It was Sunday morning and Tara and I were sitting in a gigantic pier. Were we taking a boat trip on the Hudson? Nope. We were at Big Apple Con, where we were lucky enough to meet Miracle Laurie of Dollhouse fame. In case you live in a hobbit hole, she plays active Mellie/November/Madeline. After playing a bit of the new Super Mario game for the Wii, we hunkered down into her autographing area and got down to interviewing business.
Bitsy: This is Buffyfest and we're doing an interview here with Miracle Laurie here at Big Apple Con.
Tara: Big Apple Comic Con.
Bitsy: Yes! Or that. Alright, so the first question is: So you've been pegged as being a little bit of an optimist. Let's say, theoretically, since people are trying to make that Dollhouse technology into a reality, do you think there's any chance that it can be used positively? Or is it always going to end in tears?
Miracle Laurie: Well, we actually have done a couple engagements on the show where it is pro bono, where they go and do good things in the world..so yes, I do think so. Is it morally right no matter what? Probably not. (laughs) It's nice that they use it for good sometimes but really that's not what it comes down to.
Listen to the audio of the next part below:
Bitsy: Speaking of technology, talking about one thing everybody uses, you use twitter a lot now...
Miracle: I'm a big tweeter! Yeah!
Tara: So am I!
Bitsy: Yep, we all kind of do the tweet.
Miracle: I resisted all of that kind of stuff in the beginning, just because it's not in my nature at all. And I realized it's kind of necessary and actually quite fun and I've really started to enjoy connecting with everybody.
Bitsy: Yeah, you've connected with a couple of fans now, haven't you?
Miracle: Oh definitely yeah! One in particular - Madelaine Anne is a name that sticks out - and she follows me on twitter and replies to me a lot. She was actually here today and I got a picture with here. So it's fun to put the faces with the names and the handles and stuff. And I just want to tell everyone: even if I don't respond to your replies, I read EVERYTHING. I read everything that people say to me, everything on Facebook. I check it all out every day. I have to get better at replying to everyone but...but I'm there I watch, I listen!
Bitsy: Do you think that twitter played a part, like the campaigns that happened in helping Dollhouse get renewed for that second season?
Miracle: Oh hell yeah! Oh definitely...yeah absolutely. I think that everyone's efforts - The facebook efforts, twitter and all the websites like you guys and everyone else, really added up and became quite the powerhouse that FOX had to reckon with. And they did and they made the right decision.
Listen to the audio of the next part below:
Bitsy: Alright, so I was going to ask you since I know that you were at least a fan of some of the other shows, a hypothetical question. Let's say, if you could play ANY part in any Joss Whedon show other than the one you play now, what would it be and why?
Miracle:
Uh, (laughs) Uh, if I were a man I'd love to play Spike! I thought he was like the hottest, coolest character...super fun and just cool leather jacket, very old school. And I love all the stuff they got him to do when they did all the flashbacks with Angel and all that stuff. I thought that was really, really fun. So he was pretty cool. Or Willow. She's just straight up badass.
Bitsy: Nice!
Tara: Great answer.
Miracle: Goofy and badass at the same time.
Tara: That's a good segue to Buffy. So you're a Buffy fan.
Miracle: Yes.
Tara: What's your favorite Buffy episode?
Miracle: It's not very creative. I love the Musical cause who doesn't? I've never been to a screening, though. I'm sure you know that they do actual screenings.
Tara: Oh yeah.
Miracle: I'd love to go to that. I love the Musical..I love The Body, I thought that was like INCREDIBLE tv making. I thought Sarah was amazing in that episode. Those are probably my top 2.
Tara: Do you have a favorite season, favorite arc?
Miracle: I really enjoy the middle. Towards the end of the last season it got a little sketchy for me.
Bitsy: Oh really, season 7 was a little sketch?
Miracle: Yeah, I mean I watched every second of it, I cried at the last episode because it was over...but I really enjoyed the middle chunk a lot.
Bitsy: I know you watch Fringe and you watch, what is it, Amazing Race? Those are the two I've seen you tweet about.
Miracle: Yes.
Bitsy: I do research. That's right, I looked at your twitter at five o'clock in the morning.
Tara: (laughing) That's your research.
Bitsy: Hard at work. Anything else that you watch? Any movies that you like?
Miracle: I love Lost. I was into it in the very beginning and then the polar bear and I was like "What the hell is happening?" and I left again. My friend was like "You don't understand, it's totally worth it, it you're gonna love it". I got back into it and I just freaked out. I thought it was amazing. So, I'm totally addicted as is my fiance.
Bitsy: Are you gonna be sad? It ends this year. This is the end.
Miracle: I know. Let's see. Sunday television is Amazing Race, nothing on Mondays or Tuesdays for me, Wednesdays is America's Next Top Model. I don't really watch for the drama because really they're all like twelve year old girls, just obnoxious, but...I love all their challenges, I love all the photo shoots and I used to model, so I kind live vicariously through them and remember the good old days.
Tara: I was about to ask if that was the reason.
Miracle: Yeah, it's really fun to watch. Thursdays is Fringe and Project Runway.
