Summer Glau

On the 18-20 November this year Summer Glau appeared in London, England at the Serenity Squared convention along with her fellow cast mates Nathan Fillion, Morena Baccarin, Jewel Staite and her on screen brother Sean Maher. During the course of a fun, and very busy weekend Summer was gracious enough to grant us an exclusive interview for the site:

Summer, many thanks for agreeing to do the interview. I know that you started your career as a ballerina and I was wondering if you could tell us a little more about your background as a dancer?

I danced primarily for a local ballet company called Texas Ballet Concerto although I freelanced. I started dancing when I was five and I started dancing professionally when I was about fourteen. I thought that was what I would do forever but I got hurt. I broke one of my toes. I danced on it broken for months until the tendonitis in my foot was so bad I lost all mobility. So I had to take time off and that’s how I started acting.

In all the years that you danced what was your favourite role?

Clara in The Nutcracker.

Is that your favourite ballet?

Yes. In America it is such a Christmas tradition. You don’t have to love ballet to see it. It’s the one time a year where an entire family will dress up and see a ballet.

Moving on to Serenity the film had an incredibly innovative marketing campaign and part of that was The River Tam sessions which were incredibly haunting. How did you get involved with that and what was it like to portray River at such different stages of mental deterioration?

sum01.jpgIt was very exciting for me to be involved in that. I was in Texas and I was getting ready to go to Louisiana to shoot Mammoth, although we didn’t end up shooting there. Joss called me and said "Where are you? Can you come back for the weekend? I have this idea but I need to write it!" I was thrilled and I felt it was really important for people to see River before anything happened to her, when she was happy and full of hope.

I loved doing it. It was just Joss and me and it’s a really special memory for me. I thought the script was very haunting. I remember when I was trying to memorize it, I hadn’t been in my LA apartment for a month. I was lying in bed trying to memorize the dialogue that I was going to shoot the next morning. I couldn’t sleep that night going in and out of bad dreams and talking to myself. I got scared from trying to prepare for those emotional scenes. It was a hard night to get through, the words were powerful.

Plus you got to stab Joss with a pencil!

I know! That was so funny because the camera was very tight on Joss and I was having to lean out of the shot and Vickie, who is one of my dear friends who does my hair and did my hair for the feature, was pouring all the fake blood. It was all very makeshift. It felt like we were making a home movie in the garage. It was really fun!

I love the way Joss chose to do it (the viral marketing campaign). I thought it was brilliant- really fun. Because we had to wait so long for the movie to come out after we shot it, it was a nice little snack for the fans to tide them over.

All the fans loved the movie but were you surprised at all the critical acclaim it received?

I couldn’t believe it. Not that I didn’t believe that the movie was amazing because I believed in every frame of it but people like to be negative about things - critics do. They can really just tear movies apart and so I was expecting the worst - I was bracing myself for the worst. So I couldn’t believe when review after review how fair and encouraging the critics were about the movie. It really, really meant a lot to me. It was such a surprise.

A lot of the critics commented on the dry wit you displayed in the movie, which hadn’t been as obvious in the series.

I think that part of River would have come out more in the series if we had kept going. It’s just we were cut short and River was only just crawling out of her shell (when the series ended). She’s such a complicated character- all of them are. So many facets.

We’ve all got our fingers crossed that there will be a sequel but if for any reason a sequel didn’t come to pass do you feel that the way River’s storyline is played out in Serenity is a good resolution to the character?

I do - it’s what I wanted too because I felt that what River wanted was to feel like she belonged, to have a family. At the beginning of the movie we kind of start off where River was in the series. During the course of the movie she goes through so much, she realizes a lot about herself. She works through a lot of trauma. She knows that something is in her but she doesn’t know what. Finally she triumphs over it and finds a new place on the ship. What I always wanted was for River to be part of the crew, for her to contribute. Simon always said that River loved the ship. She does love the ship and for her to finally have a role (as part of the crew) means the world to her.

In the past few months you’ve travelled all over the US and to Europe promoting Serenity. What has it been like to travel so widely and to meet so many different fans?

sum02.jpgIt’s been a dream come true. I feel like a princess getting to see all the places I always wanted to see and get to go to film festivals and dress up. The whole experience has been a dream and I loved it. It never ends, what this film has done for my life, the opportunities that it’s given me.

