How did Nathan Fillion first get into Pixar Animation Studios? Through the friend of a friend.

Someone he works with on the ABC detective series “Castle” grew up in Emeryville, Calif., the Bay Area home of Pixar, Fillion said in a recent phone interview. And that guy had a friend who worked at Pixar.

So Fillion organized a tour of the Pixar studios, for no other reason than “because I wanted to go,” he said.

“I like to think I did a Pixar ‘inception,’ to put a bug in their ear,” he said.

It worked. Fillion now is part of the Pixar crew — lending his voice to a character in the animation studio’s latest feature, “Monsters University,” which opens Friday, June 21, nationwide.

He provides the voice of Johnny Worthington, the studly BMOC — big monster on campus — who leads the Roar Omega Roar fraternity, the champions of Greek Row. His frat aims to recruit James P. Sullivan (voiced by John Goodman), the big blue furry monster audiences met in “Monsters, Inc.,” while shunning the green spherical geeky monster, Mike Wazowski (voiced by Billy Crystal).

Being a voice actor, Fillion admitted, “is not a super-difficult job.” He recorded his role in two sessions, usually alone. “You have to rely heavily on the director and his unifying vision for the piece,” he said.

“Monsters University,” he said, “harkens back to our favorite ’80s frat movies — but, because it’s Pixar, it’s a well-crafted story, and it’s got heart.” [Read the rest here]