News - 01/13/09...

WALL•E, Bashir Waltz Off with Globes

Disney/Pixar’s WALL•E and Sony Pictures Classics’ Waltz with Bashir got love from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association during Sunday night’s 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony. WALL•E was named Best Animated Feature, besting Disney's Bolt and DreamWorks Animation's Kung-Fu Panda. Bashir from Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman beat out a field of live-action films to take Best Foreign Language Flim.

Accepting the award for WALL•E, director Andrew Stanton thanked his family for “Inspiring every emotion I try to capture on screen.” Folman was also on hand to receive the award for Bashir, dedicating the win to the eight babies born to crew members during the four years the animated documentary was in production. He added that he hoped those children would grow to see the war depicted in the film as some kind of ancient video game that has nothing to do with their lives. His film was up against The Baader Meinhof Complex from Germany, Everlasting Moments from Sweden/Denmark, Gomorrah from Italy and I've Loved You So Long (Il Y A Longtemps Que Je T’aime) from France.

The songs “Down to Earth” (music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, with lyrics by Peter Gabriel) from WALL•E and “I Thought I Lost You” (music and lyrics by Miley Cyrus and Jeffrey Steele) from Bolt were both up for Best Original Song in a Motion Picture, but lost to Bruce Springstein’s “The Wrestler” from the film of the same name.

Heath Ledger was posthumously awarded the Best Supporting Actor award for his portrayal of comic-book villain The Joker in Warner Bros.’ The Dark Knight. Director Christopher Nolan accepted on Ledger’s behalf, noting that the young actor’s untimely death ripped a hole in the future of the entertainment business. “He’ll be eternally missed but never forgotten,” he said in parting.

Among the other big winners was director Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire. Released domestically by Fox Searchlight, the sleeper hit was voted Best Motion Picture – Drama, while Boyle accepted the award for Best Director. On the other side of the coin, the Weinstein Co. release Vicky Christina Barcelona from director Woody Allen took Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
Mickey Rourke won Best Actor - Drama for director Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, while Best Actress – Drama went to Revolutionary Road star Kate Winslet, who also won Best Supporting Actress for The Reader. Their comedic counterparts are Colin Farrell for In Bruges and Sally Hawkins for Happy Go Lucky.

On the television side, AMC’s Mad Men won in the drama category and NBC’s 30 Rock was named top comedy. Creator and star of 30 Rock Tina Fey was also recognized with Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy, while her co-star, Alec Baldwin, took Best Actor in the same category. The HBO miniseries John Adams was also well represented, snagging acting awards for Paul Giamatti, Laura Linney and Tom Wilkinson.

Prolific filmmaker Stephen Spielberg took the stage to receive the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement, a juried honor presented by fellow film icon Martin Scorsese. He recalled how the first movie he ever saw was DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth, and how the film’s spectacular train wreck inspired Spielberg to make his first film using his parents’ 8mm home movie camera and a model train set.

To see the complete list of Golden Globes nominees and winners, go to www.goldenglobes.org/nominations.





Bashir Nominated for DGA Award

The Director’s Guild of America has nominated Ari Folman in the category Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for his animated feature, Waltz with Bashir. The film was just voted Best Foreign-Language Film at Sunday night’s Golden Globe Awards in Los Angeles. The 61st Annual DGA Awards will be held on Saturday, Jan. 31 at the Hyatt Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

Folman is up against Gonzalo Arijon for Stranded: I've Come From a Plane that Crashed on the Mountains (Ethan Prods./Zeitgeist Films), Elizabeth Farnsworth and Patricio Lanfranco for The Judge and the General (West Wind Prods./PBS), Peter Gilbert and Stevie James for At the Death House Door (Kartemquin Films/ IFC) and James Marsh for Man on Wire (Wall to Wall, Red Box Films/Magnolia Pictrues).

