Cult Following

It's customary for celebrity visitors to our shores to say how much they love Australia. And what's not to love, right? However, it's easy to believe Alan Tudyk when he sings our nation's praises. A semi-frequent visitor Down Under, he's effusive and enthusiastic about his upcoming visits to Sydney and Perth for the Supanova events being held in both cities.

And the actor is well-versed enough in the conventions of such conventions that he knows just what he's going to be asked about: Hoban 'Wash' Washburne, the wryly witty spaceship pilot from Joss Whedon's short-lived but much-loved sci-fi western Firefly. “I'd say Wash and Firefly make up about 80 per cent of what comes up,” chuckles Tudyk. “And I did a movie called Tucker and Dale Vs Evil; [that] makes up the other 20. Or maybe 15 per cent, actually, with the remaining five spread out over a bunch of other stuff.”

There's a heck of a lot to choose from in that other stuff, because Tudyk has put together quite the body of work since first catching the public's eye as Heath Ledger's hot-tempered offsider in 2001's A Knight's Tale. He provided the voice and motion-captured physicality for the title character in I, Robot, was hilariously unhinged in Death at a Funeral, popped up in Transformers: Dark of the Moon, voiced the villainous King Candy in Wreck-It Ralph and played the father of Ann Veal ('Her?') on Arrested Development.

And while he does express some delight over his lead role in Tucker and Dale – “A lot of the time when you're playing a supporting character, the director is like 'You want to change something? Really?' But on Tucker and Dale, the director had to listen to my ideas!” – he's quite pleased with the slow-but-steady progression of his career so far. “It's been [a] creep, really,” he laughs. “I've just kind of crept out over time. By the time I'm 60, I'll be on the cover of Vanity Fair. I am oozing towards that.”

In the meantime, there's always the chance he'll retain his spot as one of Joss Whedon's repertory company – after all, following their collaboration on Firefly, Whedon hand-picked Tudyk to play the evil Alpha on Dollhouse.

“That was great because it was such an unlikely part for me to play,” says the actor. “Of all the 'dolls', he was the one that went rogue, and in the first season he was only ever seen from behind, naked and bloody and killing people. He was impossibly good at killing people! So the show built up this impossible person and Joss came to me and said 'It should be you', to which I replied 'You're insane'. But it was so much fun to do.”

Chances are, however, that the character of Wash won't be resurrected any time soon. Audiences watching Serenity, Firefly's big-screen spinoff, were shocked and saddened when the lovable pilot was killed after a particularly nasty impalement. And while the supernatural milieu of Whedon's series Buffy the Vampire Slayer made it possible for someone to rise from the grave without stretching the bounds of credibility too far, Tudyk reasons, such things really wouldn't work on Firefly.

“Joss wouldn't want to cheat by breaking the rules of that world,” he says. “If it was up to me, though, I'd love to return. And I'd love to see it as a series again. I'm always optimistic – the first time I came to Melbourne, I said some things that ended up on the internet. And when I got home I got in trouble with Joss. I swear [Firefly co-star] Nathan Fillion told me we were going to do another movie at some stage, so I just spread the news. And Joss wrote to me: 'We're doing another movie? That's great! I can't wait to read it! Who's directing?'”