Ode to Nathan....
So this the weekend for Serenity, huh?
I have to admit, I’m still on the fence about seeing it. I was not a fan of “Firefly”. It pains me to admit that.
But I am a big ol’ fan of Nathan Fillion.
I grew up with “One Life To Live” and I went through a bunch of Joeys. Right when they settled on one I liked, here comes Nathan Fillion, a good 8 years older than the other Joey. I was pissed. But quickly, he became known in my eyes as “The Best Joey Buchanan That Ever Lived”.
He was cute, he was funny, he could ACT and these traits help sell his storyline of a teen madly in love with someone who was old enough to have been in the Girl Scouts with Betsy Ross.
There was one episode, Best Soap Moment Ever where Joey is preparing to lose his virginity to Dorian and he’s nervous as all get out. The entire scene was done sans dialogue, only music. Around three minutes of Nathan going about the room nervously awaiting her and you feel his nervousness, his excitement, his genuine love for her, all by his actions.
From “OLTL” to “Two Guys and A Girl” to “Firefly”, it just getting better for Nathan. It couldn’t happen to a better guy.
So to honor Nathan here are some articles.
Starship Trooper
Why ''Serenity'''s Nathan Fillion is such a nice guy. Playing the roguish captain of a space freighter who helps a young woman fulfill her destiny made Harrison Ford a star -- will it do the same for Fillion?
by Jeff Jensen
Nathan Fillion is a nice guy. He can't help it. It's just the way he was raised. Won't take his seat until you take yours first, and if you're a lady, he's going to insist on pulling that chair out for you. In his 12 years as a professional actor, the 34-year-old Canadian has played a man of the cloth four times, including in Wes Craven's Dracula 2000 and the TV drama Pasadena.
''It's my pious face,'' jokes Fillion, the warm September sun bright on his friendly yet flinty mug here on the patio of a posh Beverly Hills hotel. ''I have that next-to-God quality.''
Even when ruminating on something remotely edgy - like how much he enjoyed the fight scenes during his name-making stint on the defunct Fox sci-fi/Western Firefly - his softer side can't help but assert itself. ''To fight dirty, even bite people, was...I just saw a huge hummingbird!'' He watches it buzz into the sky. ''Wow.''
Fillion's warm-and-fuzzies are more conspicuous considering that Firefly fans know him better as a cranky and embittered spaceman. And on Sept. 30, Fillion will bring that TV act to the big screen. The film is Serenity, a $45 million feature reboot of Firefly, in which Fillion reprises the role of Capt. Mal Reynolds, leader of a misfit band of space bandits. Backed by a built-in audience of faithful ''Browncoats,'' Serenity is poised to be a hit, and may do for Fillion what Star Wars did for that carpenter guy.
''He's the entire package: dramatic, comedic, romantic,'' says Serenity's writer-director Joss Whedon. ''I honestly believe he's Harrison Ford, if given a shot. And, yes, he's genuinely a good guy. Not only nicer, but occasionally more articulate than me. That's why I don't like him.''
''God bless him, I'll take it,'' says Fillion of his director's flattery. The tone is grateful, but there's no blushing: The man Firefly fans call Captain Tight Pants is ready for his close-up.
Raised in Alberta by two English teachers who impressed upon him the importance of manners, assertiveness, and avoiding split infinitives, Fillion was planning to follow in their footsteps when he took a shine to acting in high school. His big break came in 1994 playing - yep - a reverend on ABC's One Life to Live. But after two years, One Life star Bob Woods took Fillion aside and warned him about the ''golden handcuffs'' of soap operas. ''He said, 'Pack your s---, move to Los Angeles. If it doesn't work, they'll always take you back.'''
Fillion took his advice and began climbing the ladder. Small part in Saving Private Ryan. Fourth lead in the sitcom Two Guys and a Girl. Leading man in Firefly. Then the ladder broke. ''I fell in love with the show and was crushed,'' says Fillion of Firefly's cancellation in 2002 after only 11 episodes. ''Put on 20 pounds. I took it hard.''
