Renowned for his roles across action and sci-fi, Nathan Fillion has built a career around playing heroic leads. Whether he’s patrolling the streets as a dedicated LAPD officer in The Rookie, helming a starship in Firefly, or suiting up as a superhero in the DC Universe, Nathan is no stranger to action-packed roles. So it may come as a surprise that for years, Nathan hasn’t actually performed his own stunts.
Appearing at San Diego Comic Con over the weekend, Nathan explained that since sustaining a knee injury on the set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer during its seventh season, he’s been unable to participate in any action on-set.
“I want to do my own stunts like Tom Cruise,” said Nathan. “32-year-old Nathan got kicked in the knee on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It’s never been the same.”
“Ever since, a more mature and reasonable Nathan says, ‘I can’t wait to see how my stunt double does this stunt’.”
Nathan portrayed the sadistic priest Caleb in five episodes of the hit supernatural thriller, which starred Sarah Michelle Gellar as the titular Buffy Summers, a teenage girl gifted with the ability to hunt down and slay vampires.
© LANDMARK MEDIA / Alamy Stock PhotoIt’s not the first time Nathan has spoken about opting out of stunt action. In 2010, while starring in the crime mystery comedy-drama Castle, the actor revealed that despite his eagerness to perform his own stunts, he made way for professional stunt performers.
“I was always the guy who said, ‘Let me do it, I want to do that stunt’,” Nathan explained in a video on the show’s official website. “And then two things happened. I got kicked in the knee, never been the same,” he continued.
“[And] I realised that if you do the stunt – there’s a stunt guy waiting on the side dressed in your outfit ready to do the stunt and if you do it, he doesn’t get paid. He gets paid by the stunt. Somebody’s job – I don’t want to mess with that.”
Nathan Fillion’s career
Nathan made his TV debut aged 21 in the 1993 action film, Ordeal in the Arctic, playing Master Warrant Officer Tom Jardine. His breakout role came the following year, when he was cast as Joey Buchanan in the ABC soap opera One Life to Live, for which he won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series.
This was followed by a string of leading roles in hit TV shows, including Captain Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds in the cult sci-fi hit Firefly, as well as the sitcom Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place, in which he played Johnny Donnelly.
One of his most notable roles was playing the title character in the crime comedy-drama Castle, which ran for an impressive eight seasons until 2016.
Since 2018, Nathan has starred in the police procedural, The Rookie, which returns with its ninth season next year.
© DisneyThe synopsis reads: “John Nolan, once the oldest rookie in the LAPD, now uses his life experience, determination and sense of humor to keep up with rookies 20+ years his junior. John and the team must navigate the intense, unpredictable nature of their jobs and personal challenges, while uplifting the next generation of first responders.”
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