Archive for the 'Articles & Interviews' Category

When I first came across this article, I was unable to update, but better late than never!

Entertainment Weekly had an exclusive interview with Joss Whedon last week about Much Ado About Nothing which included a Q&A with Amy Acker and Sean Maher as well as exclusive stills — the first still featuring Amy opposite Alexis Denisof has been added to the gallery; a preview is to your right & the gallery link is below. An extract from the article is also posted below, with Amy’s portion of the Q&A under the cut. Enjoy!

Gallery Link
- Production Stills

After wrapping production on Marvel Studios’ gargantuan summer tent-pole The Avengers, writer-director Joss Whedon was supposed to go on a monthlong vacation with his wife, Kai Cole. Instead, Whedon tells EW exclusively that his wife suggested he finally make the feature film version of William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing he’d been ruminating over for years.

And so he did — adapting the script, casting the film with Whedonverse alums like Nathan Fillion, Amy Acker (Angel), Alexis Denisof (Buffy, Angel), and Sean Maher (Firefly), and shooting the self-funded, black-and-white indie in secret over 12 days at his Santa Monica, Calif., home. (Production wrapped on Sunday, and Whedon says it will be ready for spring 2012 film festivals.) How did Whedon pull all this off? What was it about this particular Shakespeare comedy that drew him in? And what did stars Sean Maher — who plays the fiendish villain Don John — and Amy Acker — who co-stars with Denisof as the sarcastic, talky couple at the center of the play — make of all of this ado about Much Ado? Check out EW’s exclusive Q&As with Whedon, Maher, and Acker below, as well as exclusive shots of Maher, Denisof and Acker from the film:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: This announcement took people by surprise to say the least. How did this all come together?
JOSS WHEDON: Well, it’s not a bit secret that I’ve done these [Shakespeare] readings before, and I always had a vague notion of shooting Much Ado. But I didn’t really have a take on it. And then, for some reason, I kinda sorta did. As we were finishing The Avengers in New York, my wife and I were planning our vacation for our 20th anniversary. And she said, “Let’s not take the vacation. Make a movie instead.”

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Amy Acker says Angel fans are a special sort of breed.

Acker played Fred in Joss Whedon’s Buffy spin-off for four seasons and says the fans she encounters from that television series are different than ones on other shows she’s worked on such as Alias.

“I don’t feel I ever meet fans of Alias that are ever the same as the fans from Angel,” she says.

“The Angel fans are so connected to the show and they know so much about the show.”

She credits Whedon’s writing as one of the reasons the fans become so invested in the show.

“Joss has always made shows where there’s all these different types of people and you can always find yourself in at least one of the characters,” Acker says.

The actress has been in a number of Whedon’s productions including the short lived Dollhouse, in which she played Dr Claire Saunders and she counts the director as one of her closest friends.

Acker says as a director he is able to get the exact performance he wants from his actors.

“Watching him work with the actors and the crew it’s pretty amazing to see the way he communicates ideas and I think it’s pretty remarkable how he changes performance from one take to the next,” she says.

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Amy undertook several (spoilery) interviews lately, covering Happy Town and the Dollhouse series finale, and we were lucky enough to also receive additional confirmation from Amy herself that she indeed does have a small part in The Cabin in the Woods — it took 3 weeks to film, with most of her scenes being opposite Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford. The extract is posted below; you can read this article in full & the other articles in the Press Library. Happy reading!

Q: You got to work with Joss and Drew Goddard again on The Cabin in the Woods, right?

Amy: Yeah. That was another lucky thing. They hadn’t found someone, and it was just a couple of days before shooting, so they asked me to go do The Cabin in the Woods. Drew is just so awesome, and Joss is one of my best friends. Any opportunity to work with them, I’m like, “I’ll do catering. I don’t care. Just let me hang out with you guys.”

Q: How big of a role did they have for you?

Amy: It’s a smaller role, but I was out there for three weeks of it. All of my stuff is with Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford, so I was just laughing the whole time.

Q: Is there a separate adult story going on, with this kid story in the woods?

Amy: I don’t know what I’m supposed to say about this movie. Maybe. It’s a horror movie.

Q: Is it scary or is it funny too?

Amy: I’m not going to say because I don’t want to get in trouble.

Q: What did you think when you found out it was going to be transferred into 3-D?

