Eliza Dushku Talks Dollhouse

We’re only a few days away from the premiere of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, and in anticipation we had the chance to attend a conference call with star and producer Eliza Dushku. Dushku plays Echo, an “Active” who are a group of illegal and underground agent types who have their personalities wiped. Wealthy and powerful persons hire these blank slates to become whoever they want them to be. Think of it as the ultimate escort service, where the goal isn’t always sex but an experience.

Echo begins to remember her past as the series goes on and that is the impetus upon which the show is based. Dushku took a moment to talk about her role in Dollhouse, the full transcript of which we’ll have as soon as we can. “It’s obviously not a perfect system,” Dushku said about the facility Echo and her fellow “Actives” are housed in. So we can expect some mystery, although it’s not clear if this will follow the big bad of the season recipe from Buffy or the overarching story structure of Firefly.

”I have a lot of energy, and I have an appetite for people as stories…and being in a different place,” Dushku said about why she likes roles like Echo or Faith. ”One thing Joss gave me in this project is the ability to show some other colors of mine.” The show itself is partially Dushku’s, as she created the show alongside Joss. This was done upon her impetus, and it was Joss who gave it direction. Dushku wanted to do something, and it was Joss who came up with the idea to do what has ended up being Dollhouse.

”Joss is a novelist, and you have to give him chapters to tell the story,” Dushku said about how Joss works. In other words you can’t mess with the structure (aka airdates) of a Whedon series and it appears Dollhouse is another show that’ll take many episodes before things start to become clear and come together.

They have shot 13 episodes of Dollhouse, so it looks like Fox is serious about giving the show a chance. "We just finished all of them," Dushku commented. Great news for those of us who have worried about Dollhouse's fate.

We’ll have the full transcript up as soon as we have it. Dollhouse premieres this Friday, February 13 at 9:00pm EST on Fox.

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