By Christina Radish

Summer Glau at the "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" cast appearance held at Golden Apple Comics in Hollywood, Calif. on September 13, 2008.

In Season 2, life for the Connors has intensified, as their relationships are challenged and the present and the future begin to become one. John has found himself caught between his fearless protector, the beautiful but potentially dangerous cyborg, Cameron (Summer Glau), and his new friend, Riley (Leven Rambin), who represents freedom but also a potential risk to his safety.

With promises of more shocking twists and turns before the end of the season, show creator/executive producer Josh Friedman and star Summer Glau spoke to MediaBlvd Magazine about what fans can expect from the last nine episodes of Season 2.

MediaBlvd Magazine> Josh, what are the advantages or disadvantages of your new Friday night time slot?

Josh Friedman> The advantage I see is that we were getting our asses kicked on Monday nights, so I’m happy to move to Fridays.

Summer Glau> I don’t think we were getting our asses kicked. I just think there was a lot on Monday.

Josh> Yes, it was crowded on Monday, and I think that Friday gives Fox an opportunity to promote us with Dollhouse, which seems like a pretty exciting show. It’s an opportunity for a fresh start, and we have a lot of great episodes, in the back nine. I don’t think anyone really knows what to expect in this environment, so I feel good about it.

MediaBlvd> Do you get the impression that Fox has different expectations for you guys on Friday night?

Josh> I haven’t really talked to them about numbers or anything, but I think they’re just open to see what happens. They are excited by the possibility, but I haven’t really talked to them about it.  Statistically speaking, Friday has obviously been a lower ratings night, which is good and bad.  It’s good because you have a different set of expectations, but I don’t know exactly what they are, and I haven’t even asked.                       

MediaBlvd> Are you both happy about being grouped with Dollhouse?

Josh> Yes, I’m excited about it. I was excited six months ago, when I heard that Joss was going to come back to Fox and do a show. I’m a huge fan of his. I know him a little bit, and we’ve talked and sent e-mails, supporting each other. It’s a really smart move by Fox. You have to start trying to brand yourself on certain nights and give people a focus because there is just so much to do.

Summer> I think it’s a great move. The shows are very well-paired together. And, of course, I love Joss and I know some of the actors on Dollhouse, so I’m rooting for us both. It’s going to be a fresh start for us.        

MediaBlvd> Josh, what was it that you initially saw in Summer that made you decide, “Yes, she’s the right Cameron”?

Josh> I wrote the part for her. I had seen Summer, a few years earlier, when she came in and auditioned for another show, but then she went off and did the Serenity movie, so I walked around carrying her audition tape for a few weeks, lamenting the loss of Summer. So, when I working on developing the show and I realized I wanted to do a character like this, she was about the only one that I knew could do this. She just has a quality about her. It’s her physicality and her dance training. She’s really the only person I know who can be completely still, and still be fascinating to watch act.                                         

MediaBlvd> Summer, what was your biggest challenge in defining Cameron? Are there connections that you feel with her, as a character?

Summer> Absolutely, more so than ever. But, it really was a team effort. When I originally went in to read for Cameron, I just had the sides. I didn’t have a script. I didn’t really know what to expect, or exactly how we were going to build the character. And, the biggest difference between playing Cameron and playing other roles that I have in the past, is just that I’m constantly making decisions about how I play this role. It has to be planned out. As an actor, a lot of times, you just react from your heart, in a scene, and Cameron cannot do that. That’s the biggest difference. But, I really rely on Josh and my writers to help me with the character.

Josh> The great thing about Summer is that she makes decisions that are so clever and sophisticated that James Middleton and I will think, “Did she do that on purpose? If she did that on purpose, it was so cool.” So, we’ll wait for the next take and she’ll do it again, and we’re like, “She is doing it on purpose.” It’s awesome. We have somebody who we can entrust with this, who is going to be able to do this and doesn’t need her hand held, all the time. She understands the character better than I do.                                                                                             

MediaBlvd> Josh, was there a conscious effort to make the first part of this season more episodic than you did in Season 1?

