Joss Whedon

Part two of our little chat with Geek extraordinaire Joss Whedon.

Geek: Speaking of TV, are you still planning to return some day?

Joss Whedon: I still am trying to make a couple of movies. But my plans for getting back to TV still exist, only in that I really miss TV. I don’t like the hours as much as I used to, but I do like the idea of telling the stories in a long format over a period of time. I have to find the right story and the right situation where I won’t get body-slammed. But Firefly being cancelled and then Angel being cancelled didn’t exactly make me feel welcome. And I realize, you know, “Cowboy up and get just over it,” but at the same time, I was slipping into this other medium anyway, which is something I always wanted to do. So I’m testing these waters for a while. But TV is awesome. I really love it and miss it. It will be a little while, but I’m definitely planning to stage a comeback.

Comics also seem to be a good opportunity for you to tell those long-form stories, and it sounds like it’s been a pretty smooth ride. What is there to miss about TV, besides the money?

[Laughs] I’ve made a lot of jokes about comic-book money. Too many jokes about comic-book money! The things that I miss, apart from it being a somewhat larger audience, is that I really love film, and I include TV in that. Most of all I miss the actors, but also cameras and editing and everything else. When you see a human being speak a line you wrote, there’s almost no substitute. And I’m including the art of [X-Men illustrator] John Cassidy, which is probably the closest thing there is to that. To have someone really talented deliver a line that you’ve put out there, and unlike in the movies, to have it happen within a couple of months instead of a couple years after you wrote it, is just the most thrilling thing that there is. Except possibly for being the actor who is saying the lines, but you’d have to ask them about that.

Dawn Ostroff at the CW network said recently that “she would love to be in business with Joss Whedon in any way.” Is that something you would ever consider?

Oh, certainly. Apart from their choice of forest green for the CW’s logo, there’s nothing about them I don’t like. Dawn and I had a great time on Buffy, and they were extremely supportive and respectful and there’s no reason why that wouldn’t be one of the first stops I’d make.

Do you think you’d really have trouble getting a show off the ground at this point?

You know, there’s really no such thing as a track record in TV. I’ve talked to other people who are much more successful than I am, who’ve been shot down not just quickly but appallingly rudely by major executives. And the fact of the matter is that those executives have the burden of enormous responsibility, and that’s put on you no matter what. My track record is not such that all of America watches what I do, and I can put on “I Pooed on My Head: The Miniseries” and get away with it…It really is about whether this project is going to work in their scheme.

Now, to an extent, I completely agree with that. I don’t think you should be able to put on anything just because you did something well once. But by the same token, there does come a point where “if you don’t trust me at all, why did you bring me in?” It’s a fine line. So no, I certainly can’t sell a show blanc and have it go the way I want. Making Firefly was ridiculously hard. Casting it took forever. It feels like it fell out formed, like it was just there already, but it was actually a very painful birthing process. And they shut down Angel after the first episode, as you mentioned. It’s always tough.

I can get in a room, and I think people will listen to what I have to say, but I can’t just say [in faux British accent] “Oh, you lucky, lucky network, here it is, and now do exactly as I say while I bathe in money.”

Maybe this is a little naïve, but hasn’t the cachet of your name risen since you left TV?

Ooh, I like that idea. Nobody’s mentioned that! I was thinking I was just getting to has-been status!

But what other shows that ended in 2004 are people talking about today? Your shows have all become sort of legendary. Doesn’t that count for anything?

Legend is good. Legend is what I’m looking for. You know, nobody has said “no” to me. I haven’t pitched anything. I have literally stayed away, because I have these film obligations that I would very much like to do, and because I was so wounded by what happened before. It’s not like people are slamming doors in my face. I have to start training, to start mentally preparing myself to go back into that arena. Because no matter what, there are lions…They’re always in the room, no matter what. You have to gird your loins. My loins are notably ungirded.

But you do have one TV project in the works. Or is inadequate loin girdage the reason you’re pursuing Ripper as a 90-minute one-shot rather than a mini-series?

To do a series in England and truly oversee it is a little more than I had planned for this time. It was always meant to be stories about Giles that are self-contained, in a Prime Suspect-y way. There could be more, there could be not-more, but I want this to be the one story. It’s not just the idea of using the character, I actually had a story I wanted to use him for…It’s a very internal story, and it goes to a part of Giles we might not have been able to see. It’s very different from Buffy.

If you had the power to snap your fingers and resolve all the bureaucratic tangles on one of your projects, which would you must like to pursue?

I can’t answer that, because I want to pursue all of them. This is my problem. This is my problem when I sit down to write every day. Goners is the thing I’ve invested the most time and effort in right now, and it’s hopefully the closest to actual fruition, so that’s the first on my list. But when I do something, I do it entirely.

I know we’re running out of time, but if I don’t ask about Firefly I’m going to get a beating from my co-workers. Can you give them any false hope?

I can’t give them any false hope, and in fact it always gets me into trouble when I do. There is no false hope, there is no sequel, there is no new series, there is nothing. I would do it, but I’m not the king of all TV and movies, and I can’t. And I’m happy to say that the crew is all variously employed, so they’re not necessarily the worse for it. But nothing is happening.

So would you say you’ve made your peace with Firefly’s fate, and people should stop thinking about it?

I’ll never make my peace with it. People should stop thinking about it, but I can’t. And, well, I’m not entirely sure I want other people to stop thinking about it either, I just can’t give them any hope.

Well that’s sort of a sour note on which to end the interview!

That’s good though. It’s kind of like a dissonant note. Like a Bernard Hermann piece!