Summer Glau comes to Fox's 'Dollhouse'

Fans of writer/producer Joss Whedon aren't going to have to wait until Halloween for a sweet treat, since the night before - on Friday, Oct. 30 - Summer Glau begins her recurring role on Whedon's science-fiction drama "Dollhouse."

Glau comes to the Fox show after appearing in two previous Whedon series - The WB's "Angel" and Fox's "Firefly" - and starring in Fox's "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," which shared Fridays with "Dollhouse" last season.

Currently in its second season, "Dollhouse" is the saga of a powerful and mysterious corporation that has the technology to wipe and then reprogram the minds of volunteers. These "Actives" then play client-requested roles in very expensive "engagements."

They serve a five-year term then have their original personalities returned and are set free.

But at the sleek, Asian-themed Los Angeles facility - called the "Dollhouse" - an Active named Echo (Eliza Dushku), who used to be a politically active girl named Caroline, doesn't quite keep with the program.

Now things are starting to go seriously haywire in Rossum Corporation's carefully controlled world.

In "The Public Eye," the first part of a two-part story that concludes with "The Left Hand" on Nov. 6, Glau creates the character of Bennett Halverson, who arrives at the L.A. Dollhouse from the one in Washington, D.C.

She works there as a technical whiz in charge of wiping and reprogramming the Actives.

"I see Bennett as a sensitive, creative girl," Glau says, "who spends all of her time alone in a world of her own. She is a mad scientist who is searching for happiness."

Apparently Bennett and Echo's alter ego have a history.

"She has a vendetta against Echo," Glau says. "She knew her back when she was Caroline, and there was this horrible accident, and she has been waiting to reunite with her for quite some time - waiting to get my revenge.

"I'm making her as creepy as it gets, but I asked Joss, 'Can I still be sexy?'"

"The character that she plays on 'Dollhouse,'" Whedon says, "is very sweet and calm and elegant, kind of shy, kind of adorable, possibly evil, but that doesn't matter.

"She's a little bit damaged, because that's what I write. She's played her share of crazies, and I didn't want that. I just wanted someone who was a little off-kilter and yet enormously sympathetic."

He also offered her something unlike the cyborg role she played on "Terminator."

"When I first spoke to Joss about coming on 'Dollhouse,'" Glau says, "he was like, 'Don't worry, it will be very different than what you did on "Terminator," busting through a bunch of walls. I'm going to give you lots of dialogue and have you talking nonstop.'

"On my first day of work, I had more dialogue than I had on two years at 'Terminator.'"

Although Dushku is also a Whedon veteran, having played slayer Faith in both "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel," its spinoff, this marks the first time (aside from a promo last year for Fox's Friday night) that she and Glau have worked together.

"I look for people," Whedon says, "who are talented and sane, that, A, can get it done, and B, are easy to work with and don't get in the way of their own talent with their crazy.

"As a result, I not only have a stable of actors and writers that I can turn to, I have people I love very much in my life that are fascinating."

Also moving in and out of "Dollhouse" this season are "Angel" star Alexis Denisof, who plays U.S. Sen. Daniel Perrin; and "Firefly" star Alan Tudyk, who plays rogue Active Alpha.

Despite its dedicated fan base, a beautiful set and a great deal of press attention, "Dollhouse" had a rocky first season, with plenty of rumors and rewrites.

Many were surprised when it and not "Terminator" got the second-season nod. The show also remains ratings-challenged, even for a Friday drama.

Whedon is well aware of the show's issues and has worked to address them.

"The one thing," he says, "people said the show lacked was that sense of family, that all the other (of my) shows created. This season we addressed that issue. It might just be a little bit different than people think it's going to be."