Death House Door, capital punishment exposé, and Man on Wire, the story of a Frenchman who walked a tight rope between the twin towers of the World Trade Center, are both short-listed for Oscar consideration. Bashir didn’t make that list, but it is Israel’s entry for Best Foreign-Language Film and is also eligible for Best Animated Feature. Released domestically by Sony Pictures Classics, the film about Folman’s quest to recover memories of an Israeli army mission he participated in during the first Lebanon War of the early 1980s is highly topical in light of Israel’s controversial occupation of Gaza.

In addition to winning a Gloden Globe, Bashir received the Los Angeles Film Critics’ award for Best Animated Film, was hailed Best Foreign Film at the 11th annual British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) and was recently named Best Picture by the National Society of Film Critics.





Warner, Fox Work to Settle Watchmen Suit

Once in danger of being shelved, Warner Bros.’ big-screen adaptation of the beloved DC Comics graphic novel Watchmen is likely to make its March 6 theatrical opening after all. Daily Variety reports that lawyers for Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox are in talks to settle a lawsuit filed by Fox over rights to the property. The matter was set to go to trial on Jan 20.

Both sides agreed to postpone a hearing scheduled for last Friday in order to continue negotiations. U.S. District Court Judge Gary Feess in Los Angeles was to rule on Warner's request for an expedited hearing on Fox's demand to block the Watchmen release. In December, Feess agreed that Fox held Watchmen distribution rights dating back to 1994 when the film was in development at the studio.

Warner Bros. has already spent a lot of money promoting Watchmen, a big-budget film directed by Zack Snyder. The studio has even funded an animated companion film titled Tale of the Black Freighter, which will be released on DVD in conjunction with the theatrical release. Rather than risking a cease and desist order, Warner is likely to give Fox a good chunk of the action, which could reach blockbuster proportions.





Focus Features looks forward to film's "9" lives

Focus Features is dressing to the nines for this year's release of its animated fantasy epic 9.

The studio's CEO, James Schamus, announced Monday that 9 will be released in exclusive engagements on September 9 -- appropriately marking its release date as 9/9/09.

Student Academy Award winner Shane Acker directs the feature-length expansion of his 2004 short film of the same name. Produced by Tim Burton, Timur Bekmambetov and Jim Lemley, the surreal tale takes place in a world parallel to our own, a post-apocalyptic fantasy in which a band of courageous rag dolls battles for the survival of civilization.

The voice cast includes Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover, Martin Landau, Christopher Plummer and John C. Reilly; the screenplay is by Pamela Pettler.

"The 2009 releases from Focus represent the most diverse lineup in the company's history," Schamus said in announcing the company's domestic theatrical release slate for its seven titles this year. "In addition to unveiling highly anticipated new films from directors with whom we have already had great success, such as Ang Lee, Jim Jarmusch, and Joel and Ethan Coen, the complete slate covers a diverse range of genres, including animation."





Mickey Rourke Says He’ll ‘Bring It All’ To ‘Iron Man 2’

Sure, Mickey Rourke is back in the spotlight thanks to an award-winning role in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler,” but does that mean we’re more or less likely to see him in “Iron Man 2“? The ‘Net was buzzing last week when it was announced that Rourke and Sam Rockwell were in talks to play villains in the “Iron Man” sequel — prompting us to examine likely “Iron Man 2″ storylines and characters based on the rumored characters — but when we had a chance to ask Rourke about his involvement, he offered up some quick thoughts about a potential role in the film.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Regarding “Iron Man 2,” Rourke said he’d bring “everything I can bring” to a role in the eagerly anticipated film.

“I’ll bring it all,” added Rourke, before being whisked away to the Golden Globe ceremony (where he later won the coveted Best Actor award for his dramatic turn in “The Wrestler”).

While this certainly doesn’t mean he’s locked into a role in the film — and definitely doesn’t shed any light on the character he’ll play if he does join the cast — Rourke’s comments add to an already impressive collection of hints and teases coming out of the event. For example, check out Aaron Eckhart’s response when asked about a potential return for Two-Face, his character in “The Dark Knight.”





