Nathan Fillion

The author of The Softwire and Fillion dive deep into the creation of the book, the Kids Need to Read project, and some Halo morsels.

US, August 16, 2007 - We know Nathan Fillion can act, but it turns out he’s also quite the interviewer. We were checking in with author PJ Haarsma recently about a new project he and Nathan are involved with called Kids Need To Read when the inspiration hit: put these two together in a room with snacks and beer and a Do Not Disturb sign on the door. We’re glad we did.

Fillion, who is probably the nicest dude you’d hope to meet, has achieved considerable success and is beloved by most as "Mal" on Firefly and the feature film Serenity. This year finds him gearing up for another season of Desperate Housewives as well as a provocative new art project with Martin Firrell. Fillion’s Waitress film is still showing in some theaters around the country before hitting DVD this fall.

Haarsma, as reader of IGN Comics know, is the author of The Softwire series, book one of which is in stores now. You can read a lot more about PJ in our extensive interview with him last year. PJ is also the creator and developer of the original online role-playing adventure game Rings of Orbis which is getting noticed not just by its over 5,000 players but colleges and universities as an innovative and meaningful multimedia project.

IGN Guest Interview Nathan Fillion: So it is six years ago we met. You were standing in this room with the fireplace. You were holding court. A lot of people were listening to you. And I said, "Who’s that guy?"

"This is his house."

And you’re unmistakable. You haven’t changed your look in six years…(laughing).

The Softwire author PJ Haarsma: I had long hair then?

Fillion: You had long hair.

Haarsma: It was after the movie [Devious Beings , which Haarsma wrote and directed] and I was growing my hair out. I said I was going to cut my hair once I sold the movie. I sold the movie but didn’t cut my hair.

Fillion: I accept that.

Haarsma (laughing): Chicks dig it man.

Fillion: It’s very "Samsoness". So six years we’ve known each other but when we met, we never actually hung out or anything like that. Until we met at the restaurant on Sunset. I was chatting to you, actually I just said hello to you. You had your back to me, you were talking to another group of people and your wife and I started chatting and I found out that you guys were Canadian.

Haarsma: Yes.

Fillion: At that point we became friends.

Haarsma: Yes, that part I remember. And then we didn’t talk for a while.

Fillion: We lost touch.

Haarsma: When did we run into each other again?

Fillion: It was the house of Blues, I had just gotten back from vacation and I said, "What have you been up to?" And Marisa [Grieco, wife of PJ Haarsma] says, "Ah, we’ve been wasting our summer with this terrible video game called Halo. But it’s really cool", and yada yada…. I stopped her and said, "You had me at HALO."

Haarsma: That’s where that whole joke started?

Fillion: No actually, I stole if from Lisa Lassek, the editor from Firefly. She is wonderful. Thanks Lisa, that is a great joke. But what were you doing at the time? You weren’t a writer.

Haarsma: No, I had a production company and I was shooting commercials and doing photography.

Fillion: Now at this time are you inside your body somewhere saying I wish I could write. I should be a writer- maybe I should write a book… I gotta book going around in my head…

Haarsma: Not really. I was into film and I had started dabbling in screenwriting. I had taken a couple of courses at UCLA Berkley. Is that how you say it? U.C. Berkley? There were a couple of other ones. I met a really cool writing teacher, Jennifer Heuff…

Fillion: You know it’s a couple of Canadians when you hear, "Is that how you say it? (Laughing)

Haarsma: But it didn’t spark my need to write. I wasn’t thinking I wanted to be a writer. I was simply doing it as a means to an end.

Fillion: There had to be a moment where you said; you know what I’m going to take my energy in a different direction.

Haarsma:Yes.

Fillion: It takes a lot of energy to get it down.

Haarsma: I was thirty-eight years old. That’s when we were playing Halo. We got Halo and the XBox on Christmas day. Patty [Swingers actor Patrick Van Horn], Marisa and I played it until December 28, non-stop. It was at a time when I didn’t like what I was doing. I didn’t like advertising and the movie was a mess. I just didn’t know what I wanted to do anymore. That’s when I returned to an incident that happened to me a long, long time ago.

