Nathan Fillion

That famous Fillion

Edmonton-born actor capitalizes on his success with starring role as a sheriff

Nathan Fillion has shed his skin more than once.

Born and raised in Edmonton by parents who were high school teachers, he broke from family tradition and a steady vocation - even his best friend is an educator - to pursue acting.

Years later, he split from a supporting sitcom gig to front his own show - the short-lived Firefly, in which he starred as the rough-and-tumble renegade captain of a mercenary ship. Short-lived maybe, but it launched Fillion’s career as a movie star, thanks to the cinematic spinoff Serenity.

Now Fillion is busily promoting Slither, a horror comedy in which Fillion turns up as the sheriff of a small town plagued by an alien virus that turns residents into monsters - including one rather imposing reptile.

"I won the movie star lottery," he admits during a phone interview from Vancouver where he’s currently shooting White Noise 2, the sequel to Michael Keaton’s supernatural sleeper hit.

For that, he credits Serenity’s creator and architect, Joss Whedon.

’NEED SOMEONE WITH THE VISION’

"Joss Whedon was responsible for a lot of firsts for me. You can work your tail off in this industry, but you definitely need someone with the vision or faith to say, ’You’re the guy. You can be the lead.’ "

Even before playing an incarnation of evil in Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series, "I was told all the time I was too nice-looking. (After Buffy) now I go out for villain roles all the time.

"Serenity was a great picture and it was all the better that I was in it. You know, North Country - it’s a beautiful movie and Charlize Theron is a wonderful actress but I’d rather see something with explosions in it. I’m a guy."

Yet Fillion, who turns 35 tomorrow, admits he still can’t quite fool the folks whom he grew up with.

"They see me and go, ’You’re just doing the crappy party tricks you always did. You’re pretending to punch people out. You’re not tapping into some inner resource.’ "

Those same people witnessed Fillion, more than a decade ago, ditch the teaching degree he was working on to become a thespian. After working with Die-Nasty and nabbing parts in locally made movies, including Ordeal in the Arctic, he got a call from his agent with a chance to audition for the daytime soap opera One Life to Live in New York. He got the gig. A few years later, he landed the aforementioned recurring part on Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place as Traylor Howard’s boyfriend.

Despite what might seem a meteoric rise, he remains realistic about his place on the Hollywood food chain. "The calibre of projects I have a crack at has vastly improved. When people ask, ’Why did you pick this movie or that movie, I say, ’No, you misunderstand. I don’t have five or six scripts I can pick from. I audition with 200 other guys.’ Unless you’re Jim Carrey and they’re throwing a bunch of money at you and maybe want to hear what you have to say, you don’t have much power."

Don’t tell his fans that. Online, one cadre of Fillion followers has even launched a petition, demanding he replace 63-year-old Harrison Ford as intrepid archeologist/adventurer Indiana Jones.

"I don’t think anyone could replace Harrison Ford. It’s like I always say, ’I don’t pay homage to Harrison Ford as much as I copy him exactly.’ "

Yet snakes and spirits and Nazis are nothing, it turns out, compared to the cold spells and predatory viruses that greet the prodigal Alberta son whenever he returns home to Edmonton for Christmas.

All those years spent in Southern California apparently have acclimatized him to beach balls and ocean waves - not snowdrifts and wind chills.

"It can be a mild winter and I’ll be bundled up and my friends will be walking with no hat, no scarf, hands in their pockets, and I’ve got my scarf wrapped six times around my head. I got sick last Christmas. I was fatigued and I always get a cold. The last time, I got the flu. It turned into a bronchial infection and it put me down for two weeks. I was in and out of a coma," he says. "So then I was like (to my parents) ’Why don’t you come south for Christmas?’ "

Not surprisingly then, he reports his parents "are wintering in studio city right now while I’m here (in Vancouver)."

A PECULIAR BRAND OF FOLLOWING

Of course with fame - particularly the kind that arrives with a cult sci-fi show - comes a peculiar brand of following. Don’t look for Fillion - unlike a certain other Canadian actor-turned-space captain - to bite the geek that feeds him, though.

"You ever see the movie Trekkies? Those are some really clever, passionate people. It’s a little different style, but so what? You want to wear an outfit to jury duty? More power to you. That’s more confidence than I have."

Just as much confidence, he admits, as it takes to face a classroom and chalk board.

Asked about whether he ever had second thoughts about not becoming an educator, he reveals he followed his best friend’s teaching career closely. "And I’d call my parents and the thing is, teaching is extremely hard and thankless ... I do my damnedest at my job, but they work a lot harder than I do. I admire them. You have to have a greater understanding of things to be a teacher. Really, where would we be without teachers? But regrets? No, I have no regrets."

Just some crappy party tricks.