Images and plot descriptions from upcoming animated films

Among a batch of descriptions and stills from upcoming 2009 films on the website of The Los Angeles Times are several images from animated films yet to be released. Included are The Princess And The Frog, $9.99, Monsters Vs Aliens, Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs, Coraline, and Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs.





Up sneak peak

A sneak peak for Up that has been airing on Disney Channel can now be viewed at Coming Soon. The video features director Pete Docter discussing Carl Fredricksen and Russell, the leading characters from the upcoming film. The clip also contains some new footage from the movie. Up opens in theaters on May 29th.





Get Sideswipe(d) By TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN!!

An image of an Autobot new to TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN has shown up over at the tf08.net message boards. It's Sideswipe, first indicated late last Summer when a Corvette concept car (depicting its vehicle/street mode) was spotted on the film's set.

CLICK HERE TO SIGNIFICANTLY EMBIGGEN!!!














This picture, evidently nabbed from toy packaging, originated HERE.





Animated Moolah Overseas

All right, we have to admit it. Bolt hasn't been the domestic barn-burner Disney was hoping for. But then there's this:

'Madagascar' still tops overseas

“Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” ruled the foreign box office roost for the fourth consecutive weekend with $15.8 million at 6,893 playdates in 61 markets.

Paramount’s animated toon, which has grossed $366 million outside the U.S., has been the dominant pic of the holiday season, winning five of the past six frames on the foreign side ...

So Mad 2 has collected what? More than half a billion dollars? (Actually way more than $500 million. To date it's pulled in $543 million, if Variety and Box Office Mojo can be believed.)

And I might be be a starry-eyed optimist here, but if similar foreign-domestic ratios hold for Disney's Bolt (foreign doubling the domestic gross), then the white dog will end up with somewhere around $345 million in worldwide money ($115 million domestic/ $230 million foreign).

Time will tell if I have my head in the clouds ... or somewhere else.

(Thanks Animation Guild Blog)





New ‘Watchmen’ TV Trailer Promises ‘You’ve Never Seen Superheroes Like This’

Warner Bros. has begun their full-on marketing assault in preparation for the film’s (hopeful) March 6 release.

Below is the latest TV ad that has been hitting the airwaves during some event called the “NFL Playoffs,” preparing soon-to-be-fans for the movie by warning them that they’ve, “never seen superheroes like this.”







Goodman Discusses Upcoming "The Zeta Project: The Complete First Season" Release

The World's Finest recently talked to The Zeta Project series creator Robert Goodman about the upcoming The Zeta Project: The Complete First Season DVD release.

A long-awaited release by fans, the first season of the cult classic The Zeta Project animated series will finally hit DVD on March 17th, 2009, and Robert Goodman, series creator of The Zeta Project, is excited to finally see this series released to the digital format.

"I'm psyched beyond words that The Zeta Project is coming out on DVD," says Goodman, "And it was a blast doing the interviews for the added material."

Goodman says that if RetroFit Films, the production company creating the bonus materials for the upcoming The Zeta Project DVD releases, The Zeta Project: The Complete First Season and The Zeta Project: The Complete Second Season, uses half of what was recorded, the mini-documentaries should be full of plenty of fun stories for everyone - especially on season two.

"Julie Nathanson (Ro), Liz Holzman (producer), Alan Burnett (supervising producer), Haven Alexander (associate producer), Rich Fogel (story editor), Joe Kuhr (staff writer), Rozalina Tchouchev (background painter) and I all got to contribute," he continues, adding that he hopes he's not forgetting anyone. "We all had a great time seeing each other and taking a trip down memory lane.

Goodman adds that he has high hopes for this release and wanted to be sure the release contained great bonus content.

"I'm hoping some good sales numbers will inspire Warner Bros. to let us resume telling Zee and Ro's stories," says Goodman, "Be it in series or maybe finishing the journey in a long-form straight-to-DVD or two."

"Either way, thanks to everyone for still watching," Goodman adds, "And I hope you all enjoy The Zeta Project on DVD!"

