Nathan Fillion Felt He Had the Perfect Kind of Fame
Actor Nathan Fillion amassed a huge fanbase thanks to his works in projects like Firefly and Castle. Although both projects catapulted Fillion to superstardom, he felt lucky he hadn’t gotten too famous.
Nathan Fillion once reflected on his own fame
Fillion has made more than a comfortable living for himself thanks to his several television and film projects. He got his first official acting job on the soap opera One Life to Live. He was a cast member on the show for three years before branching out to other projects, further expanding his portfolio. At one point, he considered Castle and Firefly his more famous roles. But this was before being cast as the lead on The Rookie. The ABC procedural has been running for six seasons and is still going strong, perhaps exposing Fillion to an even broader audience.
Despite his stardom, however, Fillion confided that he hasn’t experienced the type of attention that his other peers have.
“Not everybody knows who I am, but the people who do know, get very excited,” Fillion once said on FM1013.
Filloon likened his fanbase to a secret club, which he considered a good thing.
“Y’know, a friend of mine called it ‘perfect famous.’ There are people who just go crazy about you, but it’s not like you can’t walk down the street,” he said.
Fillion further shared that he didn’t draw as much attention as people might’ve thought. When he did, his fan encounters were usually very cordial.
Nathan Fillion shared some of his ‘weird’ fan interactions
Speaking with Culture Pulp, it was noted that Fillion was in a very unique position in regards to his fanbase. Because the projects he was known for were all so different, he had three different types of fans. And they all reacted to Fillion in their own unique way.
“I had some weird experiences when I was first on One Life to Live with fans. I found — and rightly so — that when a television program has longevity, people can get invested. One Life to Live was on TV over 40 years. People grew up on it. When they see you in their living room once a day — not once a week, once a day — they feel they know you. That can get weird,” Fillion said.
“Strangers coming up to me on the street like they knew me? That was a little shocking; that was a lot at the beginning, I’ll confess. And when I was doing One Life to Live, I was living in New York, so that wasn’t just any stranger coming up to me — that was a New Yorker,” he added.
His Castle fans were similar.
“That plays into the longevity, as well. People are able to invest in characters and invest in story. They can’t help themselves — they start to care. And that’s what keeps them coming,” he said.
But that was where Fillion’s Firefly fanbase stood out from the two. The sci-fi series didn’t enjoy the same longevity as Fillion’s other shows. Still, it perhaps earned the actor a very loyal following that truly invested in his career.
“Joss Whedon fans? That’s the fan that will find you in whatever project you’re doing, whatever you’re up to, and they’ll watch it and support you. I’ve never known a fan like that until I became a participant in the Joss Whedon-verse,” he said.
Fillion’s One Life to Live fans also couldn’t separate the actor from his soap opera counterpart. Whereas the fans he amassed from his collaborations with Joss Whedon seemed more reasonable.
“Whereas Joss Whedon fans actually could be from all walks of life, from homemakers to rocket scientists, who are incredibly talented in one field or another — be it knitting, crocheting, making fiberglass armor, blacksmiths, computer geniuses — and pour their passion into what they’re passionate about,” he recalled.