Josh> Yes. It was something that we had talked about with the studio and the network, and the network really wanted the episodes more close-ended. For better or worse, I’m just a serialized storyteller. It’s the stuff that I really like in TV. So, we tried to find a happy medium, where we could advance the mythology and yet do close-ended stories. “Allison from Palmdale” was a close-ended story, but it was also a big mythology story. That may be the example of where it worked the best. We started out with that intention, and then we just told the stories that we were interested in. There were times when we wanted to stop and tell a fun story, with “Self-Made Man” being an example of that. But, for the most part, the writers come in and we talk about the larger story. The back nine is really much more serialized than the front 13.

MediaBlvd> Summer, if the back nine episodes have a lot more action in them, what does that mean for Cameron?

Summer> It means lots of Squibbs and lots of extra stunt rehearsals, which I’ve missed because we did take a little break from it, at the end of our first half, since we were really intensifying some of the mysteries that we’ve been building on. Now that I’ve come back from the Christmas break, it seems like I’m always putting on a Squibb jacket, and running around and shooting people, and I’m having a blast. The back half of the episodes are going to be exciting.

MediaBlvd> Since Cameron survived the explosion and her brain got kind of scrambled, how has that opened up the character for you, with flashbacks or new emotions, and things like that?

Summer> Josh and I were talking about how, because Cameron is absorbing human behavior and trying to understand human emotion, the fans are feeling like they can relate to her more. There are moments where you almost think Cameron is a family pet. She’s really more docile and we’re trusting her, but then she does something to shock everyone into remembering she’s a dangerous robot. That’s something that I try to remind myself of in scenes, all the time. I want people to be drawn in, but then be shocked into remembering, “Oh, my gosh, she’s really dangerous!” Anything could happen at any moment with her.

MediaBlvd> Did having that episode, early on in the season, that established Cameron’s backstory in the future, affect the way you play her now?

Summer> It really just helped intensify my understanding of Cameron, and really helped me as an actress. I had already imagined who I thought she was, and filled it in, in my own mind. But, it made it more exciting for me and for the fans.

MediaBlvd>  Summer, how do you feel that your dance background has helped you, in playing Cameron?

Summer> I’ve been really fortunate to have been cast in some roles where I’ve been able to incorporate movement. Cameron is isolated, in a way, and isn’t really able to relate to the other characters on a human level, so movement is a way for me to express that. Sometimes her movement is awkward or unpredictable. It is a way for me to help tell her story.

MediaBlvd> Summer, do you ever get tired of playing deceptively strong ass-kickers? 

Summer> No. In certain moments, Cameron has been able to be the damsel-in-distress. I know that sounds crazy, but I really cannot complain. It’s great to be on TV, on a show, and get to play a complicated girl. For that, I’m very, very grateful.

MediaBlvd> What have been some of your favorite scenes to shoot so far, in the series?

Summer> I loved everything about “Samson & Delilah.” I think about so many of those scenes, and just how beautiful they were, and how meaningful they were for my and Thomas’ characters.  Another one of my favorite scenes, from this season, was my scene in the car with Thomas, where I’m trying to make him believe that I can feel. That was really important to my character.  And, I’m really excited about the season finale. I have a lot of really great stuff to do.

Josh> You have no idea how hard it is to play Cameron, and one of the curses of Summer is that she makes it look easy. We did “Allison from Palmdale” to let people know this is a real actress, who is not just walking about the set like a robot. We’ve had a lot of good actors have a really hard time playing Terminators and, luckily, we’ve got three really good ones, right now. She makes it look easy, but it’s really hard.              

MediaBlvd> Josh, will there ever be an episode that deals with the guy from 1963 who built the time machine that was used in the pilot episode?

Josh> I love the engineer character. We talk about the engineer in the writer’s room, all the time. We have arguments about the engineer. There are a lot of people in the writer’s room who constantly pitch engineer stories, and there are people in the writer’s room that say, “I never want to see that guy in this series.” I am determined, at some point, to have the engineer in the show, but I cannot guarantee that it will happen. In fact, I’ll tell you it probably will not happen in this last nine episodes, but I am totally fascinated by that guy. I have multiple thoughts about what is going on with that guy, so I hope you’ll get to see him.                       

MediaBlvd> Summer, can you talk about how you are portraying the relationship between Cameron, Sarah and John?

