Question: What was the challenge in getting so many characters (9) in there?

Joss Whedon: With the TV show you need a bunch of peeps if you want to create internal conflict. When I was given the opportunity to make a movie of this all of a sudden I had nine characters which was a lot of people to put in a movie. Ultimately what it gave me was the chance to have a kind of Platoon feeling. On the show you are going to give everybody equal time to an extent, in a film you're going to have to say “Mal is the hero. He's the one everyone's going to be watching.” You come to him through River, she's kind of his proxy and it's about how she affects him and how they help each other. That doesn't mean anyone is expendable. You make sure that everybody's perspective brings something different to the movie. A lot of movies center around one character and then there are maybe two others that are defined, everybody else kind of fades into the distance. For some films that's very useful. Because I wanted it chaotic, everything is happening at once, the large cast was useful because they bring so much texture to it.

Question: Could you talk about Chiwetal Ejiofor's subtle performance as the villain?

Joss: Chiwetal is extraordinary and I gave him a really tough job. The Operative (Chiwetal's character) is self proclaimed and specifically undefined because he refused to let himself be defined because he doesn't consider himself a person. He considers himself less than that. I wanted to create a villain who was more of an antagonist than a villain. If you don't believe the perspective of the person then they become just a plot device. The idea of having somebody completely idealistic and dedicated to decency and nobility as my villain, and somebody who is self involved and cut off and a criminal as my hero is basically what the film is about. Only our messy repulsive humanity can save us from this deadly notion of perfection. Chiwetal brings such a sense of decent disappointment at how things have worked out in the world and the people around him. He doesn't play anything arch at all. He understood completely what this guy was, that he was a decent man who was actually a serial killer.

Question: How much of your own personalities do you find in your characters?

Gina Torres: I think it would be interesting if we talked about each other.

Nathan Fillion: You do me.

Gina: What Malcolm and Nathan have in common is ultimately they do want to do the right thing, no matter what they put you through on the way to the right thing. They have a great moral streak that runs through them.

Morena Baccarin: But Nathan doesn't have that dark fallen man in him. Are you a fallen man?

Gina: If you've ever seen him play HALO…

Nathan: I'll take both of you. Very classy, very sexy. You (Morena Baccarin) are a little more on the demure side. Gina (Torres), I know you are not to be crossed. You are a force to be reckoned with.

Morena: She likes to play like she's not going to do anything, like she's shy, but it's true.

Nathan: Remember, I said I wanted something taken care of and I called you (Torres)? Someone said “Can you take care of this?” and I said “Sure, I'll call Gina”.

Gina: This ruins the mystery!

Question: Was there something you got to do in the movie that you didn't in the show?

Morena: I had to do archery, which was very cool. I really took to it actually. I remember when we were shooting the scene where I'm supposed to shoot one of the Reavers with an arrow and the whole set was like “Clear the set!” All the camera guys had goggles and hard hats on, everybody's freaking out. They gave me an X to hit, every time I hit that X. They were like, “Okay, nobody piss Morena off”.

Gina: It was pretty straightforward from series to movie, still had your gun, still right by this guy's (Nathan Fillon) side.

Nathan: Malcolm was allowed to be a little darker than the series was allowed him to be. In the series we faced a little pressure making him more likeable. In the film, Universal had the faith to stay to Joss' vision, “Do it how you want it to be done,” So we were allowed to make Malcolm a little darker than he was, and it made a lot sense. In the time that's passed from the time the series became a movie some events have happened that made him a little more bitter. If there is one thing that's easy for Malcolm to express it's his bitterness and anger. He's comfortable there.

Question: Is Mal's leadership style like yours Joss?

Joss: Wait, everyone keeps leaving Mal and getting killed… Yes and no. My interest in Mal as a leader was built partially on my years of running shows and seeing that dynamic from a different point of view. You could also see the seventh season of “Buffy” as similar in that respect; it had a lot to do with the pitfalls of being a leader.

Ultimately when you are in the service of something greater or even when you're in the position of making the decisions for everybody you are removed from them. It's interesting to me because it requires a toughness that's almost dehumanizing when he does take up the mantle Mal starts becoming really dangerous to an extent. Hopefully my leadership style is a little less abrasive.

Question: Summer, how often did you use stunt doubles for your action work?

Summer Glau: It's mostly me. There were two dangerous stunts they wouldn't let me do, one was falling down the stairs that was too risky. One other flip that my stunt double actually got hurt doing, I felt terrible! But everything else was me, the swords, the blade work, all the guns and daggers. [Joss] wanted it to look real and I felt it. Every punch and every kick.

Question: What makes Serenity's dialogue snap?

Joss: Part of it was getting to invent the language which came from a lot of different influences because the movie has that sort of genre mix feeling. Once I had it, it read kind of like poetry to me, it rolls off the tongue in a way that nothing I've ever written before does. I build TV shows and movies on what I refer to as the “Golden Girls” model. Quite simply everyone's got to come from a different place, so that everyone's reaction is different, equally valid, and equally fun. They don't have to all be eloquent about it in sort of an obnoxious proto-Tarrantino way where everyone speaks volumes. I think he's done that very well but I've seen the bad version too.

Question: Is Joss precious with his dialogue or is he open to you asking him for changes?

Jewel Staite: He's pretty specific.

Summer: It is like poetry.

Adam Baldwin: He's open to any good suggestion, but the bar is very high. You have to come up with a very good idea. He's got it so formed on the page that by the time we were shooting there were no real stumbling blocks.

Question:: Was the Chinese hard?

Summer: It was hard for me to make it emotional.

Adam: It damaged my calm.

Sean Maher: The hardest part is there are these phrases, it's not just yes or no, they are chunks.

Adam: It's just great that he would come up with these phrases like “the explosive crap of elephants” and then translate it in to Chinese and then you'd get to go and say it.

Question: Is there something spiritual you were trying to say in the way that Star Wars and The Matrix were?

Joss: I think that we all have different takes on it; we all have different things to say about spirituality. Those films use more deliberate iconography because they are coming from that mythic place in a way I would say “Buffy did”. “Firefly” and Serenity don't. In “Firefly” there was a conflict between Mal and the Shepherd. That was deliberate because Mal was an atheist and he's beyond that kind of faith. He doesn't trust people, he doesn't think of anything as a greater good even though he has a moral code he can't really admit it or understand it. Shepherd is clear on his faith, and the conflict between the two of them was supposed to go on throughout the series.

Obviously the movie is more about answers, I had one definitive statement to make which was simply the power of belief. The power of something greater than yourself, believing that there is something worth structuring your life around that will direct your moral decisions. ~ Laremy Legel