Interview with Firefly veteran Danny Nero part 3
More with Danny Nero of Firefly fame. This photo is him in a costume from the flashback scene of the Battle of Du-Khang from “The Message.”
D: You contributed heavily to Firefly Still Flying, a book detailing interviews with cast, crew, and writers that includes unpublished stories and extensive set photos. Your photos seem to be the bulk of the image portion of the book. Were you the set amateur “camera guy”? Do you take a lot of photos on all your sets? Did the producers not have any issue with that?
Danny: I don’t think I’ve ever taken so many pictures on a set as I did with Firefly but so many other cast and crew did as well. There is kind of an understanding that you won’t ever do anything with the pictures that would embarrass anyone or be a spoiler. Joss had me shoot one of the electricians riding a crane with a light that moved quickly to simulate Serenity doing a tricky space maneuver because he thought it looked cool. It was all cool for me!
D: What are your thoughts on the show itself? Are you yourself a fan?
Danny: I was and am still a fan of the show. There are always the what ifs and if onlys when a good show doesn’t make it. It sure wasn’t for lack of trying! My only regret was not finding enough shade when we went out to Sable Ranch for Jaynestown. Three long days in that sun lowered my resistance to that evil little virus lurking in so many of us and I ended up with a light but still painful case of shingles. Big Ouch!
D: You also worked with Joss on Angel. How was that show to work on?
Danny: I got the job standing-in on Angel from the original DP, Herb Davis. We had met on “Brimstone”, another ill-fated Fox show that had a pretty good fan base. I stood in for the lead actor Peter Horton and it was my first trip into the supernatural world.
(Angel image courtesy of the womens t shirt category)
I thought it was a great premise and we all felt that the show had a very good chance of making it. The network had other ideas however and I believe we just did 11 or 12 episodes. The show did require all of us to work quite a few all-nighters and that takes a little getting used to. You might begin the week with a 7am call but by Friday you had a 5pm call and it became “Fraturday” very quickly. That leaves you with a short weekend. It was good training for our next series “Angel”. So we left Warner Bros and Paramount was our new home.