Warner Home Video has set a $26.99 MSRP for the March 17th, 2009 DVD release of The Zeta Project: The Complete First Season. More information on The Zeta Project can be found at out The Zeta Project subsite here at The World's Finest.





Brer Fox Shuffle

Here's a great "character-walk", I think by Milt Kahl. I put it in quotes because so many walks today are merely walks - just to get the character across the room. The classic animators knew that walks were a part of the entertainment.












In the early 30s, animators would animate goofy walks just for fun, not even thinking too much about character - and I'm all for that! Anything besides merely walking to get a character from here to there like we do today. By the mid 30s, the Fleischers had started animating according to who the characters were in the Popeye series. The walks were still funny, but fit the characters specifically. In the mid to late 30s, the west coast animators began experimenting with character walks too. At Disney's they were generally less concerned with the humorous aspects of it (or were just less funny people period). Warners managed to do character walks that were funny, stylish and specific all at the same time - the best of all worlds.

Tell the story with movement, not dialogue
This Brer Fox walk from 1946 is not wacky or funny, but it sure is great. Instead of him telling us with words how confident he is that he caught Brer Rabbit; his cocksure, slow shuffling walk with his hat over his eyes tells us visually exactly how he is feeling. I think some Disney animators are more comfortable acting in silence than when they are stuck with dialogue.

http://www.cartoonthrills.org/blog/Dis/46SongOfTheSouth/BFSHUFFLSML.mov

TIMED TO THE BEAT
I tried to number the keys, but my copy is at 29 frames per second, rather than 24 so I had to transfer it back to 24. In all this process the odd frame gets dropped and some get doubled, so I will be off by a frame or so here and there. It should be a 32x per step walk if I figured it right.

But if you watch the clip and whistle along with the music you can get a better idea of how the walk works. It's 4/4 timing at 8x per beat. On the first beat of each bar , Brer Fox kicks his foot out and up. Then he bounces in place, steps back down and then crosses his legs into the next step. Each action on the beat in this pattern:

1KICK, 2 Bounce 3 bounce and step (foot contacts ground), 4 step flat and cross legs into next kick
Repeat with other foot.

It's interesting that the whole scene is to this beat - even Fox's dialogue.

"HOW DO YOU DO" -each word on the beat

"he WISHin HE NEVer BEEN BORN"

They must have played the metronome for the actor so he would speak in 4/4 time at 8x per beat.

1 CONTACT RIGHT FOOT













4 RIGHT FOOT FLAT ON GROUND













12 MIDDLE POSITION. LEGS CROSSING- BODY LEANS FORWARD













15 FOOT STARTS INTO KICK - BODY STARTS LEANING BACK AGAIN













17 KICK LEFT FOOT OUT - RIGHT FOOT SLIDES FORWARD












18 KICK LEFT FOOT UP - CONT. SLIDE RIGHT FOOT FORWARD - LEAN BACK













23 - SQUASH DOWN FROM LAST POSE - SLOW SLIDE













27 - STRETCH UP INTO SETTLE FROM BOUNCE DOWN













30 CONTACT LEFT HEEL













33 LEFT FOOT FLAT ON GROUND













43 FOOT MIDDLE POSITION, CROSSING OTHER LEG - LEAN FORWARD













45 START KICK AND SLIDE













49 KICK UP AND SLIDE - LEAN BACK













53 SQUASH DOWN TAKE WEIGHT













57 SPRING BACK UP SETTLE













61 CONTACT RIGHT HEEL AGAIN













This post got me to thinking about why animation and cartoons began to steer off course in the late 1940s. I'll tell you my theory later.

(Thanks John K.)





Why Cartoon Animation Steered Off Course

It happened in the late 40s.

ANIMATION GREW FASTER THAN ANY ART FORM IN HISTORY

From the 20s and through the 30s animation exploded as an art form. From simple stick figures to a whole new discipline that took advantage of a visual element that was never possible before - movement.

A few animation "principles" were developed and refined within less than a decade!

IT WAS THE MOST APPEALING OF ALL VISUAL ARTS

Animation, born of the also recent invention of cartoon art and comics was a whole new way of looking at the world.

