Waiting for Summer Glau at the NBC party really paid off. After she schmoozed with the Television Critics Association, she came and gave me a hug as we sat down to relieve her high heeled feet. I know you all think I got a hug from River, but to me she’s my terminator. Now she’s on The Cape as Orwell, the secretive ally of the title hero.
CraveOnline: How long have you been standing?
Summer Glau: On and off since 6:45 this morning. But you know I do this for three weeks straight for this show because I love it. I really want people to know how special it is.
CraveOnline: Does it remind you of the ballet days?
Summer Glau: Everybody’s was asking me that. They say just channel your inner fight because you know how it feels to have aching feet. I have a few blisters too but I couldn’t take off my beautiful shoes. I love my shoes.
CraveOnline: How is the feeling on The Cape set different than Firefly and Terminator?
Summer Glau: You know, I feel like I’ve grown. Of course I’ve grown up. I’ve seen more of what it’s like to be a working actor in L.A. and I have great appreciation for the times when you’re working with people that you really love and a project you really believe in. It’s not different from Firefly. It’s just that I’ve grown. I’ve had to grow up. It’s time. When I started in Firefly, I was brand new and I felt like a little girl. It’s time for me to push myself and grow up and be a woman. That’s what I feel about Orwell. That’s what I feel that she’s inspiring me to do.
CraveOnline: Orwell has a pretty sweet hideout.
Summer Glau: Always, but it changes. It’s never the same.
CraveOnline: Do you have a Summer lair for yourself?
Summer Glau: My home is very sacred to me. I don’t have a hideout but I definitely have a safe place. That’s really important for everybody to have a place where they feel comforted and safe, where they feel inspired. That to me is my home.
CraveOnline: Does it inspire your work?
Summer Glau: Yes. Yes, it does. I work on my stunts at home because it is my safe place. It represents me. People that come into my house, they know it’s my house.
CraveOnline: What cool stuff is coming up for Orwell?
Summer Glau: Oh my God, these last two episodes have been such a blessing for me in my career. I don’t want to say who I was working with but I was working with some actors that I really admire and really push me to be my best. What I hope for as an actor is that there are moments in my work day where I get completely swept up in her story, I’m not thinking about anything else. I’m not thinking about what else I have to do. I’m just there. It’s a high that you get when you’re really working with people that inspire you. I just had a blast. I can’t say who they are. I want it to be a surprise but it was really special.
CraveOnline: What comics did you read yourself?
Summer Glau: You know, it’s funny you ask me that because now, now that I’ve been working with these guys who have had comics in their lives since they were little boys, it makes me wish that I knew more. I mean, I’ve read comic books simply because of how my life has turned out, because of the people that are around me but it’s different being around Tom, the creator of the show and the writers of our show who’ve been inspired by comics since they were little boys and little girls. Really I think our show is a love letter to these people because listening to Tom talk about what comics mean to him, it’s like nostalgic, sentimental, inspired feeling. They’ve meant something to him and it’s what our story is about. It’s about something that a father and son can share, that they can both relate to.
CraveOnline: Have you noticed ballet making a comeback?
Summer Glau: I hope so. I absolutely hope so. It is the art that shaped my childhood. It meant the world to me.
CraveOnline: It’s not just Black Swan. I also saw Mao’s Last Dancer.
Summer Glau: I want to see that. I just heard about it today, I haven’t seen it yet. There’s also a few amazing documentaries that you can stream on Netflix, so if you go onto Netflix if you have Netflix, and you just type in “ballet,” there’s a documentary on Suzanne Farrell that everybody should see. She’s America’s greatest ballerina of all time. There’s also one called Ballerina that I really like. But I’m thrilled to see ballet stepping into the spotlight because it’s a very elusive form. You don’t really understand it the way that I understand it and that ballerinas do. It’s complicated.
CraveOnline: When was the last time you watched Serenity?
Summer Glau: I can’t watch it. I’ll get too emotional. It’s one of those things that it took me a while to let go of it because it was my first thing. It was my first family. When I had to move on, it was a little intimidating and scary for me. So I can’t watch but I do see the cast often.
CraveOnline: I can assure you having watched it it’s still awesome.
Summer Glau: Thank you.
