Joss Whedon talks “Dollhouse”

Best known as the creator and head writer of the well-known television programs Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly, the Gamesville team humbly considers Joss Whedon to be a television visionary. The Academy Award-nominated writer is now prepping for the premier of his newest project, FOX's Dollhouse. The premise of the show revolves around the illegal operation of the "Dollhouse" where a series volunteers work to enhance human "Dolls" who have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas. We recently had the chance to talk with Joss about Dollhouse and his reflections on the project.

Gamesville: Can you tell us a little bit about the genesis of the show?

I had lunch with Eliza Dushku, where we started talking about what kind of stuff she should play. I thought she should play lots of different things, and then the show happened. As for the other characters, I wanted to have a strong ensemble around Eliza, because I didn’t want her to have to carry the burden of every single day of shooting.

Beyond that, I’m very interested in concepts of identity– can people actually change, what do we expect from each other, how much do we use each other and manipulate each other, and what would we do if we had this kind of power over each other?  And in this, our increasingly virtual world, self-definition has become a very amorphous concept, so it just felt what was on my mind.

Are these “Dolls” supposed to be empty vessels with new personalities each week?

They’re supposed to be empty vessels and the constant struggle with Dollhouse is that they’re not quite empty and that Echo is clearly evolving in a way that they have not imprinted her to do. The idea is to create people that people can relate to, because they were so helpless and so innocent, and then let them have these latent senses of identity and of their surroundings, and create sympathies through that, as well as through the characters that they become.

Why was Eliza the right actress to build this around?

Eliza has a genuinely powerful, electric, and luminous quality that I’ve rarely seen.  She’s also a really solid person.  She’s a good friend, a feminist, an activist.  She’s interested in the people around her.  She has a lot of different things going on, and I’ve watched her over the years, as a friend, try to take control of her career and protect the ethos and the message of what it was that she was doing, and I respect that enormously.

What can you tell us about the other dolls that are in the Dollhouse?

Obviously we start out focusing on Echo, Eliza's character, but the friends that she makes, in particular, Sierra, all have their own stories, their own reasons for being there, and their own reaction to things.  As her friendships are formed more, we get to spend more time with the other dolls, and we get real tastes of how difficult their lives can be.

There are a lot of other Whedon alumni in your cast, can you talk a little bit about your other cast members?

The basic mandate for me was to find new people, because I had Eliza and I didn’t want to feel like it was going to be just a reunion for my pals or anything like that, and I found some not only amazing new actors, but amazing new friends.

What is your reaction to the Friday night time slot and what challenges or maybe even opportunities you see there?

I really do see the opportunity. It’s about growing a fan base, both for Dollhouse and Terminator.  I’ve always worked best under the radar.  Most of my shows people have come to after they stopped airing, but I would like to buck that trend, and at the same time, it is part of how I work that you stay with it and it grows on you and it becomes family, and the Friday night is a much better place for that to actually happen.

You’ve gone through the process of launching this show several times now, so how has the process changed for you since you launched Buffy?

You know, in many ways, it hasn’t changed at all.  We were held to mid-season on Buffy.  There was a certain amount of birth pains.  We were re-shooting things for the first episode during the last episode.  So I think part of this is either the same, or I just really haven’t learned anything about how to do it better.  But I think the changes have really been that the media is constantly making new demands. There’s just more to it than going in there and telling your story.  The marketing of the thing and the story itself are intertwined in ways that create opportunities

Given the pressures of being a creative person working within television, what keeps you going?

Ultimately, it’s two things.  It’s the story and it’s the people I’m working with.  I’ve gotten pretty good at putting together a group of people, both in the writing and in the acting fields who are not just really gifted and delightful to learn from and to watch, but are just good people to be around.

Dollhouse premieres on Friday, February 13th, 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. Eastern/Pacific Time.