ITS WHOLE POINT WAS TO DISTILL THE FUN - LEAVE OUT THE BORING PARTS

It took all the boring parts out of life and just left the fun parts. It was fun to look at and fun to watch move. It told funny, ridiculous stories. It was the ice cream of the arts and because of it became the most popular of all the visual arts. Most people like fun - except executives who prefer market research.

To me the first half of the 20th century could be known as "The Cartoon Age" just as well as "The Jazz Age" or "The Age Of Progress".

IT WAS NOT CONSIDERED ART- IT WAS MERE "ENTERTAINMENT"

Astoundingly, this unbelievable new creative medium didn't get much respect - surely because it was so inventive and obviously directly enjoyable by so many people.

Some comic strips artists were respected (and made tons of money) but animators - who were doing a much more sophisticated form of cartoon got paid less and no respect. Most animators, excluding Walt Disney, were practically anonymous - unlike their comic strip counterparts who were rich and famous.

ANIMATION ARTISTS CAN'T DRAW AS WELL AS ILLUSTRATORS AND GET LESS RESPECT

Even the best draftsmen of animation's Golden Age couldn't draw as well as the average illustrators from the same period and I think many suffered an inferiority complex because of it.

This was probably mostly Walt Disney's fault. His own inferiority complex was contagious and poisoned much of the rest of the business.

He diverted almost everyone away from their natural cartooning instincts and made them all want to create "quality" rather than fun. Quality meant animating things that other mediums could do better and much more easily, like:

More detail
Human proportions
Elaborate special effects
Spectacle
Crying
Tribes of Naked Babies

None of these things lend themselves naturally to animation. They just make the work harder and eat away precious time that could be better spent being imaginative and doing what only cartoons and animation can do.

But creative cartoons and impossible magical animation don't get respect, remember. They just generate tons of money for the studios that release them - who in turn crap on the artists who made all the money for them.


ANIMATION ARTISTS TOOK MOVEMENT FOR GRANTED BECAUSE THEY WERE SO GOOD AT IT

Animators too busy comparing themselves unfavorably to illustrators, comic strip artists, live action movies and other related forms of art didn't realize how wonderful and unique their own skills were. The things you could only do in cartoons and the crazy amount of skill the animators developed in performing them came so natural to them that they didn't think much of them.

ANIMATION FIGURED OUT ITS BASICS BY 1940 - then stopped

What we think of today as "animation principles" were pretty much figured out by 1940 and nobody invented any new ones after that. For a few more years, they developed and refined this handful of techniques and produced the best animation in history.

ANIMATION LEADERS AIMED MORE AT THE DRAWINGS THAN THE MOVEMENT BY THE MID 40S

While most animation leaders stopped developing new techniques in movement itself, they instead started thinking about "improvement" coming only from the drawings themselves. Different studios and leaders approached this in different ways, but all of them slowed down or reversed the tools that made animation its own unique art form.

DISNEY - MORE COMPLICATED DESIGNS - SAME MOTION PRINCIPLES AND FORMULAS

Disney kept designing more and more complicated or "realistic" characters. They didn't change the way they moved them so much, just made it harder to move them.

Taller proportions-long legs. Much harder to move convincingly.

More detail - the more details on a character, the slower and more difficult it becomes to animate the character. More effort is expended on just not making jerky mistakes than on making the characters fun and entertaining. For 25 years, Disney's characters became harder and harder to draw, but the animation hardly varied at all. The characters moved the same way the simpler characters did - according to old Disney formulae.

Other animators see how technically well animated these elaborate Disney features are and know the incredible effort that went into them and are impressed. This doesn't automatically impress laymen or the audience though.

CHUCK JONES - LESS ANIMATION, MORE CLEVER AND STYLISH POSES

Chuck Jones developed his own unique drawing style and humor and year by year, toned down the animators' input or directed it to point to Chuck's poses and expressions. By 1948 he was making his funniest cartoons, but the animation was less inventive and fun for its own sake than just a couple years earlier.

