Firefly 10th Anniversary: Browncoats Unite Page #3

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"what brand of insanity

is she suffering from?"

River:
[Whimpering]

[Screams]

Minear:
Actually, what he said was,

"how do I make sense

out of this performance?"

[Laughter]

I was like, "how do I bring

this into the real world?"

Simon:
River, it's okay.

[Sobbing]

It's me.

She was a character that had

a lot of secrets and backstory in her head,

and it was revealed a little bit over time,

not completely.

I made things up.

I made things up to help

with the story in my own imagination,

but I didn't know much

about the backstory at all.

Hands of blue.

Two by two.

Hands of blue.

How's about you shut that crazy mouth?!

Is that a fun game?!

To me, the most exciting thing was

when Jayne betrayed Simon and River.

Baldwin:
And this was a

point where I was fearing,

because I'll never forget it.

Joss made sure to let us all know that,

"the show was not named

after any one of you.

This is not called 'The Captain Mal Show.'

this is not called 'Jayne's Show, '

or anything like that.

This is called 'Firefly.'

You're all expendable."

So, I thought, "well, shoot.

I'd better make him loveable quick."

[Laughs]

[Woman speaking Mandarin over P.A.]

"Hope to hear from you

soon, love, your mother."

How's it sit?

Pretty cunning, don't you think?

I think it's the sweetest hat ever.

I remember when we were

shooting "The Message."

The whole scene is sort of built

around you putting on the hat.

Baldwin:
Yeah.

It was kind of brilliant.

Well, I decided, "well, hell.

I'm gonna wear the heck out

of this stupid-looking hat,"

so that I could button that

with the hat off at the funeral.

That's right. You had that planned.

Because I always felt that

Jayne was a man of God.

There were two things in that funeral thing

that the actors brought to it.

The first thing was absolutely Adam saying,

"I've had the hat on

through the whole episode."

And the other thing was

we had played this sort of unrequited thing

between Simon and Kaylee.

And we just added this little moment

where the camera just comes down

and finds her taking Simon's hand.

I remember when I showed Joss the cut,

he was watching the cut.

He went, "was that in the script?"

I'm like, "nope." And he adored it.

Molina:
By the way, some

of my favorite scenes

were you and Jewel.

because the Mal/Kaylee thing...

the little-sister thing...

was so innate in you guys

that you just would add

little moments, scenes.

I love my Captain.

What I love the most

is Kaylee's faith in Mal

and her trust in him.

She will do anything for that guy.

Fillion:
The reason Captain Malcolm

keeps these people so close is

because they all are an aspect

of himself that he's lost.

In Wash, a sense of humor.

- In Jayne, a selfishness.

- Brawn.

Whoa!

[Laughter]

That's fair. That's fair.

Gina's character, Zoe,

there's a capacity for love.

In book, he had his faith.

Just things that he lost within himself

that he can still have

around him in his life.

So it became very, very important to him.

It's kind of a genius concept

that you have people

that want to be isolated,

and they're in space,

where you couldn't

possibly get more isolated,

and they find a family with each other.

But back then, you know,

people were expecting

these astronomical numbers,

and we just weren't getting those numbers.

You're afraid we're

going to run out of air.

That we'll die gasping.

But we won't.

That's not going to happen.

We'll freeze to death first.

Jensen:
When did you in the writers' room

and the producer's level

begin to really worry

that "Firefly" was in trouble?

It's weird, because people

loved the episodes that we made,

and they're definitely

infused with something.

And I would say, ironically,

that being near death's door for us

actually is in those stories

and in those episodes.

"Out of Gas" was really representative

of that world where we were all facing

a real possibility of dying.

Can you tell a little bit about

the behind-the-scenes story

of how that episode came to be?

'Cause it wasn't easy, right?

Minear:
We were sitting

at dinner, and Joss said,

"can the episode start

with Mal shot in the gut?

Can he just be gut shot

and bleeding out in the cargo bay?"

I'm like, "you haven't lost me yet."

And then, when we started

asking the question,

"how did this happen?"

It became the theme of the episode.

And, really, the episode

is "how did this happen?"

Meaning, "how did Serenity happen

and the core crew, really,

even before the passengers came on board?"

Molina:
It was interesting because

before you and Joss had that dinner,

we were struggling.

Struggling.

For probably a week.

And we were so screwed.

And we would go out into that little patio

and just smoke and be like,

"oh, what are we gonna do?"

And I remember, at one point,

you were really up against it, time-wise.

Uh-huh.

And I was like, "dude, we've

known each other for a while.

"I'll fall on the sword with you.

I'll write it with you."

Uh-huh. I do remember that.

Mal:
I'm telling you Zoe.

We get a mechanic, get

her up and running again,

hire a good pilot, maybe a cook.

Live like real people.

Torres:
It was an origin show,

and so here was an opportunity

for them to know who we

were, where we came from.

A small crew...

them as feel the need to be free.

Take jobs as they come.

They never have to be under

the heel of nobody ever again.

No matter how long the arm

of the Alliance might get,

we'll just get ourselves a little further.

"Get her running again"?

Yeah.

So not running now?

Not so much. Okay.

If we gave the audience a

little bit more knowledge

and get them more excited,

then they'd tell 17 million

of their best friends.

[Laughs]

"This is what I learned this week.

You have to watch this show."

We lived in hope.

Our future felt very

precarious, just in terms of,

"is the show gonna

continue? Is it gonna go on?"

And the last image of the episode

really is sort of Mal seeing

this beautiful woman across a crowded room

kind of moment with that ship,

and that was Joss and us saying,

"oh, we fell in love with this thing, too."

And there was already a sense

that it was slipping away

from us at that point.

And I think that the sense of that

is in that episode in a weird way.

Can you talk about that day

where you heard that the

show had been canceled?

[Sighs] We were on the bridge.

Tudyk:
Shooting a scene.

I was directing, and Joss came up.

And he goes, "okay, so,

they've just canceled us.

Should I announce it?"

And I'm like, "yes."

Baldwin:
I remember the moment

hearing that we were canceled.

I was sitting in my trailer,

doing homework with my kid.

My kids would visit.

And one of the A.Ds came and knocked.

"Just got the word we've been canceled."

[Laughter]

- What?!

- Maher:
Just like that?

Just like that. Boom.

They just...

well, no, "Joss has just

announced it on the set."

I've never seen him so mad.

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