Coming into Dollhouse, how aware were you of Joss' work and the Whedonverse in general?

Fran: I knew about the success of Buffy but I hadn't seen it, so I thought it might have been a silly WB vampire show and I thought of Joss as a cult, niche creator. Then I read the Dollhouse script, and it was so great that it made me totally rethink my preconceived notions of who Joss was. Then I watched Firefly, because I'm a Star Wars fan, and was just blown away. That's when I knew he was a genius.

Enver: My friends at Berkeley all loved Buffy, but I had no idea. So when I got cast in Dollhouse, all my friends lost their minds. After I was cast, I didn't want to watch eight seasons of a show just to be blown away so I could show up the first day of work utterly unable to speak to my new boss. So I didn't watch anything until Dollhouse was over. Then I watched Firefly in between Seasons 1 and 2 and it was just so good.

Fran: Yeah, I was definitely starstruck after I watched Firefly. My whole attitude towards him changed. He was no longer just some writer/director, that's why I think Enver was smart to wait. Joss is just that good.

Miracle: I had been auditioning for Buffy since I was 19, one of his casting directors saw me in a workshop and brought me in for this tiny co-star role and then brought me back for a solid five years for co-star roles, guest star roles — I was actually up to be one of the potential slayers in the final season. My relationship with that office was solid, but it never worked. I then was up to play Kaylee in Firefly. Jewel [Staite] obviously got it, but I was definitely very close, so by the time Dollhouse rolled around, my journey in the Whedonverse had been going on for so freakin' long! I remember thinking, All right, this better work because I feel like this part was written for me and is mine to lose. And it worked. For me, it was really funny to have it click after all that time.

What do you consider to be the best thing you've learned from or experienced through Joss?

Miracle: I remember reading the episode where Mellie [is revealed to be a sleeper Active], I was like, "Joss loves me!" I got to have sex and I got to kill a guy, it was just the best episode ever. Having someone like Joss Whedon believe in you is a whole other level of joy and sweetness you don't get in this business all the time. I think having that kind of environment, where the creator of your show believed in you and genuinely loved you and cared about you and fought for you to be on his show, proves that his heart is a special thing. I'm still grateful to be in it.

Fran: I take [my work] pretty seriously and I feel like Joss instilled a real sense of responsibility in me. It might come from the fact my perception of him changed so quickly from auditioning, where I saw him as just another writer/director during pilot season, to being a starstruck fan, but I really look up to him. And I think my work ethic changed because of the sense of responsibility I feel to him to do my best work. I remember when I booked Dollhouse, a friend told me, "You will have fans for the rest of your life now. You don't understand, but your whole life just changed." And it's true. It's years later and I know that there are people out there all over the world who actually care about me and my career. I can't articulate exactly how much that means to me. That's what we do this for. That's who we do this for. I attribute that to Joss. I owe him a debt I can't repay.

Did any of you have an inkling that your whole life could change, like Fran said, because of Dollhouse when you were making it?

Dichen: I was relatively unaware. I think it's partly because I grew up in another country where we didn't have a ton of American culture. I didn't know what I was getting into, and I was blown away by it. I didn't expect all the people to be so wonderful. I think a lot of us keep in touch with fans, personally, that we've met through this job.

Miracle: They turn into friends.

Enver: The fans are what make this different from another job. The fans are so supportive and so cool and so informed. On a general level, the fans are very sophisticated viewers and they will get into it with you.

Dichen: Our fans are so amazing — there's a guy from Italy who flew here just to come tonight.

Miracle and Enver, in unison: Giorgio's here?!?

Dichen: Yeah! I mean, this guy built Obama's helicopter. He's an engineer, and he's here tonight. There are so many fascinating, interesting people from all walks of life who I've met through this show and that's what I really didn't expect.

Is it possible to articulate what it means to have people so passionately invested in your work?

Dichen: It's pretty overwhelming. I think we got incredibly lucky.

Miracle: We are incredibly lucky. The fact any of the fans have turned into friends is amazing, and I don't know that many actors can say that. The fact Giorgio is here blows me away.

Enver: I didn't want to get on Twitter for a long time and someone explained it to me this way: Actors have always had something between them and the people who want to consume their product. But we now live in a world where, for the first time ever, someone can say, "I like what you do," and I can reply, "Thank you, dude!" I can have that direct conversation, and as simple as that seems, it's never existed before. I think this whole movie is such a tribute to how much of a page has turned in terms of entertainment and we're only starting to feel the ramifications of it now. I mean, this movie is possible because we're able to communicate directly with people who, for one reason or another, actually want to see us all together. And thank god for that, because it's unbelievably powerful when you realize that people from all over the world are supporting you.