Interview with Bryan Fuller

December 28, 2006

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BrilliantBC: “Will and Grace,” now that it’s off the air, has also entered a new realm of conversation. It’s being referred to now as a bit of a minstrel show.
Well, yes. There was most definitely a Steppin Fetchitt aspect to that show. But I would much rather have Will and Jack representing me than any of those people on “Queer as Folk.” Any day of the week. They’re icky.

BrilliantBC: Talk a little about “Wonderfalls.” Where did it come from?
Todd Holland and I got together and we started brainstorming and he was always fascinated with the Joan of Arc legend. And I guess what I brought to the table was the attitude of, “okay if we’re going to do Joan of Arc, let’s make the character as specific and curmudgeonly and reluctant as possible, so there’s a bigger arc to the journey.” And that really was such a great collaboration with Todd. And I’m really proud of the series. That was the show I wanted to make. Todd, and Tim and the writers that we had was a marvelous combination.

And I think that it’s definitely something I look back on fondly. I have the little wax lion on my desk here.

BrilliantBC: We often talk about that period of time at Fox as a dark hour. That was the Season that “Wonderfalls” and “Firefly,” were canceled within range of each other. What’s up with Fox?
It’s hard to say. There are shows on Fox that I absolutely love. I love “The Simpsons.” And “Arrested Development,” you know – Fox did get behind that show in a big way. It just never got the ratings. Credit really is due there. They did want to save it, but it just didn’t draw an audience. I watch Fox though, and it’s like those Carls, Jr commercials. It’s so heavily geared toward the heavily testosterone set, and I’m just not in that half of the venn diagram. And so I watch the fox ads and I think, okay there’s all these guys yelling at each other at the top of their lungs: “I’ll bring you to justice!” And then there are explosions. I think they’re trying to define the networks’ point of view and I don’t know that they really know what it is. So, that’s very frustrating. I think there are a lot of great people who work at Fox, and I really feel for them.

I think that Fox is very good at marketing one thing inside one box, but everything outside that box, they suck at it. When we went to them with “Wonderfalls,” they had no idea how to market that show and I said, “really? It’s pretty cut and dry. Crazy girl. Hears voices?” But it was just outside of their wheelhouse and there was no getting them to drink out of that pond. If I may coin a phrase.

BrilliantBC: Go right ahead. To what extent are you involved in “Heroes?”
Tim Kring created it. And he’s a peach of a guy. The whole experience has been really fantastic. My agents called and said “you have to read this.” And they never do that. They’ve tried in the past, and there’s stuff that I kinda go, “I don’t get it. I don’t know if I can get excited about writing that.” I’m sort of a workaholic and if something doesn’t inspire me then I cannot, at all, dream of working on it. And I read the script, and it as one of those things that in my gut I thought, “this is going to be HUGE.” The diversity of characters, the metaphor of feeling that you need to be giving something back. There are issues of destiny and fate. And all those things I really like to write about. I knew it would be a really great ride. And I knew it would be a big hit. So I joined a fantastic staff that Tim pulled together. And it’s been the best writing experience I have ever had on a show.

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