Q&A with Nathan Fillion
In the new ABC dramedy Castle, Nathan Fillion plays Richard Castle, a murder mystery writer who finds his story lines have inspired a copycat killer. When he teams up with a no-nonsense female detective to crack the case, sparks fly.
Watch a clip!
We caught up with Nathan for the series premiere.
Q: Richard Castle is a really fascinating character. What's your favorite thing about him? Watch a clip!
We caught up with Nathan for the series premiere.
A: What I like about Castle is that the more I play him, the more I think he's just a little misunderstood. He kind of started off as this womanizing playboy, but I think that success just comes easy to him. He's well-liked, he's very playful—even women come easy to him. It's because he's joyful in life. He's very childlike, maybe even has a bit of Peter Pan syndrome. He's never really quite grown up—I think for a lack of a male adult role model in his life. He's always surrounded by women, and he doesn't really know how to behave like a grown-up.
Q: In the pilot episode, Castle plays in a poker game with real-life crime novelists James Patterson and Steven Cannell. What was it like working with such successful mystery writers?
A: That was pretty exciting! I was a little bit nervous at first, of course, working with these very famous, very powerful men who are just masters of their art. But then I realized James Patterson—he handled himself extremely well, but he was a little nervous. He said, 'Yeah, this isn't really my area of expertise.' And I realized, this is so neat because this isn't their usual turf.
Q: Did meeting them help you get inside the mind of a mystery novelist?
A: No, we didn't sit around and chat about being writers or anything like that. I'm not the kind of actor to write a book or follow a writer around to know how to play a writer. I'm not that guy. I just say to myself: 'What if I were a writer? How would I be?' A lot of it's right there on the page, so a bunch of the hard part's done for you.
Q: If you could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?
A: My recently deceased grandmother, because I found out a bunch of things about her that were fascinating, but I learned them only after she died. She was fun, a firecracker, and had amazing stories, but there were parts of her life that she kind of glossed over that I would have liked to know more about before she passed away.
Q: What inspires you?
A: You know, I endeavor to be more like my older brother. He's very magnetic. He's actually very much like Castle in that people are attracted to him, and just want to be near him. You want to know where my brother is in a crowded room? He's the guy with the crowd around him. He's incredibly talented, incredibly patient, incredibly kind and people just like him.
Nathan Fillion's favorite things
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