'Terminator's' petite Summer Glau can kick tail with the best of them

McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) - Pound for pound, Summer Glau is one of the toughest stars in the action film and television world.

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That she stands a mere 5-feet-6 and weighs about as much as a Boston Terrier has not stopped the Texas native from being the muscle on TV shows like "Firefly" and "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles." Who says you have to be a former body builder to be a Terminator?

The Fox Network is counting on Glau to provide the punch needed to draw viewers to the show's new 8 p.m. EST Friday time slot. In a show of girl power, "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" is being paired with the new Eliza Dushku action series "Dollhouse."

"Terminator" executive producer and creator Josh Friedman saw so much powerful potential in the petite Glau, he wrote the part of the female Terminator with her in mind.

"I had seen Summer a few years earlier. She came in and auditioned for another show. But then she went off and did the 'Serenity' movie. I walked around carrying her audition tape for a few weeks, kind of lamenting the loss of Summer," says Friedman in a telephone interview. "So when I was working on the show, working on developing it and I realized I wanted to do a character like this, she as about the only one that I felt like I knew could do this.

"You know she has a quality. It's her physicality and her dance training and all sorts of things. She's really the only people I know who can kind of be completely still and still be fascinating to watch act. She's got it."

Portraying a human-looking robot offers a host of challenges for the actress. Often she is required to remain emotionless. At the same time, she must generate enough sympathy for the character to believe she could become close to John Connor (Thomas Dekker). The "Terminator" mythology says it will be Connor who will one day lead the battle to save mankind from the killer robots.

Glau's character has changed since the series started. Cameron is absorbing human behavior and trying to understand human emotion. The actress suggests Cameron is actually showing a weird form of love for John.

"The biggest difference between playing Cameron and playing other roles that I have in the past is I'm constantly making a decision about how I play this role. You know it has to be planned out. And as an actor, a lot of times you just react in a scene and you just do it from your heart. And you know Cameron cannot do that," Glau says. "I really rely on Josh and I rely on my writers to help me with the character."

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Glau adds there are times when Cameron almost comes across like the family pet because she is docile. Then the character will do something so cold and unfeeling the viewers are hit with the show's central reality: Cameron is a robot whose sole purpose is to use any means to complete her mission.

Look for the action to get cranked up in coming episodes. There have been few days of filming when Glau has not had to wear a vest of squibs, which are the special effects devices used to show bullet holes.

These days, Glau fires big guns, gets blasted and basically handles anything required of Hollywood's big boys. This has not always been the case. Most of the 27-year-old actress' roles have been more traditional. She's appeared on "Angel," "Cold Case," "CSI" and "The Unit."

She rarely gets to dance on "Terminator," but all of the years she spent training have come in handy.

"I've been really fortunate to have been cast in some roles where I've been able to incorporate movement. I think that Cameron is isolated in a way and isn't really able to relate to the other characters on a human level and I feel that movement is a way for me to express that," Glau says. "I feel that sometimes her movement is awkward or her movement is unpredictable. And it is a way for me to help tell her story."

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© 2009, The Fresno Bee (Fresno, Calif.).