things out there that you’re not used to seeing. It’s such an impressive thing to me that he was able to fill space on an unbelievable show within those confines.

Any plans to work together in the future?

You know, I can absolutely say he’s a lifelong friend and I have no doubt that we’ll be in each other’s worlds again at some point.

For you, any plans to return to series television or are you taking a break?

I don’t think I can ever really take a break. I’m pretty type-A and I’m definitely a worker bee. I had opportunity to be a producer on ’Dollhouse’ ... and I have a number of projects for my production company [Boston Diva] and ideas that we want to bring to life. We have been working on our ’Mapplethorpe’ project [about late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe], which we made amazing strides on so far; it looks like we’re going to be going into production probably within the year. And James Franco has expressed interest, which would be remarkable.

And I just finished rehearsals today, a network run-through, for my guest star [turn] on the ’Big Bang Theory,’ where I play an FBI agent. We’re shooting that this week.

And I start a film next month that I’m really excited about. It’s called ’Love, Gloria,’ also in association with my production company, and it’s really sort of dark, sardonic comedy a la ’Election.’ I couldn’t be more excited to get back into the comedy world. People remember ’Bring it On’ and ’Jay and Silent Bob,’ and a lot of people ask me where the funny went, where the comedy went. It’s such a part of me so I"m going to be exploring my comedy chops a little more at the end of the year here.

Eliza Dushku, Big Bang TheoryHow did you enjoy your time so far with ’Big Bang Theory’? I love it. It’s like theater, it’s so different from doing an hour drama. There’s changes all the time and you get such amazing rehearsal time. Comedy’s so hard, it’s all about those moments, it’s all about getting the laughs and setting up the laugh moment. The writing is so incredible on that show and the cast, everyone there — it’s such a well-oiled machine. It’s fast-paced and you sort of don’t know what’s going to happen next and what changes are going to be made, but I’ve had an awesome time just these couple of days. It feels like home. I like it.

Would you ever want to do a sitcom?

I would never rule it out, that’s for sure. It’s something that I didn’t even realize how much I would take to it. I did an episode of ’That ’70s Show’ a few years ago, but it’s just such a different animal and I like the animal a lot.

Let me ask you about ’Dancing With the Stars.’ Your boyfriend, Rick Fox, is on this season, and you’ve been in the audience every week so far.

He is, isn’t he gorgeous? Isn’t he doing so beautifully?

Rick Fox and Eliza DushkuHe seems to be improving every week. Who do you think is his biggest competition? Who are you watching out for?

Man, you know, it’s the hardest thing. I feel for all the guys. When you’re the man, you’re leading the dance and some of the professional dancers have been on for so long and they’re just incredible. The women are also bringing so much to the table, but it’s different as far as what you can do. I just think that so much of it is about your performance.

If you look at someone like Kyle Massey, he’s just someone that’s jumped out on that show; he may not have the best technique, but he glows and he has so much performance in him. I think Rick also does — that’s his greatest strength — and add in that he spent so many years as a professional athlete. He’s got the competitiveness and he’s got the, he’s taken to the practicing just so strictly. He’s practicing at all hours of the day and night, so I think he’s got a pretty tight package. Oh, I shouldn’t say that. [Laughs] He’s got all the right things aligning.

Would you ever be on the show?

I’ll be there cheering him on from the crowd. That’s just about it. I have stage fright, I was such a tomboy growing up. I was never the little dancer girl, I was playing football with my three brothers. ’Dancing’ would not be something I would do, I’d be too terrified.

Eliza Dushku and Rick FoxSo do you have any plans for Halloween? Costumes?

I think Halloween is one of Rick’s favorite holidays. We dressed up last year and it was thrown together at the last minute so we’ll just have to see what inspires us the night before.

What did you dress up as last year?

Yeah, we were a vampire Bonnie and Clyde. You’ve got to check us out on Google. I did our makeup,and we had Tommy guns, it was pretty fierce.