Baccarin: “Firefly cancellation was like getting my heart torn out”

Just a quick one today, folks. I’ve just got back from the Warner Bros. International Press Junket in London, where I sat down with V actors Morena Baccarin, Scott Wolf and Elizabeth Mitchell. While the bulk of the material is embargoed until the show airs in the UK in September, I thought I’d share this brief snippet about Firefly with you.

When asked about how they manage the stress that comes with a new show and the constant threat of cancellation, Baccarin drifted onto the subject of Joss Whedon’s criminally short-lived series, with a surprising amount of positive comments about the show from Mitchell too.

As actors, is it not horribly stressful, not knowing one minute from the next whether you’ll have a job, or do you just deal with it?

Morena Baccarin: We deal with it.

Scott Wolf: On my first show, we would show up… the show aired on, I think it was Mondays when we started, so on Tuesday mornings we would go ‘Click, do the lights still work? Okay! We can work!’ Because the ratings were shaky, so even on successful shows – I won’t name names – but there are shows that have been very successful and then fall off for one reason or another…

Elizabeth Mitchell: Oh yeah.

SW: So I think you just have to go to work, put all of yourself into it and make it the best thing you possibly can.

MB: I learned that lesson the hard way. My very, very first job was Firefly and that going was so hard to believe because I was so assured…

EM: It was so hard to believe.

MB: I was assured, I was young, Joss Whedon is such a reputable person and we all thought it was going to go for seasons and seasons.

EM: And it should have!

MB: We fell in love with it, the whole cast, we all loved working together so much. And when it was cancelled it was like, my heart got torn out of me. Literally.

EM: And that was one of the biggest uprisings of a fan base I’ve ever seen, I mean, you got a movie.

MB: I really liked that episode of The Big Bang Theory when one of the characters is really upset and he says ‘is Firefly getting cancelled?’ That was so cute!

EM: It was so good! It was ridiculous that didn’t go on.

MB: I got traumatised by that.

EM: Of course you did!

SW: But clearly, in this day and age, making it through your first season and into your second is huge.

V will air on Virgin1 in the United Kingdom this September.