After being prematurely released from her Dollhouse contract in the season finale, thanks to Agent Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett), we weren’t sure if we would ever see November/Mellie//Madeline on the sci-fi hit again. Also not sure of her return? Actress Miracle Laurie, who played the three-in-one character. TV Guide Magazine caught up with Laurie to discuss her return to Dollhouse this Friday, and her future on the show.
So I'm watching the premiere, and you're not in it. I didn't know that you were going to be back. Did you know?
You know it was rough, because I knew how the season ended, too, and I was like, “What did I do?” I had been hopeful that I would be coming back, and Joss, he likes to tease, and be like, “Oh yeah, you're coming,” and then he would joke around that I'm not. So it was kind of going back and forth, but I kind of always knew that I was. I didn't have any idea in what capacity I was coming back, because it was left so open. I didn't know what kind of purpose I’d serve in the story, or if it was even going to be Madeline, or if it would be November or someone else. I had no idea. So, at my birthday party, Joss told me how it was going to all go down, and I started shooting a week later. So it was really down to the wire. So I was in the dark just as much as everybody else.
So who comes back into the fold? Is it November, Mellie or Madeline?
It's Madeline.
How does she come back?
I want to say everything, because I think it's so amazing! We get to meet her really for the first time, and see who she is after the experience of being in the Dollhouse. It's very interesting. It's different, and I hope the fans like Madeline as much as they [liked November/Mellie]. And I think the theme is, whether we meant to play this out or not, that everyone has the same soul. It’s their minds that are being wiped and replaced, and different personalities that are put in, but I think, there is an essence for everybody that is the same throughout. I think that's the same with me. It’s still [the same] November/Mellie, that we fell in love with.
Are we going to see Madeline's universe? Can she just slide back into that life?
That's what we explore. We kind of pick up and really see what her life is now. There aren't any flash backs to before. We got that from last year, that her daughter passed away and that's why she volunteered to be part of the Dollhouse. So we get to see how she exists, now that that is over for her and the contract is over and she has to live a normal life again. I think it's really brilliant. The thing about all these scripts so far, is that I'm constantly surprised and blown away at how brave and smart and funny and witty and exciting they are. Our writers didn't waste a minute. Everyone's relationships are tested immediately. I'm just blown away by the season. We're not even in halfway yet. So I think the fans are going to be really, really happy.
Are you a series regular?
I'm still technically guest cast. I'm in the first 6, and they all tell me that I'm not going anywhere, and the way 6 ends, it looks as if I'm not. So we'll see.
Do you get to interact with the folks in the Dollhouse again?
I do, yeah. I actually have a scene with Paul (Tahmoh Penikett). It's very odd, having that scene with Tahmoh. I adore him as a person, and Mellie loved him all last season. So to go in and not really know who this guy is after spending a year with him? It's a little challenging. So that kind of stuff is odd, but if I'm being true to Madeline in that space, it's just what it is. She doesn't know who he is. It's just really interesting to play that, and I think the fans are really going to love seeing that dynamic play throughout the season. We've never seen a doll after they were a doll. We've never seen a contract up. What do they do with all that money that they get after the contract is up? What is their connection with the Dollhouse? Do they even know where it is? It's just really fun that we all get to explore that for the first time, and that I get to be that part of the puzzle is really exciting for me.
'Dollhouse' actress Miracle Laurie among the sci-fi stars in Baltimore this weekend
Miracle Laurie didn't want to get a role on just any TV show. She wanted to be on a Joss Whedon TV show. And now she is, and Fox has renewed Dollhouse for a second season, and life just couldn't be a whole lot better.
"I auditioned for Buffy (the Vampire Slayer) at least a thousand times, I tried out to be a series regular on Firefly -- I auditioned for years for his stuff," says Laurie, who will be in Baltimore this weekend, signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans at the annual Shore Leave sci-fi convention at the Hunt Valley Marriott. "It was really a miracle, no pun intended."
Meeting her fans, she insists, is the icing on the cake. She and her boyfriend, actor Christopher May, attended their first fan convention in April, "and it was a blast. We had tons of fun. There were all kinds of crazy, cool people."
And many of them, she says with a laugh, had theories about her character's up-in-the-air future on Dollhouse. The series, starring Eliza Dushku, centers on a group of "dolls," men and women who assume whatever identities their employer wishes, then have their memories erased when the job is over and wait to be re-programmed. When last seen, Laurie's character, Mellie, had been released from life in the dollhouse, with the promise of leading a normal life with her FBI-agent boyfriend, Paul Ballard. But this being TV and all, here's betting that doesn't happen.
"All I know for sure is that I'm coming back next season," Orange County native Laurie says over the phone from Los Angeles, where she's enjoying a break until Dollhouse begins filming again in late summer. "I don't actually know in what form I'll be back. The writers are kind of teasing me everybody knows but me."
She's prepared, Laurie says, to hear all kinds of fan speculation this weekend. "All the fans are giving me their theories and stuff. One is that I wasn't actually released, that the dollhouse is just using me to get at Paul. Another is that I'll be involved in bringing the dollhouse down from the outside. I think their love story will continue in some manner. We'll see who's right."
Chances are she'll hear even more theories at this weekend's Shore Leave, which for the 31st time will be offering area sci-fi fans the chance to meet, mingle and otherwise hobnob. Besides Laurie, the guest list includes Star Trek: Voyager's Robert Picardo and Ethan Phillips, Stargate: Atlantis' Jason Momoa, Clifton Collins of the latest Star Trek movie (he was second-in-command to the bad-guy Romulan determined to kill Spock) and Edgewood-born actor Johnathan Schaech (That Thing You Do!).
There will also be fan forums, where all the latest sci-fi developments can be discussed down to the most minute detail, plus a dealers rooms, costume contests, film screenings, even a comedy roast of author Keith R.A. DeCandido.
"We like to give fans a lot of choices," says Shore Leave spokesman Michael Schilling.
And if a bunch of those fans choose to spend a chunk of their convention time speculating with Miracle Laurie over her character's fate -- and maybe even, for $35, getting their picture taken with her, or any of the other celebrity guests -- they'll find a receptive audience.
"I love meeting people, I love hearing their stories," Laurie insists, basking in the glow that of the TV spotlight. "I'm pretty much a happy girl."
With another two months to go for the season 2 release, spoilers about the upcoming new season have been circulating for a while now. Even though it was stated that no actors or actresses will be laid off due to the cut in budget, we will most certainly have to live without Miracle Laurie and her character November.
As we all know, Paul made a deal with Adelle to let November go back to her old live. So the odds of her coming back to the show are pretty small.
Date: Friday, July 10, 2009 through Sunday, July 12, 2009
Location: Marriott's Hunt Valley Inn City/Town: Baltimore, MD Hey Everyone!
So I'll be attending Shore Leave in Baltimore, MD and I hope you can make it! If you're already attending - can't wait to see you! If you can't, but know someone in the area, please spread the word.
I've never been to Maryland or any other Shore Leave Con for that matter and I can't wait to meet some East Coast Dollhouse fans!!!
