MovieChat Forums > Amy Acker Discussion > A Better Choice for the 'Dollhouse' Lead

A Better Choice for the 'Dollhouse' Lead


Seeing her in the first episode, I was reminded of the acting range she'd demonstrated in 'Angel'.

I have nothing against Eliza Dushku, who is certainly a personality and a good-looking woman. But Eliza's acting range will harm the prosepcts for success for 'Dollhouse'.

Amy would have been able to create a more compelling lead character.

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agreed...she has great range that would have suited the character well. It's possible that Joss considered Amy for the role, but I suspect the network would have vetoed it since Eliza is a bigger name than Amy

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Eliza's also an Executive Producer on the show, so that might carry some pull as well.

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I am a big fan of Dushku, but I agree with your comments. It is true what they say...women with big boobs can't act. Not that Amy is flatchested. From what I have seen she does have a nice pair, but she just seems to do better. In the limited scenes on Dollhouse I have been in awe of what she says...not so much for Dushku. And she has alot more scenes...:(

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I don't mean to diss Eliza; I thought she was very effective as Faith. But the current role calls for a wider range than she had to show as Faith.

As Faith, most of what she had to play was being out-and-out manipulative, hostile, belligerent, and so on. Maybe she had to play 'sympathetic' at times, but mostly she just had to be the archetypal Sneering Chick Who's Been Wounded By Life and Lashes Out at Others to Compensate.

The Echo role, almost by definition, calls on the actress to be convincing at playing ALL types of females. Genuinely sweet as well as genuinely Wounded and Sneering, etc.

I think Amy's already demonstrated she could do that. And frankly if she'd had the backing she could have had just as big a name as Eliza (who's not really a household name herself).

I'm sorry not to see Amy getting more work, as she just seems more interesting as a performer. (I have kind of a prejudice in favor of actors who strike me as being, well, smarter. And of course I don't actually KNOW this, but I'd kind of suspect Amy would outperform Eliza on any reasonable test of intelligence.)

Gee, that sounds mean, doesn't it....

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The fact is that Eliza made the initial deal with Fox. Therefore she chose Joss not the other way around.

In the kingdom of the blind, you're the village idiot.

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amy is a really interesting performer- I am excited for her new pilot- i hope it gets picked up

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*Dollhouse Spoiler*

Ditto. In the later episodes of Dollhouse we see that Amy Acker is indeed a doll. Although it was a brief insight into this aspect of her character, it make it very clear to me that she would have been a far superior lead than Eliza. She would have made a more convincing and sympathetic character because of those those small intangible mannerisms that she is able to express. I hope that we see more of her in the second season.

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The story was that Joss and Eliza came up with the show over lunch, it would have been a big slap in the face if they came up with it together, and he simply said, "So, actress, would like to produce whilst I cast another actress for the role you helped me come up with? No offensies!"

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