Summer> I’ve always thought that everybody wants a purpose, and everybody wants to belong and have a reason for surviving, and Cameron’s deep love for John is because he is her whole reason for existing. She would do anything for him and, in her reality, that may be what love is to her. I’m not really sure what Josh wants to do with the character, but he’s peeling away layers and revealing the past and future, so that we know more about Cameron. From my perspective of playing her, I always want to believe that she does feel something for both John and Sarah.

Josh> I was reading this really cool novel about a robot, and there was some quote in there that said, “This book isn’t about what it means to be using a robot to figure out what it means to be human. It’s about using a robot to figure out what it means to be a robot.” And, I wanted to steal that quote. No, Cameron is not becoming human. She’s becoming the most ideal version of what she is designed to be, or at least she wants to be that. And, what she is finding is that it’s difficult for her to be the best version of herself, just like it’s difficult for us to be the best versions of ourselves. She gets in fights and her chip gets hurt, and not everything is clear to her, all the time. She has conflicting ways that she wants to execute her one purpose, which is to protect John. Dedication isn’t love.

MediaBlvd> Josh, is that something that you want to continue to explore and clarify?

Josh> Yes, absolutely, it is something that we’re exploring. The relationship between John and Cameron, and what types of decisions she needs to make, to keep her larger goals alive, is really important to the back half of the season. She is faced with a lot of information that makes her job complicated.

MediaBlvd> Cameron is obviously very robotic, but she’s also very human. As far as your understanding of the character goes, what do you think her end-game is, and how do you bring emotion in those scenes, while still playing a robot?

Summer> I just got ahold of our season finale script, and I am shocked. I’m excited and I’m a little bit sad, and just really proud of what Josh has done. It’s the most beautiful character and I love playing her. She’s done above and beyond what I ever thought I could do, in two seasons on TV, and that’s been a huge blessing for me. But, Cameron is so complicated that I couldn’t possibly imagine this storyline. I’m glad that Josh is the writer and I’m the actress. I think everybody is going to be shocked at what happens, at the end of this season.

MediaBlvd> Josh, is this finale going to be a little bit more close-ended, or are you thinking in positive terms that there will be a third season?

Josh> I’m always optimistic. We have no idea of what is going to happen, in the next few months, but I’m very optimistic, and I wrote the finale the way that I was planning on writing the finale, for a long time. There were things that we’ve been building to all season, and you owe the audience that has been watching the show, a logical conclusion to the things that you’ve been building towards. Fans get really upset if a show gets cancelled and things are left hanging, and fans also get upset when you write a crappy finale. So, you have to try to write the best finale that you can, providing closure to the stories that you’re telling. But, if I tried to sum up every single thing in 43 minutes, it would be a disaster. You’d end up with a clip show. Hopefully, it’s going to be something that feels satisfying for people who have watched all year, and it also certainly lets you know where we would be going, for a third season.

MediaBlvd> Summer, what made you sad about the finale?

Summer> First of all, I’m just sad to be at our finale. I love the show, and I love my cast and crew, and the word finale is always hard for me. It’s just hard to walk away from the show, hopefully for just a little while, because I’m very optimistic about us getting a third season. But, a lot happens, in the last few episodes. People are going to be on a roller coaster, wondering what is going to happen next. Everybody is going to be really thrilled and really proud of where the storyline goes. But, as an actress in the show, I have a lot of mixed emotions about it.

MediaBlvd> Josh, it seems like we haven’t seen the last of the Allison storyline. What can you tell us about any future plans there?

Josh> The “Allison from Palmdale” episode is one of my favorite episodes. Writer Tony Graphia did a great job with it, and Summer was just phenomenal in it. None of us really knew, when we were working on the episode, what we were going to end up with, and it ended being one of my favorite episodes, so I certainly would like to revisit the Allison character, at some point. Allison and Cameron are two completely different characters, and one does inform the other, but it was important to be able to differentiate them, and Summer did a great job with that. I’m sure we’ll see Allison again some day.

MediaBlvd> Summer, do you have any plans for after the show has stopped shooting?

Summer> I’m starting to read some different scripts, and I’m trying to have some meetings. I’d like to have something going. Of course, I want to hear that we have a third season, but I’m going to go out and try to do something else during the break.