Amy: I was super-excited. I got a note. Drew sent out an email to everyone. Having a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old, every movie I’ve seen in the past year has been in 3-D, so I was like, “That would be so awesome, if they made a real movie in 3-D.” That’s the thing that everybody is doing now.

Source: IESB.net

Friendship with Joss Whedon has its privileges. Just ask actress Amy Acker who is as surprised as anyone to have played such an integral role in what’s shaping up to be a pretty epic final season of Dollhouse.

Spoiler warning!

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There’s another new interview online with Amy, this time courtesy of Los Angeles Times and it’s a lovely read, even offering a little more insight into Amy’s character. Happy reading!

Amy Acker is a favorite among Whedonites (followers of Joss Whedon) for her role as Fred Burkle and Illyria on “Angel,” and also co-starring in an influential arc on the show “Alias.” Joss woke up and “smelled the Acker” — he said it, not me! — and rewrote a character on his new venture “Dollhouse” for the actress. Doing one-episode stints on shows such as “Ghost Whisperer,” “Private Practice,” “Law and Order: Criminal Intent” and more, Acker was ready to fall back into the comfortable confines of Whedon witticisms, supported by a crew filled with familiar faces.

So, you are Dr. Saunders. What are your duties in the Dollhouse?
I’m there to take care of all the dolls. I seem to be the multi-purpose doctor, since I’m the only one there. I’ve done some stitches, some Band-Aids and some psychological counseling. It’s a fun job because I get to see everybody and do a little of everything. And I feel like I’m there to keep the morality of the Dollhouse in check.

How tough of a job is that with apparently shady characters like Olivia Williams’ Adele DeWitt?
Yeah, she seems a bit nasty sometimes. No, I think you never know what anyone’s objective is there: if they’re doing what they think is right or what the right thing really is. It’s hard to navigate what is right in this world.

How different is your character from Fred in ‘Angel’?
Whenever I’m doing scenes with Topher or Franz’s character, I think, “Hey, that’s like Fred.” He’s always thinking and just moving around. Dr. Saunders is totally direct and focused and always knows what she wants. It was a hard transition to not be the silly, eccentric one.

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There’s another interview with Amy online, this time with Total Sci Fi, which briefly covers Dollhouse as well as 21 and a Wake-Up — I’m sure we’ll be seeing some more interviews soon! Enjoy the read.

The people who made Angel really love Amy Acker. When Joss Whedon hired her for to play Fred Burkle in the show, co-creator/executive producer Joss Whedon declared: “She’s stolen all of our hearts – and now we’re afraid she won’t give them back!” Acker was a regular on Angel for four years, before being hired by erstwhile Angel showrunner Tim Minear to play Nathan Fillion’s wife on the short-lived Drive, and had a recurring gig as a badass spy on Alias in between. Now she’s a regular on Whedon’s new Fox series Dollhouse as “house” doctor Claire Saunders.

So you’re back with Joss Whedon…

Yes, I’m very excited. I roped him into hiring me!

In Dollhouse, the ‘dolls’ are imprinted with a variety of personalities, but your character has a stable identity…

As far as I know! I’m the doctor.

So she’s not a psychiatrist with a troubled past?

I’m more of the general practitioner. I actually help them with their injuries, but I deal with everything.

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Thanks to Ted Stokes at Stuff We Like! In this part, there are some wonderful titbits about Dollhouse; an idea of Amy’s character, and the fact that while Amy is currently a recurring character, she has filmed every episode but one so far!

Marking just under one month until Dollhouse’s premiere (Feb 13th) we are proud to present the concluding part of our exclusive interview with Amy Acker which began December 15th. This time we talk about her career after her breakout role as Fred in Angel all the way to Dollhouse.

You went and used a lot of technology in some of your work or played very technological people how are you good with technology really?

I’m not even good at checking email so not really.

Were there any plans to do tie-in videogames for Angel?

I haven’t heard about that so no.

Are you into videogames?

I don’t know. I have never really been into that, I mean my husband’s [James Carpinello who played Bobby Saint in 2004’s The Punisher] big into Guitar Hero and Rock Band. My sister has a Wii and I think my favourite thing about it was at Christmas last year my whole family were playing Wii bowling so I was like this is pretty awesome, that we can all play this together.

That seems to be the draw for the Wii really as it’s aimed at all ages with its unique control system.

Yes I like that it’s a little more active, I get stuck in a trance doing the other ones and also I’m just not very good at it and I like doing things that I’m good at.

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