Actor Nathan Fillion has made a career for himself, starring in long-running hit series Castle, as well as his current ABC cop drama The Rookie, but many of us remember back when he got his start on the Fox sci-fi adventure show, Firefly. That almost wasn’t his role though, as Fillion recalls totally bombing his auditions for the part that launched him into a new phase of his career.
Fillion explained to Backstage a few years ago that he originally auditioned to play the character Angel in Joss Whedon’s series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but after being cut in the first round, he never did get to meet the show’s creator until he was in the audition process for Firefly. He explained that it wasn’t until he was introduced by casting director Amy Britt, and it took him a moment to realize the "fellow in a purple sweater with scraggly red hair and a beard and a hole in his sweater" was actually Whedon. They had a great chat and Whedon asked him to come read for the part of Mal.
Amy Pascale wrote in her book, "Joss Whedon: The Biography" (via Gizmodo), tons of details behind the inception of "Firefly," including what happened when Fillion came in for his audition. He was asked to read several times, and somewhere around the fifth try, he let the casting people know that he was confused. According to them, he seemed to be reading the exact same way each time. He replied, "Which I am. Is there something you'd like to see differently?" He continued:
"These poor people are thinking, maybe I'm an idiot, I can't take direction. I can only do the one thing; I'm a one-note guy. But here we go."
After he finally got some direction, Fillion took a different tack, proving he could interpret the character in a number of ways. He went on:
"We did it differently and we had a great time. There was a bit of a breakdown in communication there, but I was tense. I'll tell you that, I was tense."
Good thing he thought to have some dialogue with the casting crew so that everyone was on the same page. Without notes and direction, I’m sure it would have been hard to know where to go next. But, of course, Fillion charmed them, and the rest is history.
via: /Film
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