Nathan Fillion talks about how he almost completely failed his FIREFLY auditions

Actor Nathan Fillion he made a career for himself, starring in long-running hit series Castleas well as his current ABC crime drama The rookiebut most of us remember when he started his career on the sci-fi adventure show of Fox, Firefly. That almost wasn’t his role, though, as Fillion recalls totally bombing his auditions for the part which launched him into a new phase in his career.

Fillion explained to Backstage a few years ago that he originally auditioned to play the character of Angel Joss Whedonseries of Buffy the Vampire Slayerbut after being cut in the first round, he never got to meet the creator of the show until he was in the process of auditioning for Firefly. He explained that it wasn’t until he was introduced by casting director Amy Britt, and it took him a moment to realize that “the guy in the purple sweater with shaggy red hair and a beard and a hole in his sweater” was actually Whedon. They had a good chat and Whedon asked him to come read for the part of Mal.

Amy Pascale wrote in her book, ‘Joss Whedon: The Biography’ (via Gizmodo), tons of details behind the start of ‘Firefly’, including what happened when Fillion arrived for his audition. She was asked to read several times, and somewhere around the fifth attempt, he let the casting people know that he was confused. According to them, he seemed to read exactly the same way every time. She replied, “What am I. Is there anything you would like to see differently?” He continued:

“These poor people are thinking, Maybe I’m an idiot, I can’t take direction. I can only do one thing; I’m a one-note guy. But here we are.”

After finally getting direction, Fillion took a different path, proving that he can play the character in many ways. He continued:

“We did it differently and had a lot of fun. There was a bit of a communication breakdown there, but I was tense. I’ll tell you, I was tense.”

Good thing she thought to talk to the casting crew so everyone was on the same page. Without notes and direction, I’m sure it would have been hard to know where to go next. But, of course, Fillion charmed them, and the rest is history.

Via: /Movies