Joss Whedon - The L.A. Times interview - Dollhouse

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May 15 2008

Joss Whedon - The L.A. Times interview. In which he talks about Dollhouse, being part of the Fox family and Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

Simon | Dollhouse | 18:22 CET | 38 comments total | tags: joss whedon, fox, dollhouse, doctor horrible's sing-along blog

Great quotes from Reilly and Newman :)) Well, and Joss, but that's expected.

zeitgeist | May 15, 18:28 CET

Nice interview. Weird to read JW use the word "monetize" twice though. At first I thought he meant to make something look really good from far away, and I worried I had to go out and buy a much bigger tv.

dougschoemer | May 15, 18:39 CET

Cool, it becomes more and more official that we here are Joss Whedon fans, even the LA Times says so.

Interesting answers, fuller than he's clearly had time for in recent weeks/months. Get the feeling the strike really opened his eyes, as if he knew before that big corporations can and will screw you over but now he knows it. And of course, instead of doing the decent thing and wallowing in a pit of apathetic cynicism he's creating amazing art. Which just makes the rest of us look bad.

Is there such a thing as a before and after Joss script for 'Waterworld' BTW ? Cos i'd really love to know what he did on there that made it to screen (I also thought it had some good ideas and that, crazy biology aside, The Mariner was an interestingly grey character for a big Hollywood film).

Saje | May 15, 18:48 CET

"I write for fanboy moments. I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I'm afraid of. I write to do all the things the viewers want too. "

I.... wow... no words

dulce_serenidad | May 15, 19:02 CET

Joss: "So I went home and said, 'Honey, I'm sorry, I accidentally agreed to a Fox show at lunch.'"

teehee... how much do I love that?

BrownCoat_Tabz | May 15, 19:17 CET

Excellent post, Simon, thank you!

Wish I could've been a fly on the wall during that meeting. I smiled when he explained that it seemed Joss was coming up with the story on the run. As we know, Joss' best ideas are born when he's dancing.

Madhatter | May 15, 19:17 CET

I have words... And they're complemented by nods of agreement. Though, as a female, I don't tend to have fanboy moments. ;)

*fangirl squee* I write for the same reasons Joss does!

Braeden Fireheart | May 15, 19:18 CET

Nothing about Buffy...

shesmyeverything | May 15, 19:26 CET

And Nathan Fillion agreed to star in it as the villain.

Huh?

b!X | May 15, 19:51 CET

The villain is the hero and the hero is the villain.

Simon | May 15, 19:52 CET

"Dollhouse" might make them go, "What else is on?"

Care to lay odds on that?

jcs | May 15, 19:54 CET

New best Joss pic!* Now to read article.

*He's got his "Come Play in My Magic Garden" face on, and not the kind that makes you want to call the cops.

[ edited by Pointy on 2008-05-15 17:13 ]

Pointy | May 15, 19:55 CET

The villain is the hero and the hero is the villain.

Up is down, right is wrong, cigarettes are healthy.

('The Core' is still rubbish though)

Saje | May 15, 19:58 CET

That's the best, the characters are marked in gray.

Madhatter | May 15, 19:59 CET

Great interview!

The part quoted by dulce_serenidad it's that kind of thing that makes me go 'could I be any more proud to be a JW fan???'.

Abd yeah, let him 'monetize'! Monetize means that his crew - and him - will get paid what they deserve, and they should. I mean, does anyone would like to see Mr. Fillion not geting paid for anything?? It'd just break my heart... =]

"Dollhouse" might make them go, "What else is on?"

I pretty much doubt that.

maxsummers | May 15, 20:10 CET

Wow, lots of good Whedony news tid-bits. I love it. I am so excited for what's ahead of us in the following (many) months. Squeee!

Garim | May 15, 20:10 CET

Great interview -- another step in the evolution of Mr Whedon.

starbreez | May 15, 20:41 CET

Although some people don't like pro wrestling, I am going to have to paraphrase the Rock:

"Dollhouse" might make them go,"What else is on?"
It doesn't matter what else is on!

OneTeV | May 15, 21:01 CET

Loved the interview - the quotes about Eliza's reaction were a nice insight into how she connects to the premise of the show.

DreamDancer | May 15, 21:01 CET

great interview! :)

buffyfanatic18 | May 15, 21:24 CET

Is there a particular reason that an LA Times story about Joss working with Fox again had a teaser for a story about how to survive being mauled by a bear in the footer? Just curious.

jclemens | May 15, 21:43 CET

zeitgeist | May 15, 21:48 CET

I love how the word "fans" in the article is a link back here.

ManEnoughToAdmitIt | May 15, 22:12 CET

zeitgeist,, can we just make that the automatic first post in all threads pertaining to Dollhouse? kthx.

IrrationaliTV | May 15, 22:23 CET

jclemens: "Is there a particular reason that an LA Times story about Joss working with Fox again had a teaser for a story about how to survive being mauled by a bear in the footer? Just curious."

Yeah, it's a whole traditional Joss-symbolic bear-mauling thing, but we don't like to talk about it.

I loved this interview - one of the most substantial and thoughtful ones that I've seen in a while. Really good stuff in here. I do love the Seven Magic Notebooks - which I totally get, by the way. (He's also had the Twelve Project Clipboards. Now we need something with three or nine in it...)