By the late 50s the animation had become completely stiff and Jones' drawing style tastelessly out of control.

UPA - MORE LIKE RESPECTABLE MAGAZINE CARTOONS - STYLIZED - LESS ANIMATION

Magazine cartoonists drawing for Punch or The New Yorker got a lot more intellectual respect that cartoons from the "funny papers" or animation. Don't ask me why. The UPA artists drifted towards these graphic styles and abandoned creative movement - and definitely funny drawing almost altogether.

IN GENERAL - MORE TALK, LESS WALK

By the late 50s most non-Disney cartoons were left without clever and fun motion. Instead they traced back layout poses to make evenly timed inbetweens. The characters talked a lot more than they moved.

Disney continued doing elaborate movement because they could afford to and they believed still that that was what animation should do - it should move. At least!

But it was mostly movements you had already seen before in previous features.

The exception would be the imitation UPA cartoons they did - the ones you see imitated in all the "Art of Pixar" books.

These flattened Disney cartoons look to me like a misunderstanding of the UPA philosophy. Disney made harsh looking cold designs, but animated them very fluidly as if they were still animating Mickey and Donald. It's definitely clever (the first time!) but not very entertaining - except to Cal Arts alumni.

CLAMPETT LEFT WARNER BROS. IN 1946

All growing art forms need bold charismatic talented leaders. Clampett was the biggest most influential leader in funny cartoons for the first half of the 40s and everyone imitated him - even Disney was obviously influenced.

His cartoons were constantly inventive and he wasn't a total slave to the "Disney principles". He more than anyone, kept expanding the medium of impossible movement (animation) and dragged the rest of the business along with him while constantly creating and developing characters.

Then at the peak of his inventiveness and the peak of the Golden Age - he up and left!

Some say he was fired, he says he quit. But I think this single event in animation history was the most catastrophic thing we've ever endured. His momentum carried Warner Bros. for a few more years even as they gradually slowed down, but it created a hole in the art form that has never been filled.

TEX AVERY LAST LEADER TO KEEP UP CARTOONY ANIMATION

Tex Avery was the last leader to continue doing cartoony inventive animation, but he had less influence than Clampett because he didn't create characters. He made gag cartoons based on funny ideas rather than stories about funny personalities.

History has decided to award him the creation of Bugs Bunny, somewhat arbitrarily in my opinion - but how could it be that someone who created the greatest animated cartoon character in history could never again create even 1 character that the public really wanted to follow?

TEX DIDN'T CREATE CHARACTERS AND THE PUBLIC WOULD RATHER STICK WITH LESS FUNNY CHARACTERS THAN MORE FUNNY CONCEPT CARTOONS

Tex still made some of the funniest cartoons ever, but we remember Chuck Jones, Hanna Barbera and Disney more. - because we associate them with casts of characters. Most humans would rather watch continuing adventures with characters they are familiar with than a series of brilliant one-shot cartoons. Of course we love star characters the best, but we'll even take less charismatic continuing characters if there aren't any stars around.

It's a natural impulse for us to bond with friends. We bowl with our neighbors and party with them - even if they are not the most interesting folks in the city. Today's networks have come to realize this. They will leave a boring series on the air long past the period where they aren't getting ratings - because the audience will soon get used to the characters and accept them and even believe they are entertaining. Especially since there is no competition.

THE END
Tex was the last guy to uphold cartoon animation's roots, but he wasn't enough of an influence by the 50s to halt the ever more decadent trends that the rest of his colleagues were following.

Progress died and even worse - cartoons as a unique form of entertainment and art died.

(Thanks John K.)





Eliza Dushku pulls back the curtain to Fox's Dollhouse
















Eliza Dushku, who stars in Joss Whedon's upcoming SF Fox series Dollhouse, says it's been challenging playing the role of a woman who takes on different personas every week.