Fillion: Wait, wait . The thing being? The Softwire?

Haarsma: Yes, The Softwire.

Fillion: Can you track back - can you think to yourself - what was I thinking when I came up with this idea? Where was my head? Can you track that?

Haarsma: I know right where I was.

Fillion: Where were you?

Haarsma: I was sitting on a yellow Ikea table next to a window, in the loft. I had this strange art book in front of me that I was journaling. I said to myself, "Why don’t you write The Softwire? Why don’t you write that story? This was a story that I had been thinking about since I was a kid.

Fillion: Ahhh!

Haarsma: So I started. It wasn’t much of a story back then, it was more of a world. And I still had to get to the world.

Fillion: How was it writing? Was it easy?

Haarsma: Too easy.

Fillion: I remember you telling me at one point you got a little bit frustrated though. You and Marisa took a little retreat to some desert spa. And you went to some mystic spot.

Haarsma:Yes, an energy point in Sedona. While she was at the spa I was writing inside the energy vortex. I hiked up under this rock and sat there and wrote. It was really cool. That would be a great place to write all day long.

Fillion: And it was working for you.

Haarsma: I wrote twenty pages a day.

Fillion: Yes, you said you couldn’t stop.

Haarsma: It was there I decided that writing is what I’m going to do forever. It came to me like a sledgehammer. You know how we’re always talking about what we’re going to do?

Fillion: Plans?

Haarsma: Yes, you know the talk. You’ve heard it a million times but when I finally found writing that "not knowing" disappeared, it simply slipped away. I had no more questions. It really doesn’t matter if I make a ton of money doing this or none at all. I will write forever now. I’m not searching anymore.

Fillion: It’s a great feeling.

Haarsma: It is.

Fillion: So you have a manuscript in front of you…

Haarsma:Yes.

Fillion: And we would come over Sunday nights around six o’clock. You guys would make dinner. We would bring gifts. When it got dark enough we would put up the projector T.V. and play Halo back to back. And you said to us, "I’m writing a book and it’s about this kid. But you can’t read it yet." And you weren’t letting us read it. I remember when you let me finally take it home. "You can take the manuscript," you said. "Here it is."

Haarsma: I gave it to you first. I also gave it to my friend Eddie. He gave it to someone, who gave it to someone else, who gave it to someone else and in ninety days after The Softwire was out there I had a four-book deal.

Fillion: How does that happen, who gave you the call?

Haarsma: It started when I called Eddie. I wanted his boys to read it. Eddie informs me that he has to read it first. He calls me back two days later and asks, "Who wrote this? " I tell him, "I wrote it." He didn’t believe me. "Listen," he says, "I’m your friend. Tell me who wrote it?" And I say, "No Eddie, I wrote the book."

Fillion: Did he find it hard that you could be so talented?

Haarsma: I guess. I don’t know what it was. Maybe after Devious Beings he was like, "How the hell can he write something good?" Eddie said, "I want to give it to somebody." He was working with Lynne Plyshette - an agent. He gave it to her over the weekend and they called me and said they would love to represent the movie rights. I told them I had to sell the literary rights first and Lynn asked if she could send it to Liz Darhansoff in NY. This was very close to Christmas so we thought we would have to wait until the New Year. Two days later I was walking through Home Depot and Liz calls me offering to represent The Softwire.

Fillion: She met you at Home Depot?

Haarsma: No she called me while I was walking through Home Depot.

Fillion: We’re missing one event here. I forgot to talk about. Something about your personal life; the birth of your first child.

Haarsma: Yes.

Fillion: When did that happen?

Haarsma: Two years ago.

Fillion: So in what point of the writing of the book?

Haarsma: I can’t even think of my time without Skylar now. She was born before the book came out.

