In every story with a valiant hero, there’s always another guy helping in the background, who’s just as valuable to the ultimate mission, but usually in a quieter, unassuming way. Now if it’s a story written by Joss Whedon, you can pretty much rest assured that the other guy will be a big ol’ smart-ass, too. Case in point: Hoban ‘Wash’ Washburne, pilot extraordinaire of the spacecraft, Serenity.
    Played with relish by character actor, Alan Tudyk, Wash is the self-deprecating everyman on the ship, calm in a catastrophic clinch and always relying on his sharp sense of humour. Matter of fact, if you really look at the character, it’s almost uncanny how similar Wash is to the man who created him.
    Tudyk laughs in agreement at the observation. “Definitely! One of the first days we were shooting the series, I was there in my jumpsuit with my Hawaiian shirt on and Joss shows up with almost the same Hawaiian shirt on. I was like, ‘Huh, Joss, is there something you want to tell me?,’” he laughs in remembrance.
    Shades of Joss or not, Tudyk says bringing Wash to life has been nothing but fun. Whether he’s in the pilot’s chair guiding the ship to safety, bantering with his wife Zoe or just interacting with the rest of the Serenity crew, Tudyk says Wash’s adventures have all been worthwhile. “I love the idea that we were a ragtag group that stole from the rich and gave it to ourselves. It was different and fresh.”
    Wash also gave Tudyk the opportunity to play someone not so different from the actor at heart. “He’s definitely closer to me than most characters I play, but I tend not to be as calm as Wash,” he admits. “It’s a constant direction with me. When he starts flying the plane, he’s in a very Zen-like place. That was a challenge for me, because in pressure situations, I tend to naturally reject the tension of the situation. Wash was reminding me that I could just relax and be calm. It’s funny. There’s one scene in the film where we are being chased in that hovercraft…” – affecting a hyper voice, Tudyk bellows the line: “‘Wash, we need to get you out here, right now!’” Immediately following with barely a hint of emotion, he continues with a laugh, “and I’m like ‘Okay, I’m on my way.’”
    Tudyk only got 14 episodes to develop Wash on Firefly, but he still recalls Whedon’s pledge to give the entire cast another opportunity to explore their characters. “At the Firefly wrap party, Joss gave a speech and said, ‘It’s not over!’ He said he would produce Firefly etchings if that was all he could produce,” Tudyk laughs. “You wanted to believe it, but I sure just didn’t. I figured we had a great time, did some good shows and I got a lot of really good friends out of it!” Yet for Whedon there was more, and that became a reality with the film ‘Serenity’. Tudyk admits he was privy to the progress of the developing film. “I had the benefit of updates. A couple of times Joss called Nathan while I was at Nathan’s house. We’d just put him on speakerphone. It was the funniest thing, rounding up everybody, because we were all still stuck together. There was even one time when Joss called and it was Adam Baldwin and I at Nathan’s house! But when it finally happened, it was what I hoped for. It shows that when Joss says he’s going to do something, he really goes to do it. It’s not lip service.”
    Stepping onto the set of Serenity for the first day of production ended up being a meaningful day for the actor. “Once I was surrounded by all my buddies, it was immediately so familiar and so comfortable. It was really great.” He starts to riff with a smirk, “It was like a relationship that ends and you come to terms with that being a chapter in your life, and although things didn’t work out and you didn’t want it to end, you’re okay. Then one day you wake up and they’re back and you’re like ‘No way!’” he laughs.
    Tudyk says reconnecting on camera with his former cast was the greatest part of the entire experience. “We all do get along. I give a lot of credit to Nathan Fillion. It’s so perfect that he was the Captain because he really is a leader himself. He was always in the best mood, no matter what time it was. You’re going until two o’clock in the morning and he was in a good mood. There was never a complaint from him. Nobody ever went to the place of being a mouthy actor complaining, because Nathan was doing more work  than anybody and he was in a great mood.” The actor says it also doesn’t hurt that Nathan has a tireless sense of humour. “Nathan will just do stuff,” Tudyk smiles. “There is a chase scene, where I’m flying and there are no lines. They just had two cameras rolling with us doing it. Right before they would say action, Nathan would say, ‘Okay, just follow my lead.’ They’d yell action and he just starts going, ‘Oh, what are you doing? Come on Wash! Watch OUT for THAT!’ You’d end up just doing takes that are non-usable. He’s hysterical, getting everyone involved and having fun. We did a lot of laughing on set.”
    Some of those laughs, Tudyk admits, even came from the sheer absurdity of what they were filming, despite their intended sincerity. “It’s funny,” he explains. “When you are on the set, they are saying, ‘Okay, G-forces are pulling you in this direction,’ because there is this whole flying and wrecking thing happening in the scene. It’s a tough thing, because you are sitting still and doing a lot of intense pretending,” he chuckles. “Although on the movie, it was an upgrade. Our bridge did move, because they put us on hydraulics.” Making “Chuga, chuga, chuga” noises to illustrate, Tudyk continues, “It was like being in a washing machine that has an unbalanced load. They would do it in bursts, but you’re still never quite sure. Loni Peristere, VFX supervisor would come in and explain and that was very helpful. He had these pre-visualisation images that he showed us on the monitors to help us out. I wanted the scene to be a suspenseful, dangerous chase – which it ended up becoming. I’m happy about that.”
    Other highlights of Serenity for Tudyk include the evil Reavers, first introduced in the Firefly series. “The Reavers were one of my favourite ideas,” the actor enthuses. “Joss always had plans for the Reavers and we didn’t get a chance to fully explore them. I was so happy that we got to explore them more in the film, and I really like how he did it. I always had a a talent for pitching stories to Joss. I remember pitching a Reaver war to him, but mine was a bit different than this one. I  was really happy with how his idea worked out and who they are.”
    Continuing, he added, “Also, to see River really step up as a character. To have River be such a great fighter and start to master her abilities, to where she can read minds and have control of it, that opens up so much that can be done. I really liked that. She and her brother were always a focus of problems on Firefly, so to show why she is such a threat to the Alliance is great.”
    Tudyk says he’s most affected by just being part of a movie that was never supposed to be. “I’m so impressed with this unlikely track for a project to go on,” Tudyk says with all sincerity. “These fans are, by far, the most devoted and generous fans. It’s years after the 14 episodes and they are still talking about it! Thousands of people are still holding on and still believing in it. For the fans, that’s why I like how it landed. Those people that didn’t give up and wouldn’t let go anymore than Joss.”

Spoiler Alert: Alan on Wash’s fate

“I really liked his fate. I was a fan of it. When we did the show, I felt that Wash was a really good character to kill. In my head, I thought two seasons and then Joss should kill me. No one would expect it. I even mentioned it to Joss once, about Wash being a good sympathetic kill. As it works, where it is in the movie, I really like how it raises the stakes for everybody. We’ve lost two already and people are bleeding and shot and the captain is a mess. Wash’s death helps with the feeling that all bets are off. I kind of also liked that it’s not one of those deaths where I’m going, ‘Go on without me! I’ll hold ’em off as long as possible! You save yourselves! I love you sweetheart!’
    Instead, it’s ‘Whoopee, I just landed the spaceship!’ Dead. Joss has talent for sticking large wooden things through people’s hearts. [Laughs].”