Welcome once again to our second season of "On the Futon With...," a semi-weekly feature where I sit down and talk TV with some of my favorite people in the industry, all the while trying to give the impression I'm not some overgrown fanboy.

THIS WEEK'S GUEST: "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" star Summer Glau

[EDITOR'S NOTE: This interview was done during FOX's Mid-Season Press Junket on Thursday, January 10.]

Brian Ford Sullivan: So how did it feel to go to the premiere last night?

Summer Glau: It was really fun but I'm still really nervous because I wanted to celebrate and yet we haven't aired yet - so I'm dying to hear what people say, dying to hear what the numbers are going to be.

BFS: I'm sure.

SG: Well I want to just relax and say - wahoo! - part of me I think wants to... because I think if people watch it we're going to keep going and have a second season. That's what our goal is.

BFS: You shot the pilot, what, nine months ago?

SG: I know! Up until about two weeks ago I just sort of projected what was going to happen and now it's the moment of truth, our show's going to be out there, the big moment we've all been working toward is finally here.

BFS: Coming off "Serenity" did you ever expect to end up on another franchise-type show?

SG: I love it. I can't believe the luck that I've had since I've come down here, the roles I've ended up with. I almost didn't go on this audition because I thought - it's just too far fetched for me, I'm not gonna get this one. But my mom won and I ended up going.

BFS: Now with the strike are you antsy to get back to work?

SG: It feels like forever [ago]. It was so sad - you spend your whole life with them, you're with them all the time and just one day, it's over. So it was just great to see everyone [last night], everybody who worked so hard. I can't wait to go back. I'm so ready.

BFS: Since the pilot, what's the journey been like to explore your character? Is there anything that surprised you? Excites you?

SG: I've been really shocked and thrilled with what our writers have come up with... their vision for Cameron. It's very dark, it's very moving. And it's a mystery I don't even quite understand yet. And there have been a few episodes we've done that have been shocking, you know, their vision for Cameron. I'm just trying my best to fulfill what their vision for her [is]... There's this one episode - I don't want to say too much about what it is - but it's interesting - does a Terminator understand what music is? Or what art is? How does a Terminator look at it or listen to it? And how she feels about death, how she feels about consequences. You know, I feel like when she looks at John, she talks about John, thinks about John - it's almost, it's as close to love as a robot can feel. And her whole existence is about protecting him, about keeping him safe. It's really, it's an interesting role.

BFS: Is it difficult to find a center to work off of? It seems like you meet Cameron as a charming country girl and yet a switch is flipped and she's a ruthless machine.

SG: When I watched the pilot last night... when you shoot a show you shoot it completely out of sequence, I didn't know how it was going to look. It was interesting how lively and animated Cameron is in the beginning of the show and as soon as her cover is blown it just changes. And I wanted to make sure that, I didn't want her to be so human that people got bored with it and felt like I wasn't being true to the character. She actually is a Terminator so I wanted that to come through but I also want there to be moments where people are taken back by the way she responds to something or the way she looks at something... So I found that in the pilot and after the pilot, when we started the series, we wanted to have somewhere to sort of go and she's coming from the future, she doesn't know what it's like to live in this time and what's it like to be a high school student, be a normal person and blend into society. She's just childlike, the way she grows and the things she absorbs so she's always changing, she tries on different hats, she tries being different people in different ways. That's really fun - I never know what they're going to ask me to do.

BFS: Is there someplace you'd like to see her go? Any direction you're hoping she goes?

SG: They've already fulfilled several of my little fantasies about what Cameron would do, who she dresses as and impersonates. It's pretty fun!