AOL Interview With Dollhouse's Tahmoh Penikett (Paul Ballard)

[JamesG]

You may not know his name (and if you do know it, you may not be able to pronounce it), but Tahmoh Penikett rules Friday night sci-fi television. Turn on the tube and you can watch Penikett back-to-back in Joss Whedon's new Fox drama, Dollhouse, and Sci Fi's acclaimed Battlestar Galactica.

The Canadian star chatted with AOL TV about rabid Whedon fans, all those rumors about the demise of Dollhouse and how he feels about the series finale of BSG.
-- By Kelly Woo




1. How does it feel to jump from a critically acclaimed sci-fi show right into one written by the king of TV geeks, Joss Whedon?

It's been incredible. I feel so incredibly blessed, and I'm just proud of the fact that I'm at the point in my career where I'm having the opportunity to work with the best of the best. Ron Moore is the best in the business, as is Joss Whedon. And I mean, ironically enough, the reason I'm working on this project is because Joss is a huge fan of Battlestar Galactica, and always has been.




2. Battlestar vs. Dollhouse: Can you compare and contrast?

I think Battlestar Galactica was the exception in a lot of ways. It wasn't just any series. We had a large ensemble, we knew we were part of a very special and important piece of art from the jump and all that happened over the course of the five years. We really, truly were a big family; we're still very much involved in each other's lives. That was a different experience in the last few years, because it was so comfortable, it was so relaxed -- not to say Dollhouse isn't. But it's a new experience. I'm working with a new crew and a new cast. But there's a lot of opportunity with Dollhouse. I'm pretty excited about the possibilities with this show.




3. There's been talk about Dollhouse, its time slot and the problems behind the scenes. How do you feel the show is going?

I think the show is going excellent. It's the consensus on set ... that the last four [or five] episodes were amazing. They were so well written. We were all like, "OK, this is the show." It just felt right. A lot of the characters who hadn't met before were having scenes together, and you saw those longer story arcs starting to be developed. You know, it's what happens in the industry, man. There's a lot of speculation. Joss will tell you, it was a little rough in the beginning, and maybe they got a little off on the wrong foot. But I hope our fans stay with us through the first five episodes because … the show just gets so good for the last half of the season.




4. You probably won't give us any hints about what happens, right?

[Laughs] Because of our bumpy start, I can give this away: Joss and his entire writing staff threw in all their little bags of tricks. He was telling me what was probably going to happen near the end of the season, and I was like, "Joss, save something for second and third season!" He had all these crazy cliffhangers and these crazy surprises that he was going to throw in, and he was like, "We'll just come up with new stuff." I was just sitting there in awe ... Joss Whedon is that talented and intelligent that he's confident in the fact that he'll just come up with some new stuff. The ideas that he was throwing at me were incredible. They're going to blow people away.




5. Will we see your character, Paul Ballard, integrate more with the other characters?

Yeah, you will; it's going to happen. But to be honest with you, there was a lot of talk about how in the original pilot, which some people saw, Eliza [Dushku]'s character and I meet right away. That's not the case in this new one, which I kind of prefer. It gives fans something to look forward to, to speculate about … We took a different path [for] when certain characters will meet, and I think ultimately they were stronger choices. There's an excellent episode called Man on the Street -- and that's the fifth or the sixth episode. Paul gets to finally meet some very important people, people that he's been looking for, and it's pretty interesting.




6. Will we learn more about Paul's background and why he's so determined to find the Dollhouse?

It's really intriguing and compelling -- why is this guy so hell-bent on the Dollhouse? Understandably, there are a lot of things that it morally and ethically stands for that are wrong. But why does it seem to affect him so personally? [Paul] is the type of guy, once he puts his mind to something, there's no stopping him. But what happened to him in his past? … There's a lot more to it than Eliza just being a beautiful woman, whose picture he sees and wants to save. There's a connection, a familiarity, between them that will hopefully be investigated in this first season.




7. Who's more rabid: BSG fans or Joss Whedon fans?

That's a hard question. The Whedon fans are cultish. It's incredible how much they love him, and rightly so -- the man's incredibly intelligent. But the last couple years of Battlestar have been nuts. I've had grown men and women approach me about how excited they were about the show and before the season's starting again, they're literally shaking with anticipation and frustration. I've never seen people get so invested in an emotional way about a show. It makes me feel incredibly proud. But I get a kick out of it, too. I can't help but tease them sometimes because, you know, I'm a fan of the show also.




8. Are you happy with how Battlestar Galactica goes out?

I couldn't be more happy … Everyone consistently felt that this was the most just and fitting and perfect ending that we could ever [have]. It's so momentous and full of surprises and action and heartache and everything that Battlestar is -- it's really hard to describe. Everybody who's going to be watching this finale has been invested in everything we've been through … and you can only get those feelings and that passion and that story in episodic [form]. It's just amazing. And I haven't even seen it. I just shot it. I was on it. It's always different for me, even after five years, seeing the finished product. So, I'm just as excited as everyone else.




9. One of your co-stars, Katee Sackhoff, recently said she thought Battlestar could have at least gone on for another year. What do you think?

I agree. Before they told me that we were going to be done, if they had said, "OK, we wanted you another year," I absolutely would have been game. It could've been another year. But I'm not a writer, and Ron Moore and his writing staff are incredibly talented ... This is Ron's baby, and if he felt that we'd be compromising the integrity of the story by taking it another year, then we have to trust in that. But it definitely could have gone another year. Going back to what I said about Joss, they could always come up with new tricks and new stories. That's what they do.




10. You've done a lot of sci-fi. Is there any other genre you're interested in trying?

Well, I'm an actor, number one, so the genre doesn't matter, really. I look forward to doing a comedy some day, but I love drama. I love drama, and that's what Battlestar is. Number one, it's an excellent drama. It's set in the context of space, so I guess it was sci-fi. But I'm also a big geek, too. I love sci-fi if it's well-done. I'll do it all.


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