Dollhouse

I LOVE TV: "Dollhouse" star Harry Lennix talks "Little Britain USA"

Notes from the TV Critics Association winter press tour:

"Dollhouse" co-star Harry Lennix praised both his past castmates on "Little Britain USA" and his current sci-fi family while talking to critics Wednesday. "Dollhouse," created by "Buffy" guru Joss Whedon, stars Eliza Dusku as an "active," an operative for a shadowy organization who is programmed to be anyone a client needs her to be — only to have her memories and abilities wiped away after every misison. Lennix plays her handler, who has some reservations about the ethics of his company. On "Little Britain USA" he played a very Obama-like president who was the object of David Walliams Britsh character’s affection.

"The guys on ’Little Britain USA’ are obviously comic geniuses," Lennix said. "They know more about American comedy and actually specifically black American comedy than I know. As long as President-elect Obama is President, they may find some currency to cash in for humor. It was remarkable to work with them and then being able to work with Eliza and Joss and the rest of this remarkable cast is also equally fun. So that’s where I get a lot of joy just in acting."

Lennix compared the expansive, pristine set of the "Dollhouse" where the actives live to a cathedral in a way. "When I go into it every time I’m actually filled with awe. It has a kind of reverential quality. At the same time, the goings on in the ’Dollhouse’ are almost antithetical to what would happen in the church. But there’s still an ethic that underlies, I think ... everybody who’s essentially not an ’Active’ There is a kind of quest for what is ultimately human, what actually is it to grapple with these questions — when do you actually have free will? When do you actually get to make the decision of what is right and wrong, and are those ever objective, universal truths? So I think that, while it is not a church, the questions that are dealt with are equally humanistic and almost, to some extent, getting to what it is to be divine, what it is to live in a kind of alternate consciousness to our normal human selves.

"Dollhouse" premieres at 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 13 on Fox.