Bitsy: That's my favorite reality tv show
Miracle: Fridays is Dollhouse, of course, and that's pretty much it. That's my appointment television. I love rewatching movies I've seen about a thousand times. I love old stuff like "I Love Lucy".
Bitsy: Cool. Do you think you can be objective when you watch Dollhouse? Like, do you watch and say "I liked this, I didn't like that" or is it impossible?
Miracle: It's difficult sometimes. I think I can be objective about myself which is odd. Like some actors cannot watch themselves. I don't mind it. It doesn't feel like I'm watching me. I don't know if I have like a split personality or something that I can just separate but it's fun to just look and say "ew, that's not so good" or "wow, that turned out great". Like for example, when I saw my first episode this season as Madeline with Paul, I was really worried it would really read as Mellie and Paul and that any kind of flirtation would be residual and left over and I didn't feel that way. I felt it was a totally different relationship.
Bitsy: What's the hardest thing you've had to do on the show so far and what do you think is the easiest?
Miracle: One of the hardest scenes for me that stands out is when I had to tell Paul that I was a doll. It was very expositional and I couldn't have a feeling about what I was saying either way vs. nine episodes of working with this guy and just being in love with him all the time and all this emotion and I had to have none in front of this guy that I have this relationship with and Tahmoh was so great in that episode his heart was breaking in front of me for like three hours and I couldn't react to him and it was a lot of dialogue it was like a four or five page scene and it was a lot. It was just very weird to be that neutral in that situation. As a doll you are in doll mode and your in the clothes and in the (doll)house, this is like Mellie/ Paul land which is rife with all kinds of crap and I had to go and do that sequence and so that was really tricky for me and very emotional. Easiest Stuff? I dunno...
Tara: Nothing
Bitsy: Being in bed with Tahmoh Pennikett,
Miracle: Well. (laughs) No he made it comfortable for me. Like that and the fight scenes would be very challenging but I think I was just excited to be there and do the work. It's all been fun and easy and challenging on it's own level. It's just been a total dream.
Tara: You were a model and I’m assuming you’re still into fashion.
Miracle: Not really.
Tara: Do you like how they dress you on the show?
Miracle: Yeah, I do. I should say that I was modeling when I was twelve to fourteen, but I was freakishly tall and had a mature face. So I worked as an adult, but I was still a kid. I was never one of the girls that looked at the magazines and said, “I’m gonna model some day.” It was never really a dream of mine, I always wanted to act and someone approached me in a supermarket and said I should be a model. She took pictures of me and sent them to the manager and the owner and they loved me. So, I started working. It was really, really great, but I did it because I thought it would be a doorway into acting.
You know, I can barely dress myself to be honest with you. I’m just like hippy, hula girl who would rather be barefoot and in a sarong, but working on the show I’ve been educated on many different designers because I’ve worn them. Shoes!? Who knew? I normally hate shoes, but I’m starting to realize how important they are and how fabulous they can be. So, I’m very excited to say that now I’m slowly coming into the fashion world as an educated human being.
Tara: Barefoot, no more.
Bitsy: So, we’re here at a comic book convention. If you could have any superpower which would it be?
Miracle: Oh, flight. Since I was a kid I wanted to fly. I still think it’s possible some day. I don’t know how I’m going to work it out.
Bitsy: Do you have the flight dreams? Dreams of you flying?
Miracle: I have never. Isn’t that ridiculous? Since I can remember, I wanted to fly, but I’ve never dreamt of flying. I daydream...but I don’t need to be like Superman, I just want to fly above traffic. Like, I could just be at building level, it doesn’t have to be anything crazy.
Bitsy: So if we got you like a little Jetson’s flying car, would that be satisfying?
Miracle: That’d be awesome or just a little shuttle pack or a jet pack or I could just hover, like a hoverboard from Back to the Future.
Bitsy: Oh, the Back to the Future 2 hoverboard? I like that one.
Miracle: Yeah, that would work for me.
Bitsy: Couldn’t go on water, though.
Miracle: That’s okay. I just want to be above the ground and feel that sensation.
Tara: Ok, we want to do a quick word association. We’ll give you a word and you give us a word.
Miracle: Okay.
Buffyfest: You don’t have to think too much, just blurt it out.
Miracle: OK
Listen to the audio of the Whedonverse Word Association below:
Buffyfest: The Whedon Fandom.
Miracle: Awesome.
Buffyfest: Paul Ballard
Miracle: Hot.
Buffyfest: New York City.
Miracle: Probably my favorite city in the world.
Buffyfest: Serenity (the movie).
Miracle: Almost in it, I think. (laughs)
Buffyfest: Really?!
Miracle: Yeah, I’m not giving one word answers, sorry. (laughs)
Buffyfest: What! Do you know who you were going to play?
Miracle: I don’t know, no. It was a very weird situation, but I think I was almost in it, yeah. Keep going!
Buffyfest: You're like "Moving on!" OK. Faith, the Vampire Slayer.
Miracle: Echo.
Buffyfest: The Dollhouse.
Miracle: Home.
Thanks so much to Miracle Laurie! Click here to follow Miracle on twitter, if for some reason you're not already!
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