Movies - TV
Serenity's Intense Action Scenes Had To Rely On Actor Over CGI
By JENNA BUSCH
Even though “Firefly” was canceled after a single season, the show had enough fans that Universal Pictures gave a green light for a follow-up film, “Serenity.” Summer Glau plays River Tam — a young woman with an altered brain giving her unnatural mental and physical powers — who gets involved in epic fight scenes that Glau had to perform herself.
Luckily, Glau was already athletic, having been a dancer since childhood, with creator Joss Whedon commenting how important that was for the fight scenes. However, ballet and fight scenes aren’t the same, and training was required, with Glau saying, “I had to completely retrain my body,” for what was needed.
She wasn’t the only actor who had to train, as the others needed to be familiar with weapons, with Morena Baccarin (Companion Inara Serra) taking up archery. Many films use CGI for their action, but with “Serenity,” you can feel all the physical effort the actors put into the movie.