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On this miserably cold and wet Hollywood evening, it's a relief when Summer Glau glides into the bar, instantly brightening the mood. And she does glide. She started ballet at age five, and it became her life — her mom homeschooled her for the next decade. "I was good," says Glau with a vague Texas accent, "but local good. By fifteen, I started to realize I didn't have the body to go to the next level." (Which seems absurd from where we're sitting.) At twenty, she moved to L. A. and landed a guest part as a ballerina on the Joss Whedon-directed Angel. That led to starring roles on Whedon's series Firefly and then The Sarah Connor Chronicles, as a teenage Terminator. Her current role as a crime-fighting blogger on the NBC superhero drama The Cape is the first time the twenty-nine-year-old gets to play a woman anywhere close to her own age, which has Glau excited and a little nervous. Things are taking off fast. So, with Summer's help, a look forward to the future — the near future for her at least.

A PREVIEW OF SUMMER...



...IN 10 MINUTES: drinking whiskey. I like wine, but I'm really a whiskey drinker. I'm a Maker's Mark girl. It's funny, I grew up in a conservative family and my parents didn't drink at all, but my sisters and I can drink like fishes. We don't get drunk — I don't get out of control — but I'll have a nightly bourbon to unwind.

...IN AN HOUR: heading home in her Trans Am. I have a 1979 model that I'm still restoring. My friends say I drive too fast. But I'm just trying to drive my muscle car in a muscle car way.

...AT 8:00 P.M.: making pasta. I make a good vodka sauce and a good Bolognese. I've been dreaming about pasta all week. Yesterday I had my Esquire photo shoot. I tried to be strict.

...AT 10:30 P.M.: climbing into bed. I don't wear anything. Nothing belongs in the bed but bodies.

Brian Bowen Smith

...AT 11:00 P.M.: reading. I usually read in bed. I'm going back and reading all the classics that I didn't read when I was supposed to be in high school. Next on the list is Emily Dickinson.

...AT 9:00 A.M.: not checking Facebook. I used to be on Facebook, but I kept getting hacked, so I just deleted it. And I try not to read stuff about me online, but you can't help it. I'll have one day when I'm feeling bad about myself, and that's always the day you go looking for it. And you'll find it — the people who say you're hideous, or that you always play the same role, or that you're a show killer. I'll think, There must be some truth to it or else they wouldn't write it. That's the ballet dancer in me: You look in the mirror and pick out the one thing that's not good. Dancers are mean little hungry people — worse than actresses, way more hardcore.

... AT 9:30 A.M.: slipping on cowboy boots. I pretty much wear cowboy boots and jeans every day. When I moved here, I thought, I'm gonna reinvent my style, but it didn't stick.

...AT 11:00 A.M.: working out. I never go to ballet class anymore. I don't like to be reminded that I'm not as good as I used to be. Now I go to this Fosse jazz-dance class. It's sexy and womanly. You get your heart up. I sweat a lot.

Brian Bowen Smith

...TOMORROW NIGHT: hiding in a bathroom. One of the producers of The Cape is having a party. There's gonna be karaoke. No amount of whiskey in the world is gonna get me to sing in public.

...IN 72 HOURS: flying home. Home for a couple of weeks. Last year we did a barbecue crawl and voted on the best. It's gotta be brisket. With white bread and a Shiner—it's a beer made in Texas. Magical combination.

...IN FIVE MONTHS: going to Comic-Con. Comic-Con is wild, like another universe. I'm always surprised because I think people won't recognize me. And they do. It's a very unique kind of devotion. Joss [Whedon] tried to explain it to me before I started working with him. There's been a few creepy things, like the art that people have made of me. Or people will write whole books based on your character. But the strangest thing about the attention—when people like you for a reason you don't quite understand—is that you don't want it to end.

Originally published in the March 2011 issue.

David Katz David Katz, a magazine and television writer living in Los Angeles, is a former Articles Editor of Esquire and the Executive Editor of The Hollywood Reporter.

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