Fillion: Skylar is named after me by the way. I really appreciate that. My middle name is Skylar. It’s Skylar with a C.

Haarsma: Yes because you often have your head in the clouds.

Fillion: You know what? It’s done me well. It’s done me well.

Haarsma: My book was finished and then we decided to have a baby. We went through the pregnancy… had our first birthday… all before the book ever came out. It’s unbelievable how long the process takes. Not the baby part - the book part.

Fillion: Right.

Haarsma: It’s unbelievably slow. The baby part was fast.

Fillion: So to promote your book you’ve done a number of things. Number one, you created an online video game.

Haarsma: Yes, the Rings of Orbis.

Fillion: What made you think to do that?

Haarsma: I wanted to find a way to click with reluctant readers. I figured a 2D MMO where people could go and live the life of a Citizen on Orbis might connect with people not inclined to pick up a book very often. Especially boys. In the game players do everything the characters do in the book using all this great art from sci-fi artist. It’s been "ginoursmously" rewarding and successful. It’s at almost 5000 players now but it’s taken over my life. I work more on my game then I actually write. There is so much more story line to use in the game - stuff I never even touched on in the book. And I’ve made some cool friends with the Chitheads out there. It’s literally taken over my life.

Fillion: That and your daughter.

Haarsma: No, the game more then my daughter. Skylar’s a breeze compared to the Rings of Orbis game.

Fillion: I know that I would come over to your house and you’d be kind of cooped up, hiding. You’d have all these stats on the screen. You knew exactly what people were doing when they come and go.

Haarsma: It’s unbelievable what you can do online now. That’s another thing. I’ve talked a zillion times about book marketing. I am a very strong believer that the publishing industry has to shift its paradigm for marketing books to teenagers. There is so much to do online these days. This game has really allowed me to expose my book to people who would never have heard of The Softwire. I did a survey in the game recently and 78% of the people that play the game have read the book 16% say they will and only 6% dissented.

Fillion: Wow!

Haarsma: What else could you do to get those type of numbers?

Fillion: To get people to read.

Haarsma:What else could you do? I can’t think of anything.

Fillion: I came from a strong reading family; my mom and dad were always pushing the books, pushing the books, pushing the books. But you don’t see them on T.V. Or on the radio.

Haarsma: I do a lot of schools visits now and I notice that as kids get older their love for books dwindles. I find that as they get older and they start to carve out a new identity for themselves, they rebel against those same figures that gave them the books in the first place: the teachers, the librarians, the parents. Books start to come with chores like book reports or tests, and eventually books become "uncool" for a lot of kids.

Fillion: That’s the other thing I wanted to talk about. You tour schools and talk to kids. What’s the presentation like?

Haarsma: It’s a 50-minute multimedia presentation where we talk about outer space and our position in the universe and why we don’t find aliens everywhere. We talk about the potential for life in the rest of the universe. We even talk about the state of our planet and how we may have to leave it one day. I show them how that trip is impossible for us right now and what were going to have to do if we want to get off this planet. That leads me into a discussion of The Softwire and how a group of humans leave the earth to go to the Rings of Orbis.

From there we talk about a Softwire movie and I show them the video game with all of the sci-fi art. Once they find out there’s a video game - about a book! I’ve actually seen kids get up and hug. It’s just a blast to watch. I really work them into a frenzy. I show them reading can be fun again. Then after that’s all been said and done, and if they agree, I share with them the story about how The Softwire all started.

Fillion: Now tell me that story.

Haarsma: You mean what inspired me to write The Softwire?

Fillion: What inspired you to write The Softwire?

Haarsma: I can’t tell you that.

Fillion: Why can’t you? You can tell me.

Haarsma: Because in the beginning, when I told people the story about how I was inspired, they told me that I was crazy. "You can’t tell people that. Make something up," they would say. So I decided to save the truth for the kids. During my presentation I ask them, "Will you promise to keep it between us if I tell you the story? You’ll learn how everything came together but you must keep it between us?" They make the promise and then I tell them my story, complete with an alien artifact that I bring in with an armed bodyguard.