He recovered to make a memorable turn on Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer that allowed him to get dark - this time, an evil priest. (Eye gouging was involved.) Still, the early weeks of shooting Serenity were fraught with post-traumatic stress. ''It wasn't until we started filming on the ship that I started to believe no one was going to take it away,'' says Fillion. ''It was like coming home.''
With Serenity launching now and the mutant-beastie horror flick Slither coming in early 2006, Fillion finds himself waiting to see what kind of bump his cinematic double shot gives him. At the very least, the self-proclaimed ''Firefly Fan No. 1'' hopes Serenity will fly again in more movies - just as long as Mal kicks the bucket in the end. Why? ''So no one can ever play Mal but me! None of that James Bond turnover stuff!'' He laughs. ''Is that selfish?'' Looks like there's a bit of bad in this nice guy after all.
*My huge whopping problem with this interview. I haven't kept up with OLTL in recent years, perhaps Joey is a priest now. But when Nathan was on the show, Joey wasn't a priest. So he technically didn’t play a man-of-the-cloth 4 times.
Serenity for 'Firefly' sci-fi fans
By ANN MARIE McQUEEN - Ottawa Sun
BEVERLY HILLS -- Nathan Fillion's Serenity castmate joked about what the Edmonton-born actor was doing when he got word the long-awaited sci-fi feature was finally ready to fly.
"We had to wake Nathan up from his alcoholic stupor to tell him the good news," says Gina Torres, who plays Zoe, the spaceship Serenity's second-in-command.
When the call came creator Joss Whedon was going to revive his short-lived 2002 Fox Television series Firefly as a feature film and bring back all nine original cast members, Fillion really did need a job.
"I was sitting at home," he says.
But it wasn't just because of the work Fillion jumped at the chance to again head up a rag-tag crew aboard a rickety spaceship 500 years in the future as Capt. Mal Reynolds. Whedon and his cast gelled on the set of Firefly and stayed close when it was cancelled after only 11 of 14 episodes aired.
The Serenity set would reunite them outside constant pressure from Fox executives uneasy about the western/sci-fi theme, not to mention the ongoing threat of cancellation.
"We could feel the network breathing down our necks every day," said Fillion. "We spent a month filming a two-hour pilot and we gave it to the network and the notes we got back were 'why are there horses?' It was in the script. You should have read that before you bought it."
The 34-year-old Los Angeles-based Fillion was charming, funny and self-deprecating while promoting his movie. Physically, he bears a striking resemblance to actor Jason Bateman. Firefly fanatics will be happy to know personality-wise he is not unlike his wise-cracking character.
Fillion earned an Emmy nomination for his role on the daytime soap One Life To Live, appeared in several final episodes of Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and had a part in 2003's cancelled Alicia Silverstone series Miss Match. He had a recurring role opposite Ryan Reynolds in Two Guys and a Girl and played a soldier misidentified as Ryan in 1998's Saving Private Ryan.
The son of two teachers (his brother is also a teacher), Fillion was also on that path at the University of Alberta when he made his U.S. debut in the 1993 TV movie Ordeal in the Atlantic.
His newest role is in another science-fiction work, this time an alien-plague horror pic Slither, due out next year.
Fillion has long been a fan of sci-fi, though he knows not everyone is as open to the concept.
"Every time you say sci-fi and especially if you say sci-fi western, people get a little angsty and weird and I hear it too ... but the fact is it's just a setting, it's just an idea, just a layer," he says.
As for Firefly's fervent fans -- not only did they seal Whedon's Serenity deal by snapping up series DVDs, they flocked to screenings and sci-fi conventions and often dress up as characters.
Fillion says he's all for their enthusiasm.
"My mom always says to me, 'Nathan, you're really dorky, you're a geek, your advantage is you look mainstream,' " he says. "I'm going to agree with that."
And even though he's now officially a Hollywood leading man, Fillion says he's still on the hunt for acting gigs.
"I'm auditioning, hoofing around, looking for work," jokes Fillion. "I have a little sign that says 'Will work for food' and I stand at the (Los Angeles freeway) 405 with a little arrow switching the words around."
