Echoes of Eliza: Eliza Dushku Dishes on Dollhouse

Dollhouse producer and star Eliza Dushku appears to have discovered her “authentic self.” Listening to Eliza cover a conference call interview on the second season of Dollhouse, one becomes aware of several things: the second season will be more “complicated, a little darker all around” than season one, Echo is finding her core self, and Eliza has found hers.

This woman can talk! Even over the telephone, she projects a sense of complete ease. For all I know, she may have been clad in a suit, seated at a boardroom table, but throughout the interview, I pictured her kicked back on the couch, feet on a coffee table chatting away. By turns articulate, rambling, insightful, and funny, she guided a nest of reporters through the maze that is Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse.

Season two of Dollhouse premiered last Friday, 9/27 at 9 pm on FOX with a riveting episode guest starring Jamie Bamber (Battlestar Galactica). In the episode, we learned that Echo, the “Active” played by Dushku, retains memories of the personalities that have been imprinted upon her during her tenure in the Dollhouse courtesy of a rogue Active named Alpha. We also witnessed the assimilation of former FBI agent Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) into the Dollhouse as Echo’s handler. According to Dushku, Ballard’s actions within the Dollhouse and his alliance with Echo will form a major story arc in season two.

As both producer and star of the series, Eliza Dushku is clearly passionate about her show. Dollhouse was conceived at a lunch meeting between Dushku and Whedon. Dushku, who considers Whedon a “friend, a brother, a teacher, a mentor,” was talking about her feelings about the demands placed upon women by society to conform to external ideals, to mold themselves into someone else’s notion of identity, and her own struggles to find her “authentic self.” At the same time, the two had met with the notion of developing a series for FOX. Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Serenity, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog) took the conversation and in Whedon-esque fashion created a series based upon the premise of an entity that erases human personalities and replaces them with “imprints” tailored to the clients’ precise specifications.

Dushku, who describes Whedon as “wildly creative, and smart, and feminist, and funny, and dark, and scary, and twisted,” believes that “as a man it’s so extraordinary that he taps into that in such a profound and intelligent way and I can’t think of anyone else that gets that and can create an entire … fantasy show that encompasses such a universal and serious … thing in our society.”

Article Author: Christy Corp-Minamiji

Christy Corp-Minamiji is a livestock veterinarian, writer, and mother living in Northern California. She writes fiction and blogs on the eclectic range of topics that interest her.

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