Do we like Summer Glau?
Our score: 6 out of 10. A clean search and a consistently warm public manner, but little documented good work beyond fan goodwill, so we can't push it higher.
Summer Glau is the sci-fi cult queen. She was a guest on Angel, then Joss Whedon cast her as River Tam in Firefly, a role she carried into the 2005 film Serenity. From there she went on to The 4400, The Unit and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, where she played the cyborg Cameron.
Later credits include Bennett Halverson in Dollhouse, a run as Isabel Rochev in Arrow, a guest spot on Castle and a recurring role as Miss Jones in Wu Assassins. That Netflix show is the most recent major credit the 2020 profile we read could find, and it said nothing was announced after it.
On the harm test, the search came back empty. We found no anti-LGBTQ+ statements, no conspiracy-theory slide, no vaccine or climate nonsense, and no campaigning for anyone's rights to be taken away. Her listed work is mostly sci-fi and genre TV, and we didn't find her making projects with the culture-war studios. We can only report what is on record, and what is on record is quiet.
On the good-person test, we found no lawsuits, no court outcomes and no credible allegations from established outlets. In interviews she comes across as a bit nerdy and sincere about the people who love her shows. In 2018 she said she wants fans to feel she has connected with them, and that their time is precious.
She is also generous about the work itself. She has praised Whedon's writing for giving women flaws, vulnerability and humour, not just strength. Of Firefly she said fans loved it because it was a story of an underdog. Note that the interview we read is from 2018, and we did not look into Whedon's own controversies here.
Her fans keep asking about a Firefly comeback. In 2019 she said an audio drama would be a great way to do it and one fans would enjoy. In 2017 she and Jewel Staite said they still couldn't believe how long the show has lasted. There's a lot of internet gossip about her, including break-up and death hoaxes, but it comes from a gossip site that later labelled its own stories false, so we've ignored it.