Cool, someone else getting some focus. Hopefully Fox will follow suit! The LA Times take a look at Tahmoh Penikett, who portrays Paul Ballard in “Dollhouse”, one of their “faces to watch” for 2009.
The actor will also have to dodge Whedon fans’ anxiety over “Dollhouse.” Rife with rewrites and reshoots, the series’ troubled production has been documented online by those who remember all too well the doomed trajectory of Whedon’s last show, “Firefly,” but Penikett is too excited to care.
“I don’t like panicking,” he said while relaxing over an Americano in Century City’s Clementine cafe. “I’m also old enough now where I try not to stress over things too much.”
In the first episode of “Dollhouse,” Paul is revealed to be a lethal combination of loner and relentless cop. Penikett couldn’t resist.
“I’ve been wanting to play someone darker. Helo’s got his demons, but ultimately he’s the most moral, ethical, family-man hero there is,” Penikett said. “Paul, you question right off the bat. He’s divorced, doesn’t have a lot of friends, messed up career-wise a few times and very self-righteous. I immediately wanted to play around with this guy.”
“I knew ‘Battlestar’ would go on for a while. You could feel it,” Penikett said.
He added that the feeling was the same on “Dollhouse” — even while he was having a tough time keeping track of his character’s now-jumbled story. “One of the writers told me they had to make a chart for Paul’s arc to keep it all straight,” he said. “We just shot Episode 9, and I’m only now beginning to figure things out.”
They’re all good things, he added quickly with a laugh. But patience will be key.
More here.
