Faces to watch: Tahmoh Penikett
The chiseled Canadian debarks from the 'Battleship' and is into the 'Dollhouse.'
For the last five years, Tahmoh Penikett has been fighting off Cylons, a robotic race threatening human existence, on Sci Fi Channel's “Battlestar Galactica.”
Starring in Joss Whedon's upcoming and already-beleaguered drama “Dollhouse,” however, could be a more daunting task.
The show, which premieres Feb. 13 on Fox, revolves around an underground team of programmable people -- or dolls -- with various skills and abilities rented out for assignments by high-paying clients. Early on, one doll, Echo (played by Eliza Dushku), begins to become self-aware. Penikett plays Paul Ballard, a renegade FBI agent bent on taking down the morally suspect operation.
With "Battlestar" concluding its run this spring, the 33-year-old is girding for the wave of eager fan-demonium that's about to hit him from all sides -- but, sorry, kids, he's not giving up the goods. "I've never given up a spoiler, and I won't start now," Penikett said, his chiseled jawline set, lips imperviously sealed. (But rest assured, he said, the finale will "blow your mind." "There'll be some conclusions and a lot of questions, which is perfect and the way it should be.")
The actor will also have to dodge Whedon fans' anxiety over "Dollhouse." Rife with rewrites and reshoots, the series' troubled production has been documented online by those who remember all too well the doomed trajectory of Whedon's last show, “Firefly,”;title;1 but Penikett is too excited to care.
"I don't like panicking," he said while relaxing over an Americano in Century City's Clementine cafe. "I'm also old enough now where I try not to stress over things too much."
Like Karl "Helo" Agathon, the loyal lieutenant he plays on the Sci Fi's space opera, Penikett lived day to day aboard "Battlestar," a show that's won Peabody Awards and the adoration of critics but never reached an audience big enough to guarantee long-term survival. His risk on "Dollhouse" is even bigger: Not only will the show need to find a much larger audience than did "Battlestar," but Penikett will also have to transition from supporting player to leading man.
His "Battlestar" costar Katee Sachoff doesn't think his transition will be much of a problem, recalling her first impression of Penikett: "I thought, 'I'm in a relationship. He's hot,' " she said. But seriously, she added, the actor has always been ripe for a meatier role. "He's really introspective and smart, that was always clear."
