Morena Baccarin

PB: How does Firefly compare to Star Trek or Star Wars?

MB: I would consider it more similar to Star Wars, except for the aliens. We have no aliens in the show. It’s closer to the human side of Star Wars where you’ve got the love interest, and you’ve got people you don’t like who you have to work with.

PB: The look of the show is less sterile than Star Trek, too.

MB: [Our spaceship] Serenity is a very worn shuttle. In a way, it’s very romantic and gritty. It’s in the future where the earth has disappeared. When earth was around, China became the world-dominated power and so there’s a lot of Chinese influence. We speak Chinese sometimes.

PB: In real life, do you speak Portuguese, as well?

MB: Yes, I do, even though I haven’t been back to Brazil in a while.

PB: Is Morena a Portuguese name?

MB: Yes, it means "brunette" or "tawny."

PB: What did your parents do?

MB: My mom is an actress in Brazil. She’s pretty famous now, especially with The Vagina Monologues, which she’s been doing there for two years now. It’s huge there. My dad is a news editor for Brazilian television. I have a younger brother, who’s not an actor, thank God. He’s in college right now in New York, studying graphic design, graphic arts and sculpting. He’s quite an artist.

PB: Someone wrote about your movie Way Off Broadway: "Brad Beyer and Morena Baccarin are the most charming couple to hit the screen since Tom Cruise and Renée Zellweger." How do you account for that?

MB: It was the second movie I got after school. It was a great director and a great cast...the chemistry was all there. It was a great part for me because it was a young actress who just graduated from school and trying to make it. Her friends are artists or writers and she’s struggling with the business. She falls in love with her best friend.

PB: So, it’s patterned after your real life?

MB: Very largely.

PB: Did you fall in love with your best friend?

MB: At the time, I had just broken up with somebody and did end up falling in love with [co-star] Brad Beyer. And we’re still together, which is good. He just finished an episode of Hack, David Morse’s new show.

PB: What is your passion?

MB: I love reading. I’m an avid reader, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. I just finished reading Guns, Germs, and Steel, which is basically the history of the world the past 13,000 years. It was so interesting. I love movies, especially old movies because it seems those old movies you can learn so much, not only about generations, but about acting also.

PB: What’s your favorite movie of all time?

MB: Definitely The Piano is up there...Casablanca.... Can you tell I’m a hopeless romantic? Natural Born Killers is one of my favorite, favorite movies, also. Oh, God, I just love movies. What I saw recently that I loved was Sex and Lucia. It was amazing. It’s one of the sexiest movies ever.

PB: What are the sexiest film scenes ever?

MB: One is Il Postino, with the poetry in that. It’s not really a love scene; he’s just looking at her and he’s saying these poems about how "her smile creeps up like a butterfly." It’s so sexy and beautiful and she starts to laugh. In a recent movie, Unfaithful, the scene where Diane Lane and Oliver Martinez first get together and she’s just trembling...that’s so intense.

PB: What’s the most romantic thing a guy’s ever done for you?

MB: My boyfriend said, "Just come over to my house at 7:30." On the door was a sign that said, "Hello. Welcome to the love spa." I opened the door and he had beautifully candle-lit his entire apartment. He led me with rose petals to the bathtub and he read me poetry in the bath. And then we had this wonderful three-course meal in his dining room, all candle-lit, and he got me a vegan cake.

PB: What’s not on your résumé, and for good reason?

MB: I’m lucky to say that I have a very young career. I don’t think I’ve had the time to do anything really cheesy yet. Although I’m sure somebody will find some audition or something.