I have to admit, I’m still on the fence about seeing it. I was not a fan of “Firefly”. It pains me to admit that.
But I am a big ol’ fan of Nathan Fillion.
I grew up with “One Life To Live” and I went through a bunch of Joeys. Right when they settled on one I liked, here comes Nathan Fillion, a good 8 years older than the other Joey. I was pissed. But quickly, he became known in my eyes as “The Best Joey Buchanan That Ever Lived”.
He was cute, he was funny, he could ACT and these traits help sell his storyline of a teen madly in love with someone who was old enough to have been in the Girl Scouts with Betsy Ross.
There was one episode, Best Soap Moment Ever where Joey is preparing to lose his virginity to Dorian and he’s nervous as all get out. The entire scene was done sans dialogue, only music. Around three minutes of Nathan going about the room nervously awaiting her and you feel his nervousness, his excitement, his genuine love for her, all by his actions.
From “OLTL” to “Two Guys and A Girl” to “Firefly”, it just getting better for Nathan. It couldn’t happen to a better guy.
So to honor Nathan here are some articles.
Starship Trooper
Why ''Serenity'''s Nathan Fillion is such a nice guy. Playing the roguish captain of a space freighter who helps a young woman fulfill her destiny made Harrison Ford a star -- will it do the same for Fillion?
by Jeff Jensen
Nathan Fillion is a nice guy. He can't help it. It's just the way he was raised. Won't take his seat until you take yours first, and if you're a lady, he's going to insist on pulling that chair out for you. In his 12 years as a professional actor, the 34-year-old Canadian has played a man of the cloth four times, including in Wes Craven's Dracula 2000 and the TV drama Pasadena.
''It's my pious face,'' jokes Fillion, the warm September sun bright on his friendly yet flinty mug here on the patio of a posh Beverly Hills hotel. ''I have that next-to-God quality.''
Even when ruminating on something remotely edgy - like how much he enjoyed the fight scenes during his name-making stint on the defunct Fox sci-fi/Western Firefly - his softer side can't help but assert itself. ''To fight dirty, even bite people, was...I just saw a huge hummingbird!'' He watches it buzz into the sky. ''Wow.''
Fillion's warm-and-fuzzies are more conspicuous considering that Firefly fans know him better as a cranky and embittered spaceman. And on Sept. 30, Fillion will bring that TV act to the big screen. The film is Serenity, a $45 million feature reboot of Firefly, in which Fillion reprises the role of Capt. Mal Reynolds, leader of a misfit band of space bandits. Backed by a built-in audience of faithful ''Browncoats,'' Serenity is poised to be a hit, and may do for Fillion what Star Wars did for that carpenter guy.
''He's the entire package: dramatic, comedic, romantic,'' says Serenity's writer-director Joss Whedon. ''I honestly believe he's Harrison Ford, if given a shot. And, yes, he's genuinely a good guy. Not only nicer, but occasionally more articulate than me. That's why I don't like him.''
''God bless him, I'll take it,'' says Fillion of his director's flattery. The tone is grateful, but there's no blushing: The man Firefly fans call Captain Tight Pants is ready for his close-up.
Raised in Alberta by two English teachers who impressed upon him the importance of manners, assertiveness, and avoiding split infinitives, Fillion was planning to follow in their footsteps when he took a shine to acting in high school. His big break came in 1994 playing - yep - a reverend on ABC's One Life to Live. But after two years, One Life star Bob Woods took Fillion aside and warned him about the ''golden handcuffs'' of soap operas. ''He said, 'Pack your s---, move to Los Angeles. If it doesn't work, they'll always take you back.'''
Fillion took his advice and began climbing the ladder. Small part in Saving Private Ryan. Fourth lead in the sitcom Two Guys and a Girl. Leading man in Firefly. Then the ladder broke. ''I fell in love with the show and was crushed,'' says Fillion of Firefly's cancellation in 2002 after only 11 episodes. ''Put on 20 pounds. I took it hard.''