Fillion: The alien artifact!

Haarsma: Yeah.

Fillion: Do you have it here?

Haarsma: No.

Fillion: If we weren’t recording would you tell me the story?

Haarsma: If we weren’t recording, yeah, I’d tell you.

Fillion: Let’s turn it off for a second.

(Click - tape recorder is turned off)

Haarsma: So there you go.

Fillion: You forgot to swear me to secrecy and now….

Haarsma: No, you can’t!

Fillion: I’m teasing! That’s incredible. You painted an excellent picture. That would actually make a great book. Maybe a good little B story in another book about a kid in a small town, and a bully...

So you go to these schools, you whip these kids into a frenzy of ideas about space and stories. Your story. What kind of reaction are you getting? Because I remember you were going to take off to Ontario. You were going to go for a couple of days.

Haarsma: I went for three weeks and visited a lot of inner- city schools. I put The Softwire in the top twenty in Canada for that age category. That’s how good the response was.

Fillion: So you’re seeing kids wanting to read it.

Haarsma: And the most rewarding part is the fact that I’m getting to the reluctant reader. The kids that never pick up a book, never finish a book or just don’t want to read anymore. I get emails from teachers saying, "Wow! We can’t get him to read anything and we caught him reading your book at recess." I have parents sending me emails saying, "My son’s never finished a book but he finished The Softwire and he wants the next one. Can I pre-order it?" I’ve received all this great feedback from people that don’t normally read but they’re reading The Softwire.

Fillion: How does it make you feel?

Haarsma: Unbelievable!

Fillion: Like a God?

Haarsma: Hah! Even my own mother calls me and tells me stories about neighbors that have come up to her and said, "I never finish a book and I finished your son’s book." I ask,

"Why, did my dad hold a gun to your head?" (laughs) So it’s been very good in that sense.

Fillion: Nicely done, what’s next? You have one thing. A plan. The "Kids Need to Read".

Haarsma: Yes, and you’re helping me.

Fillion: Collaborative effort.

Haarsma: Well, I go to a lot of libraries and sometimes I see the struggle. The teachers are witness to their kids’ response and then they scramble, often unsuccessfully, to find the money to buy a few copies of The Softwire to put in their library. It floors me that they don’t have access to those funds. So the whole idea behind the Kids Need to Read program is to put together a package with the audio chapters you recorded, a copy of The Softwire signed by both of us, an OIO Talisman, cool sci-fi art and some other awesome items. Then we take 100% of those profits and start buying books for libraries. We go to all these schools that have problems finding funds and just donate them the book. There’s a huge group of Serenity fans that are helping out. They’ve been a real force behind it. You have some loyal fans.

Fillion: Those groups always have catchy names.

Haarsma: This one’s called Nathan Nation.

Fillion: I like it!

Haarsma: Yes and there are also the Ninjas of Nathan Nation.

Fillion: Well that’s how I protect the nation.

Haarsma: Well they’re great and they love you.

Fillion: I’m big with ninjas.

Haarsma: They’re awesome. The women involved: Denise, Debbie and Kristen just to name a few, they won’t stop until this works.

Fillion: You mentioned the audio chapters that I did for you. We went for a ride out to Camarillo and we recorded the first three chapters there.

Haarsma: Yup.

Fillion: Of your book.

Haarsma: You did a good job by the way, people really responded well. I get a lot of positive response from that recording.

Fillion: It was a lot of fun. My mom taught me at a very early age to read with inflection. Too often you get some one who… reads… a… book… like… this. And it’s painful.

Haarsma: Well the next stage is to get them to get you to do the whole book.

Fillion: That’s what Nathan Nation is doing.

Haarsma: Well, that’s the way they started. We directed all this energy and all this love into something that has a little more meaning into it.

Fillion: What’s going to be in the package?

