Much ado about Fillion
City-raised actor overcomes doubts, tackles Shakespeare
New project took Edmontonian out of comfort zone.
You can take the Canadian out of Canada, but sometimes the national tendency to engage in self-doubt hangs in there.
Take Nathan Fillion, for instance. The Castle TV star, definitive as the wry, witty crime novelist-turned-detective title hero, was born and raised in Edmonton and attended the University of Alberta before heading to New York, then to Los Angeles for an actor’s life in film and television.
Forging ahead in Hollywood, Fillion arrived at cult status playing Captain Mal Reynolds in Joss Whedon’s shortlived, but well-reviewed sci-fi Western series, Firefly. When Whedon, coming off his Avengers blockbuster, decided to do a modest but modern take on William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, opening Friday in Edmonton), Fillion was one of the first to be called. And that’s when the Canuck uncertainty kicked in.
“I didn’t hesitate to say yes,” said the 42-year-old, speaking from L.A. “But later on, I realized what I got myself into and I tried to chicken out.” Of course, Whedon wouldn’t let him, so Fillion, who had never attempted Shakespeare, delved into the complex comic dialogue of dim-witted security dude/clown Dogberry, treating its study as though he’d returned to school.
In fact, as he’s often said, Fillion’s theatre school was the Edmonton improv comedy scene — that is, if you don’t count his boyhood work as a Scheme-A-Dream delivery guy. He played Theatresports, and joined the cast of the Varscona’s weekly improvised suds-up Die-Nasty in 1994, as shy farm kid Howie McChuckski, who dreamed of being a poet. Fillion still occasionally joins his improv pals onstage during visits home to Edmonton.
What would Howie McChuckski have made of Much Ado, a Shakespeare comedy of errant relationships in which two couples struggle with love for different reasons? Besides Fillion, the cast includes other Whedon friends: Amy Acker, Clark Gregg, Alexis Denisof, Reed Diamond, Fran Kranz, Jillian Morgese and Tom Lenk. Some in the ensemble had done Shakespeare before. But Fillion wasn’t the only thespian who hadn’t. Some days he just felt like the only one.
Fillion did have lots of support from Whedon, who shot the black-and-white movie at his Santa Monica house over a quick 12 days. “I always have lots of confidence with Joss,” said the actor. The fact that the players wear modern attire as opposed to period costumes helped him, too. “Period costumes would have been incredibly distracting,” he insisted. “I am not super comfortable in a doublet.”
Initially, as a first-timer, Fillion felt awkward espousing the Shakespearean verse. “At times, I felt like I was doing a bad David Caruso.”
In the end, “I enjoyed it,” but he admitted that the process took him awhile. “I learned that it is important to listen to what you’re saying, and know what you are saying, and know the point of it,” Fillion said.
What he did understand was how to play a comic foil, “who is vain but doesn’t understand people are making jokes at his expense.” The truth is, Fillion noted, “comedy is not hard — what’s hard is to get a laugh.”
He seems to do that easily in Much Ado About Nothing, in the play’s most overtly comic character. So far, he’s proven adept at drama, as well. His detective series, Castle, is heading into its sixth season with sound ratings. “I really can’t believe I have been doing TV for five years,” said Fillion, who fell into the role of Richard Castle, a mystery writer who helps a New York detective (Stana Katic) solve murder cases.
Doing 24 hour-long episodes over five seasons can be gruelling. “The hiatus (between seasons) just whizzes by, but I am very grateful.”
He finds time during the brief two-month break to attempt things like Much Ado About Nothing. He also voiced the animated character, Johnny, in Pixar’s prequel, Monsters University, which opened last week.
“He’s a fraternity jock-jerk,” said Fillion, who was a U of A frat guy, too. “But we were more like the Dead Poet’s Society.”
Meanwhile, the burning question is this: Will Firefly ever shine again? Whedon already tried a Firefly movie called Serenity in 2005, which didn’t connect with a mainstream audience. Fillion, who still attends fan expos in the name of Firefly, was careful about pretending there might be hope for a rejuvenation after the series was abruptly cancelled in 2003.
He strikes a characteristically positive note: “Firefly will never be bad,” said Fillion. “The show will never have a chance to suck in the third season.”