He recovered to make a memorable turn on Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer that allowed him to get dark - this time, an evil priest. (Eye gouging was involved.) Still, the early weeks of shooting Serenity were fraught with post-traumatic stress. ''It wasn't until we started filming on the ship that I started to believe no one was going to take it away,'' says Fillion. ''It was like coming home.''
With Serenity launching now and the mutant-beastie horror flick Slither coming in early 2006, Fillion finds himself waiting to see what kind of bump his cinematic double shot gives him. At the very least, the self-proclaimed ''Firefly Fan No. 1'' hopes Serenity will fly again in more movies - just as long as Mal kicks the bucket in the end. Why? ''So no one can ever play Mal but me! None of that James Bond turnover stuff!'' He laughs. ''Is that selfish?'' Looks like there's a bit of bad in this nice guy after all.
*My huge whopping problem with this interview. I haven't kept up with OLTL in recent years, perhaps Joey is a priest now. But when Nathan was on the show, Joey wasn't a priest. So he technically didn’t play a man-of-the-cloth 4 times.
Serenity for 'Firefly' sci-fi fans
By ANN MARIE McQUEEN - Ottawa Sun
BEVERLY HILLS -- Nathan Fillion's Serenity castmate joked about what the Edmonton-born actor was doing when he got word the long-awaited sci-fi feature was finally ready to fly.
"We had to wake Nathan up from his alcoholic stupor to tell him the good news," says Gina Torres, who plays Zoe, the spaceship Serenity's second-in-command.
When the call came creator Joss Whedon was going to revive his short-lived 2002 Fox Television series Firefly as a feature film and bring back all nine original cast members, Fillion really did need a job.
"I was sitting at home," he says.
But it wasn't just because of the work Fillion jumped at the chance to again head up a rag-tag crew aboard a rickety spaceship 500 years in the future as Capt. Mal Reynolds. Whedon and his cast gelled on the set of Firefly and stayed close when it was cancelled after only 11 of 14 episodes aired.
The Serenity set would reunite them outside constant pressure from Fox executives uneasy about the western/sci-fi theme, not to mention the ongoing threat of cancellation.
"We could feel the network breathing down our necks every day," said Fillion. "We spent a month filming a two-hour pilot and we gave it to the network and the notes we got back were 'why are there horses?' It was in the script. You should have read that before you bought it."
The 34-year-old Los Angeles-based Fillion was charming, funny and self-deprecating while promoting his movie. Physically, he bears a striking resemblance to actor Jason Bateman. Firefly fanatics will be happy to know personality-wise he is not unlike his wise-cracking character.
Fillion earned an Emmy nomination for his role on the daytime soap One Life To Live, appeared in several final episodes of Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and had a part in 2003's cancelled Alicia Silverstone series Miss Match. He had a recurring role opposite Ryan Reynolds in Two Guys and a Girl and played a soldier misidentified as Ryan in 1998's Saving Private Ryan.
The son of two teachers (his brother is also a teacher), Fillion was also on that path at the University of Alberta when he made his U.S. debut in the 1993 TV movie Ordeal in the Atlantic.
His newest role is in another science-fiction work, this time an alien-plague horror pic Slither, due out next year.
Fillion has long been a fan of sci-fi, though he knows not everyone is as open to the concept.
"Every time you say sci-fi and especially if you say sci-fi western, people get a little angsty and weird and I hear it too ... but the fact is it's just a setting, it's just an idea, just a layer," he says.
As for Firefly's fervent fans -- not only did they seal Whedon's Serenity deal by snapping up series DVDs, they flocked to screenings and sci-fi conventions and often dress up as characters.
Fillion says he's all for their enthusiasm.
"My mom always says to me, 'Nathan, you're really dorky, you're a geek, your advantage is you look mainstream,' " he says. "I'm going to agree with that."
And even though he's now officially a Hollywood leading man, Fillion says he's still on the hunt for acting gigs.
"I'm auditioning, hoofing around, looking for work," jokes Fillion. "I have a little sign that says 'Will work for food' and I stand at the (Los Angeles freeway) 405 with a little arrow switching the words around."