Speaking in an exclusive interview last week in Los Angeles, Dushku added that she can't wait for fans—and potential critics—to see the show, which hits the airwaves on Feb. 13 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Dollhouse tells the story of a group of people, called "dolls," whose minds have been wiped and who are implanted with artificial personalities--memories, skills, even physical abilities and infirmities--in order to perform tasks for hire by a secret organization: escort service, assassination, kidnap negotiation, etc. The show stars Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer cast member Dushku, former Battlestar Galactica cast member Tahmoh Penikett, Olivia Williams, Harry Lennix and former Angel star Amy Acker. It will air Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT, after Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Following is an edited excerpt of Dushku's interview with SCI FI Wire.




Tell me about some of the crazier stuff you've gotten to do.

Dushku: You mean dunking me in the National Sequoia Park river, like rolling me on the street in a motorcycle crash. They have me in a six-page ... fight scene with Tahmoh [Penikett], who, yeah, we're about the same size, so it was an even match, but we had a big fight scene ...

You kicked his ass, right?

Dushku: Yeah, totally. And then ... Joss puts me in these up-dos that really throw me for a loop. ... He's like, "I can throw you off a building, I can run you over with a car, and like, you know, while you're getting your ass kicked by like eight guys, and me putting you in an up-do is the one thing that takes you out of your comfort zone. There's something wrong with that." It's true! I'm just such, I don't know, I just grew up such a tomboy that having my hair, like, up and prim and proper just feels so foreign. Those are the weirdest days for me. Go figure.

You play different characters.

Dushku: Multiple. Every week, yes.

How's that?

Dushku: Good times. It's really good times. You never get bored. Yeah, boredom is not an option. ... I walk into my trailer, and there's 15 ... skirts and pants and tops for me to try on for the next episode, and I walk in, and there's like ... horse-riding gear or ... sky-diving gear. ... Every time I walk into my trailer and see the new wardrobe, I ... get an idea what the next episode is going to involve, and it's always exciting.

It's kind of a challenge, because you're playing different characters, but you've got to be Echo in there somewhere, right?

Dushku: Echo is ... the name ... that they've given me [in the] Dollhouse. So Caroline ... may be who I really am, but I'm also Echo. But I'm also each person I'm imprinted to be.

Are any of those people Eliza?

Dushku: I think all of them have a little bit of Eliza in them. It's about gauging and playing chemist. Yeah. Because I myself have multiple personalities. That's part of the reason Joss sat down and thought, "I know the perfect show to write for you. ... I've known you for 10 years, and I have no idea who [or] what you are, so ... let's just video it."

But no, it's awesome, it's the coolest, most humbling, and you know, truly great opportunity, experience. Because some parts are more like me, and I can kind of roll out of bed and roll into the outfit and churn them out. And other times, I mean, I've had some serious, ... challenging roles. Like the blind woman. ... They implant cameras into my eyeballs and send me into a cult as a blind woman, like [a] religious cult follower. But I believe that I'm that woman. And so there have been a number of different parts I've played that I've had to do some serious last-minute research on, and it's so fun, you know? ... It makes it all that much more interesting to go in every day and be wild.

What's the funnest thing you've had to do?

Dushku: I loved the fierce assassin that I was when I kicked Tahmoh's ass. She ... was a good egg. She was just ... highly intelligent, ... kind of quiet, but steely. Just, just kind of fierce, yeah.

You've probably read some of the reviews and heard the buzz, positive and negative, about the show. Does any of that come through, or do you try to screen it out?

Dushku: I'm proud of what we're doing, and we ... are doing what we wanted to do and telling the stories we wanted to tell. ... There's been pressure since the day we announced it, and there's been naysayers since the day we announced it, and, at this point, ... I just can't wait for the show to get on the air and for people to see it. ... Regardless of ... the hype and what people are saying, why don't people see it, and then they can decide what they feel? But I feel confident, ... because it's on the page, recorded on the stage, ... and it's working. And we're having a great time. ... Each episode is more and more intricate, and the story's unfolding. ...

I brought the first episodes home to my family to watch over the holidays, and you know what? They were freaking out. ... They were more proud and more psyched about this than most anything that [I've done]. ...