Did you see the pictures of the huge posters they put up on the Underground showing River kind of hovering in midair looking down on people as they exited the escalators?

No I never went down there. I wanted to but we weren’t in London for very many days. We were scheduled all day long and then when we would get out at night the Underground was already closed so I couldn’t go down there but I heard about it. I think that would be so creepy to see myself that big though. But clearly the Underground is the place to go to advertise a movie. I love it - I wish we’d had that in the States.

Typically in films it’s the men who get to be the heroes - but in Serenity it is River who gets to save the day and take on the Reavers - so what does it feel like to join a very select group of female actresses like Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hamilton who have played such strong action heroines on the big screen?

It’s an honour but I couldn’t do it without everyone else around me, without Joss coaching me through every step, without my stunt team telling me I could do it. It’s not really in my nature to stand up, to be aggressive and assert myself. I’m actually really shy so there was definitely a lot of acting involved!

Moving on to your other projects you have also appeared in CSI, The 4400, Cold Case. What is it like going from a show like Firefly where it’s so clear that you and your fellow cast treat each other like family to being a guest star on someone else’s show?

It’s very scary. I’ve had good experiences everywhere else I’ve gone. I’ve had a good time but it’s not the same. Watching my friends in Serenity it’s like watching myself because we’re that close. We just had so much pride and love for the show and the movie and I don’t know if that will ever happen again. Everybody when we were doing the series would come up to me and say “Summer this is the best job I’ve ever had and I’ve been doing this for ten years. So enjoy it and treasure it.”

I understand you were originally cast in the first series of The 4400 but had to pull out as it conflicted with your Serenity schedule. Could you tell us a little bit more about that?

I was cast in the pilot and I fought really hard to win that role. (Ed’s note - Summer revealed in her guest talk on Saturday that she was originally cast as Lily Tyler the young mother who is abducted by aliens - the role eventually went to Laura Allen.) I had to fight for it because I looked so young for the role - I was supposed to be playing a young mother. I went back to audition again and again and I read with Ali (Mahershalhashbaz Ali) who was cast as Richard and that was wonderful. We had such a connection and I wanted to work with him so badly. Then when we started trying to work out the scheduling conflict with Serenity I ended up having to choose one.

I was happy to come back later to play Tess. I love that show and I think they have the perfect Lily. I wish them a very long run.

You’ve just finished filming a new movie called Mammoth and I know your fans are all very excited to see it and I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about it?

It’s a Sci-fi/Comedy .It’s hilarious - I laughed my guts out during the movie! I play a normal teenage girl, which is nice! I play a really cool teenage girl whose father is a palaeontologist who works in a mammoth exhibit at a museum in Louisiana. It’s a very very funny film. We shot it in Romania and it’s going to be great. It’s going to be shown on the Sci-Fi channel. The director Tim Cox was awesome and the cast was wonderful to work with.

A lot of your fans on the site have been wondering what kind of music you like?

My favourite music is Tango. I have so many Tango CDs and I love salsa and flamenco. I just love Latin music and that’s what I listen to when I’m at home. I listen to so much Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday and Nat King Cole. I really like Keane, The Killers, White Strips, James Blunt, Damien Rice and Fiona Apple. My little sister helps me a lot. She’s always putting new things on my iPod. I’m kind of old fashioned and she helps educate me about great new things.

Final question - what do you enjoy the most about going to events like these and meeting your fans?

It’s so hard to choose one thing. I just love it -especially the children that come along. I try to give energy, to make a connection with each person I meet. It means a lot to me. The idea of somebody wanting my picture or for me to sign something - it’s an honour. I want to try to show how much I appreciate that. And I love telling people little things about me and the cast that they wouldn’t know - I think it’s the little things that matter. Those are the things I like to know about people whose work I’ve /admired. Those are the things I look for in an article or interview. That’s what I love about this weekend. It’s very personal. I enjoy it so much

Summer thank you so much for your time and the very best of luck with your future projects. I hope we see you over here again soon.