And both Reilly and Newman's remarks were unexpected and heartening.

Aside from all the good and chunky Jossness, this was the thing that struck me the most, about Eliza:

"When we really discussed the whole thing, she said, 'You're talking about my life. In my life, everybody tells me who they want me to be while I try and figure out who I am.' And that spoke to me."

That's really the core of it, isn't it? He's said it's about identity, and of course, that's been obvious, but this really kicked off something for me. As human beings, we are constantly struggling to define ourselves and withstand the pressures of everyone else who knows best who we are or should be, or regardless of that, who they need us to be.

(And Eliza, as a female and an actress, must have experienced that to quite a large degree, especially in that she's such a talent and a beauty, which can bring people to such a frenzy of need and grasping - everyone wanting a piece of her and trying get her to be to them who they need her to be.)

We've all experienced that, though, to differing degrees - those expectations of others pressing in and trying to tell us who we must be, instead of recognizing and celebrating who we are.

This show has so much potential... so many resonances. It really sounds like it sprang almost fully-grown from his head (like Athena, or was that someone else?) and sometimes this makes for the very best art.

Massively stoked.⁹

[ edited by QuoterGal on 2008-05-15 19:27 ]

QuoterGal | May 15, 22:25 CET

Eliza's acting (never exactly slouchy) should be amazing on this one. I've had absolutely no doubts about her ability to play this well; I still hear SMG speaking Buffy's lines in "Who Are You," Eliza was that good. But she should put all her prior roles to shame on Dollhouse.

And we shall kneel before her bare feet in awe.

ManEnoughToAdmitIt | May 15, 22:33 CET

Are you implying Joss manufactured his cult status for the sole purpose of gradually indoctrinating us with a foot fetish? What an evil mastermind. He's a shoe in for the Evil League of Evil.

hacksaway | May 15, 22:48 CET

Or, maybe shoe's not the right word. Have I drank the kool-aid already?

hacksaway | May 15, 22:51 CET

You know, when Kevin Reilly was fired by NBC, there was a rumor that he was heading to HBO. While that would have been awesome as well, I'm so happy he didn't.

dark_tyler | May 15, 22:55 CET

Kevin Reilly reacted like I would on meeting Joss - only hearing every other word. Both execs sounded star-stuck actually, not just mouthing rote praise. So, even if the show's initial ratings are iffy, I believe they'll fight to keep it on the air as long as possible. Plus, although that's not in this article, the only reason Joss didn't get a fall season premiere was that Dollhouse wasn't as ready for production as the J.J. Abrams show. I'm feeling only mildly apprehensive right now, which is as close as I get to optimistic, so yay!

shambleau | May 15, 23:13 CET

There was a lot of consternation expressed in this thread that the show might suffer if Joss isn't the showrunner. I'm not worried now.

From the interview:

I agreed that I'll write and maybe oversee the pilot.

If Joss is going to be writing a lot of the scripts instead of just a few per season, well, Dollhouse is going to be even more incredibly brilliant than I ever dreamed to hope! I need to take a tranquilizer...

Amrita | May 15, 23:18 CET

Or, maybe shoe's not the right word. Have I drank the kool-aid already?

You've been drinking something, anyway...

ManEnoughToAdmitIt | May 15, 23:19 CET

Amrita, I believe he meant "I'll (write and maybe oversee) the pilot", not "I'll write [the series] and (maybe oversee the pilot)". That was when it was all new though, the fact that he's directing the first two episodes shows how much he's involved in it now.

MattK | May 15, 23:27 CET

2,387 thanks for that link. I read the article in the paper - y'know, that stuff they wrap fish in in old movies - this morning. But the print version cut out all the Dr. Horrible's goodness...so, I read it twice and got to do the dance of gawky glee twice in one day.

[ edited by igj on 2008-05-16 19:53 ]

igj | May 16, 00:00 CET

MattK, you're probably right. In my mind I heard a comma after the word "write" where there wasn't one. Still, I'd like to hope that he'll be doing a lot of the writing since he's not the showrunner. Who knows, maybe they forgot to insert a comma!

Amrita | May 16, 00:35 CET

Trailer!!!!

zeitgeist | May 16, 00:43 CET

Thanks for posting! Lots of extra cool Joss stuff that we didn't know about. I always felt Eliza is a great star (after all she is Faith), and I thought that Tru calling might have given her that avenue where she could again strut her stuff. Takes Joss again to come to the rescue. All the elements of kick arsed-ness. A family, different scenarios each week, drama, romance and possibly lots of karate orientated
action. Reilly sounds like he gets what we get about Joss and that, obviously, is a good thing. If he fought for The Office, then he will fight for this (not that he will have to fight for Dollhouse, as it will "suddenly but inevitably" kick arse). Television is finally waking up again after years of slumber and routine... and island orientated bug consumption! Yay-is-me Mr purple awesomeness! Dragons are real!!!

RollingInKittens | May 16, 03:34 CET

I love Eliza's quote. It definately makes clear the heart I see of her in the trailer. This is close to how she feels everyday.

korkster | May 16, 05:33 CET

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