Nathan Fillion

Nathan Fillion, who stars in the upcoming paranormal sequel White Noise 2: The Light, told SCI FI Wire that he will base his performance in part on a real-life near-death experience. Fillion is only three days into shooting the sequel to the 2005 movie that starred Michael Keaton, and he took a break in Los Angeles to promote his upcoming SF horror comedy, Slither.

"I did have my own real near-death experience," Fillion said in an interview. "I was swimming in Costa Rica with a bunch of friends of mine, splashing around in the waves. I was tired, I was exhausted, and I started getting knocked around by the waves, and all my friends started leaving the water, and I started getting sucked down into the water. I got caught in the undertow."

Fillion (Serenity) admitted that he felt less than heroic at the time. "I was pulled along the side, and it was two feet [down below my feet] to touch bottom," he said. "It was too frothy to tread water. I managed to get both hands above the water over my head and wave full out, crossing my arms in the ’help me’ wave, and my friends turned and looked at me and gave me a ’hi’ and waved back and turned their backs on me."

Fillion said that he got mad. "I thought, ’If I die before any of these other sons of ... bitches, I will live to kill them.’ They gave me the will to live, and I thought, ’Those bastards are going to go home to Canada [to] say [to his mom], "I’m sorry, Mrs. Fillion, the last thing he did was this [he waves], and we ignored him."’ So, yes, I had a near-death experience. I almost drowned. I almost drowned."

Fillion is co-starring in the sequel with Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) and will be directed by Patrick Lussier (Dracula 2000). After a near-death experience, Fillion’s character discovers he has the psychic ability to see who’s going to die next. "He can see things, but people think he’s crazy, and he just falls apart," Fillion said. "And, yes, there is some of the recordings of the dead on machines and all that."

The original movie centered on so-called electronic voice phenomenon, or EVP, in which believers say they can hear the voices of the dead in the white noise and static of electronic devices. So far, nothing unusual has happened on the sequel’s set, but, Fillion said, "we’re only a few days into it so far, and Vancouver, well, that’s not a real creepy haunted city." Slither opens March 31, and White Noise 2 is scheduled for early 2007.