Alan Tudyk
The former Firefly behind crowdfunded web comedy Con Man
The Wray Forwa rd
“Con Man follows my character, Wray Nerely – a struggling actor who goes to conventions and is trying to rebrand himself. He starred in Spectrum and thought it would lead to success, like his friend Jack Moore played by Nathan Fillion, but he makes some bad career choices and gets pigeon- holed. I drew from my own experience as an actor and in the convention world. Sometimes it gets very close to reality.”
Blurring The Lines
“What’s fun is you can have sci- fi actors playing a version of themselves and then also playing different roles. Gina Torres will play a director, for example. It’ll be fun for sci- fi fans who know the backstory of all these characters and the mythology that follows them.”
Fan Fiction
“We crowdfunded Con Man to make sure we got it right. The fans created the world. The fans taught me about conventions. I came into them right after Firefly not really knowing anything. So we were hopeful that we could do it with them, and this has been beyond what we had hoped.”
Back I n The Driver’s Seat
“One of the reasons to do this was to get me and Nathan back in a spaceship. We have a show within the show, but it isn’t a space Western. In Spectrum, it’s a much grander world, almost like Battlestar Galactica in that they’re fighting to save the universe. I play a character named Cash, he’s the pilot and Nathan is the captain but we didn’t want to populate the crew with the Firefly cast because it won’t be as good as Firefly! But we have fun stuff. Amy Acker’s going to be on the spaceship.”
Words Of Whedon
“At the very beginning, I told [ Joss] my idea and he said, ‘ It sounds great. Whatever you do, don’t make fun of the fans.’ I hadn’t planned to, but it has been some guiding advice. Tim Minear’s read everything and has been very supportive. Those are people I look up to. It’s given me the confidence to say to the fans, ‘ Hey, help me make this. Let’s do this together.’”
Con Man films in June and will be released later this year.