Who is Summer Glau and Why Am I Obsessed? Part I

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Who is Summer Glau and Why Am I Obsessed? Part I

23 January 20095 CommentsPosted by Phil

PART I of II

I wrote this as sort of a profile for actress and current star of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles", Summer Glau. It's an article about her life and career - the things that led me to obsess over her and choose her as my #1 sexy celebrity in the year 2008.

For Part II, CLICK HERE

Mini Bio

Who is Summer Glau? Where does she come from?

Summer is a Texas girl, born in San Antonio July 24, 1981 raised by her parents; her mother Mari, a school teacher, and her father a general contractor. She has two younger sisters named Christie and Kaitlin both of which she says she is very close with.

She spent most of her early life as a ballet dancer starting at age five, something she's speaks about often. "I danced classical ballet my whole life. That was my destiny; that was my identity. I was known as Summer The Dancer. And I thought that's what I'd do all my life." As a very gifted dancer she received a scholarship to a ballet company causing her to have home schooling for many years of her life to train. Grades three through twelve where spent dancing becoming the graceful Summer that we've all fallen in love with. Most people in life don't have those opportunities and thankfully her family showed support all of those years. "They always been supportive of me, no matter what I wanted to do," she says about her family. "I remember my mom, she used to work for my ballet company. She worked in the wardrobe department, she used to go with me to my ballet camps. They're a huge part of why I am where I am."

Unfortunately Summer's dream would come to a sudden pause when a freak accident at nineteen years old would put a hold on her dancing. Some reports say she broke one of her toes, yet other reports say she had a bad ankle injury. Whatever the case, Summer wouldn't give up and wanted to stay strong. She danced anyways, but as in all things the pain eventually was just too much and with a heavy heart it was time to stop and heal. She thought her life was over; little did she know that fate was going to introduce her to the world as an actress and one of the most attractive women of her generation.

"I came into LA for the summer, and I had a friend who was dancing at the theater, and I thought, 'Well, I can still dance - I just can't put on my shoes'," she says. "So I came out here thinking it would be a getaway for the summer, and I ended up auditioning for jobs and booking them right away." Great way to heal your foot Summer, by dancing (sarcasm). It was the smartest thing you did! She continues saying that she danced tango for a year (I would give anything to dance that tango with her), until she began getting jobs as an actress. She felt the acting bug; she started auditioning for television commercials at first making her realize her love for acting, making her realize that maybe acting was her destiny. Finally, Summer decided to move out to LA to become a full fledged actress. She scored several television commercials and an episode of "Angel" where she played a ballerina - use what you got baby. The journey, however, really begins when she is thrusted upon the world as the "albatross". In 2002, Summer was cast as River Tam on a little TV series called "Firefly".

More after the photo:

The start of a career

After appearing on the "Angel" episode "Waiting in the Wings", Joss Whedon took notice of the beautiful Summer - soon after she was cast on to "Firefly" as a series regular. We all know what happened to the series after that.

Unfortunately, I vaguely knew about it until "Serenity" hit DVD racks - you can thank FOX for the promotion of the show and film. Granted, I didn't follow movies and television as much as I do now but it still seems ridiculous that I hardly knew about it until it was way too late. The honest truth is; I went to Best Buy one day to buy some DVD's and I saw "Serenity". The only reason why I bought it was because the DVD cover was really cool and it had science fiction written all over it - I'm obsessed with SciFi if you didn't know, also it was suggested to me by a friend. He had high praise for the film. So I bought it and to my surprise "Serenity" turned out to be one of the best SciFi movies I have ever seen. I loved it so much, I wanted to know more about where it came from and again to my surprise it was easy to find out what I wanted to know because Browncoats (fans) were everywhere. Soon after, I bought the "Firefly" box set and fell in love with it. Now, after years of owning it, I've seen both "Firefly" and "Serenity" more times than I can count.

The character Summer plays, River, is a child prodigy that has a tragic turn in her life. She goes from a shy young genius to a mentally unstable force with abilities unknown to us, the characters, and herself; eventually we find out how incredible those abilities are. River at a young age showed a high intellect and with having that much intellect she was sent to "The Academy" at the age of fourteen. There she was isolated and tested on by the government for two years; even part of her brain was removed causing her unstable emotions. Eventually River was able to get a message out to her brother Simon, a message pleading for help. He gave up everything to save her, because he loves her.

In 2005, during the marketing for "Serenity", viral marketing was released on the internet called the "R. Tam Sessions". Up until now, I've never seen it but it gives an introduction to the character acting as sort of a brief prequel to everything that happens in "Firefly" and "Serenity". The interviewer is play by Joss Whedon himself and of course you recognize Summer as River. Watch the video after the photo.

More after the photo:

River is a character you can't help but love because she's such a tragic person. The genius behind Summer's acting created a character that invested us - we wanted to help her as much as River's brother Simon.

September 30, 2005 "Serenity" was released into theaters furthering the story of "Firefly" finally showing River Tam's overall ability - she was a Jedi, just kidding. This is where Summer's dancing was used to advantage. In "Serenity", River is given a lot of action and fighting which Summer proudly did 90% herself without the use of a stunt double. To train, Summer spent nine months training with three months of that in "fight-camp."

"It was three months of training pretty much every day," she tells The Official Serenity Magazine. "I started doing the martial arts training, where you go to the gym, put on your gear, warm up, and you kick your booty for an hour. You cry a little bit, you sweat a lot and there was so much comfort in that." She admits, however, that some times it all was a bit overwhelming. "There were a few times when Joss walked me out to the golf cart and I would sit there and cry a little bit," she says. "He'd pep talk me and we'd go back in and I'd have a better attitude." Summer's hard work pays off by creating action scenes that looked flawless adding to the perfection that was Joss Whedon's vision.

"Serenity" overall was a huge critical success - critics and fans alike loved the film as much as they loved the series, however, none of that showed when it came to box-office. On a budget of $39 million "Serenity" only brought back $38.8 million worldwide - a financial failure, otherwise known as a "bomb". A profit was only made once "Serenity" was released on DVD but that doesn't help the decision to make a sequel. Studio's always look for a domestic profit before ever considering a sequel even if the worldwide total is a success, but in this case even the worldwide total wasn't enough to make a profit.

That was the end of the "Firefly/Serenity" era.

Over the years in between "Firefly", "Serenity" and the next show I'm going to discuss, Summer played roles on several different projects that includes recurring roles on "The Unit" and "The 4400". On January 13, 2008 (premiere date) Summer would join the ranks of Arnold Schwarzenegger playing a Terminator named Cameron on "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" on FOX - a role that solidifies my Glau obsession.

This is Part I of a two Part article. Come back Saturday morning (tomorrow) for Part II of this Summer Glau profile - "Who is Summer Glau and Why Am I Obsessed?"

Sources: Wikipedia / Summer-Glau.net / Serenity Magazine / IMDB/ Youtube - Thanks to all sources!!

For Part II, CLICK HERE

-Phil