Haarsma: There are four different packages that range from some Softwire swag to the deluxe Educator’s Package that includes four signed copies of The Softwire, posters, the audio recording, the first OIO trading card created by Marisa Grieco as well as a Kids Need to Read collector card from 258 West. You can see it all on The Softwire website, http://www.thesoftwire.com or http://www.kidsneedtoread.org .

Fillion: Nicely done P.J.

Haarsma: Thank you.

Fillion: I like the fact that you’re a smart enough guy that you can sit down and write a book - that I enjoy it, and other people can too of course. But also that your working so damn hard, and for a real good reason - to get kids to read a book.

Haarsma: So why are you involved in the Need to Read Project?

Fillion: Well number one, I’m loving again what you’re doing. You’re working so hard getting kids to read. Fantastic! I was a reader when I was a kid. I still read, I’m a slow reader. And I move my lips, but that’s okay! You’re doing all the hard work, though. If I can help in anyway I’d love to help. Getting kids to read makes me feel good about something. Number two, I believe in the story you wrote. I like that story. You wrote a good book, I’m really proud! You want me to be a part of it. You’re letting me be a part of it. I appreciate that. Number three, how great is it that we can work together and we’re friends?

Haarsma: Yes.

Fillion: Nicely done, so what did you think of this interview?

Haarsma: It was cool.

Fillion: You were a little nervous at the beginning.

Haarsma: I didn’t expect it to go this way.

Fillion: You actually scripted out your answers.

Haarsma: You sent me an email with some suggestions! Questions! We actually covered a few, except for that one.

Fillion: If you could live on any Halo map which map would you live on?

Haarsma: Here’s the question - Halo 1 or Halo 2?

[Editor’s Note: Because we’re so fantastic, we captured this critical segment of the conversation in audio form. Be sure to load it in your iPod so whenever you and your friends discuss Halo living quarters, you can have the power of Nathan Fillion and PJ Haarsma behind you.]

Fillion: Let’s start with 1.

Haarsma: It has to be 1, cause I don’t know the Halo 2 maps as well as you do. I’m into the classics.

Fillion: Right.

Haarsma: I was thinking about how I’m going to survive. Because some of the maps - I’m not going to be able to survive.

Fillion: Well it’s not like you have to…

Haarsma: Am I living there forever? Do I have to fend, feed and take care of myself? Because I could live off your dead carcass as I kill you time and time again. I’m assuming your going to be there, right?

Fillion: That’s how it is happening in your dream? So in your dream what color is the sky? Lets say food gets dropped in for you so you don’t have to worry about survival. You’re warm and you have food and water.

Haarsma: Am I by myself?

Fillion: Yes.

Haarsma: Or are there people with me?

Fillion: You’re by yourself!

Haarsma: The snow map is big enough but it’s too cold and I don’t like snow. What’s the one with the water? With the rocket launcher up on top of the rock?

Fillion: Battle Creek.

Haarsma: I think I would choose Battle Creek.

Fillion: I’m going to say Blood Glutch.

Haarsma: I was thinking about that too but there’s no water there.

Fillion: Umm, yeah but you’d get water shipped in there.

Haarsma: But I could go for a swim.

Fillion: I need open space.

Haarsma: But that other place you got little rooms you can go into, you can sit out on top. You got that little writing space - where they put the sniper rifle.

Fillion: That’s a writing space?

Haarsma: Yes, that would be my writing space.

Fillion: Well I think this interview went pretty well.

Haarsma: I appreciate it thank you.

Fillion: No this is where I thank you. This is your first interview isn’t it?

Haarsma: Well like this, yes.

Fillion: Well I think it’s one of the first times being the interviewer.

Haarsma: You did very well.

Fillion: I think I agree. I did a lot of nodding. I don’t think that’s going to come out on the recording too well.

Haarsma: Should have turned the web cam on.

Fillion: I did a lot of rubbing of my face.

Haarsma: You looked very scholarly.

Fillion: Well I was kind of scratching the beard I got. Cool, that was a lot of fun.