Interviews

James Masters - SFX Magazine September 2003
By Jayne Dearsley

You'd be surprised at the surreal things that can happen on the day you're scheduled to interview James Marsters. You arrive a ridiculous two hours early because you are worried about missing your train. You can be glared at by a strange, scary woman as you kill time on a bench in Kensington Gardens, making you wonder if she is placing a voodoo curse on your head. You can sit in the lobby of a swish hotel where the interview will take place, watching a pool of water forming on the marble floor as a flood in room 125 drips slowly through the ceiling. Posh guests can saunter to and fro, oblivious to the liquid soiling their expensive shoes. A smiling PR guy can usher you into the bar, but not before you've received a mighty electric shock as you shake his hand.
And then there's the presence of The Marsters himself, walking towards you with a clear drink in his hand and a huge grin on his face. He looks well ; those legendary cheekbones have filled out slightly, he's subtly tanned and the blond locks have their usual between-filming dark roots. Blue eyes twinkle. He's Spike : ethereal, every inch the star, as otherworldly as all the other freaky incidents of the day. Until he coughs the most unhealthy cough I have ever heard, and within moments we are discussing colds and the perils of phlegm. "When it's black, that's when you go to the doctor," he points out, in a very un-Hollywood way. Suddenly he's not that blond bloke from Buffy ; he's just some down-to-earth geezer with a cold. The world returns to normal. "I'm feeling really good" he says, settling back into a richly-cushioned sofa in the corner of the hotel bar. "Right now my mind is all about the band, frankly, because that's what I am doing here. We've done some really good shows."
He's talking about Ghost Of The Robot, the group with which he wants to take over the world. You can tell he is serious because he raves about their music non-stop, hands moving wildly, bitten down fingernails itching to pluck guitar strings. A plectrum hangs on a chain around his neck. He's got the Rock `N' Roll vibe coming out of his ears. "We don't feel like we are a celebrity band" he explains, when asked if Fame from Buffy will be a good or bad thing for this new venture. "The best argument to convince the audience that we are not just a freak show, or a celebrity show, is to play them the music ; and quite frankly, once we do that..get'em in the venue, and then start playing the music, and you get the converts. Half audience are people who have seen the show and are ready to erupt at anything, and I love that, and there's half the audience who are at the back going "Bring it on." And it's wonderful to see them start to move, and by the end of the show they're going, "YEAH !" Judging by the contagious enthusiasm that's oozing from his every pore, Marsters is happy with his lot at the moment.
Is he more about the music than the acting, though ? We're a little worried."No- I have always had my cake and eaten it, too ! I have friends around me who say, "James, you can't do both ! Nobody does that !" I as always like `Why Not ?' you just find a way. You give up sleep. You do. It's worth it. I like to express myself, I like the veil that art gives you. I've shown things on Buffy that are very private, and nobody knows what they really are, and I have got to say them in public and have a response. And with the music, it's much more revealing because I am writing my own stuff." He wriggles on the sofa cradling his drink. "If you really examine the lyrics you'll learn a few things about me that might be surprising actually."
Surprising, eh ? Does he admit to liking donkeys or something ? Marsters laughs and a few heads in the bar turn to stare - his voice carries far across the room. "Sometimes I can write a songs and I think, people are gonna go, `you're a freak' And then they just hum along and say, `That's a beautiful song.' It's just an amazing experience. That's what art does, it reminds people that they are not alone. You say `Wow, I feel that too ! I thought it was just me ! I thought that I was a weird freaky person ; everybody's like that ! Wow I'm not alone" There must be many freaks in the world, if that's the case "There's lots of human beings. We're all freaks, as it turns out." Marsters reckons - and his right, dammit ! - that America and Britain are the only countries the only countries that know how to play Rock and Roll. This seems to explain why he spends so much of his time over here. "Frankly, I like England a lot," he nods. I point out that maybe it has something to do with the fact that he's sitting in an unbelievably swanky hotel overlooking Kensington Place. "Oh my God !" he agrees, laughing wryly. And I am now seeing Britain. The Brits are wonderful. They have a very high social skill, they have a high vocabulary. Social interaction is easier and more pleasant here." Judging from the mountains of letters received by SFX, the Brits like Marsters too.
At the mention of how pleased our readers were to discover he was joining Angel, the actor looks shocked. "Really ?" He was one of the most popular characters in Buffy after all. He looks astounded. He's about to deny it, but I know for sure that it's the truth. Honestly if Spike hadn't have joined Angel, I say, there would have been an outcry. People would have been furious. Now he just looks embarrassed , so he chooses to deflect the praise by talking about one of his favorite subjects in the world- Joss Whedon. "Joss is so excited about it, too. He started to write my entrance to Angel as he was writing the death scene in Buffy, he was getting so excited about the potential, and the things he could do."
So, Spike and Angel in the same show. It'll be like two roosters in the hen house. Does Marsters see them competing, on-screen or off ? He lays the question to rest with ease. "It's his show," he affirms "Believe me I am not going to out-sexy David Boreanaz !" Ah, but maybe he will : after all, Angel no longer removes his shirt on the show, whist Spike does it at the drop of a hat. Marsters laughs a particularly dastardly laugh when I point this, out not at all offended to be discussing the allure of his chest with a virtual stranger. "Well you know, maybe we will have a shirt-off competition, I donno ! No, it's definitely Angels show, and if the show's going to continue to succeed it's because the character of Angel gets more and more interesting as the years go by. They're not gonna do anything that's gonna corrupt that at all. There's potential there for conflict with Angel, because Spike knows that Buffy really loves Angel and not him. And Angel hates Spike because he's been there recently ! I don't think these guys are going to be doing high fives. Marsters shrugs. "Then again, we say that, and Joss might do exactly the opposite. At the same time, both of them have souls now, so there might be some connection between them."
Will he be seeing much of his old Buffy cast-mates ? "Oh I imagine so. You know, I feel like they're old war buddies "Oh, I imagine so. You know, I feel like they're war buddies. I feel like we've been in the trenches lobbing hand grenades at Time. Time is mother. There's never enough time. "I feel like I've seen the best and the worst of all of them," he muses, playing with the chunky silver chain on his wrist, " And the thing is, it really is like family ; in that you can't choose family, but you can't hate them, because if you do, if you hate them, because if you do, if you hate these people. Then you go down. So it forces you into a wisdom about people. All of my fellow cast-mates have delighted me, they've all frustrated me, it's a human thing ; and the cumulative effect is that I think I have a beautiful warts and all appreciation for them. They are all good people. There was no weak link. That was a well-populated show, there were a lot of characters, and there was never a bad one." He stops to ponder. " Except for one."
Intriguing ! Who ? "NO." Go on ! Pleeease "There was one person who didn't gel. Not a regular, not a cast-mate. Never mind." A cackle worthy of a pantomime villian leaves his lips. Was it. ? But he heads me off at the pass, staring out of the window. "Oh, look at those trees," he breezes all innocence. Then he turns back and wags a finger. "You've never gonna get dirt out of me. First of all, there's very little dirt to get and second of all you don't speak about it. At the end of the day we created something beautiful, and we will always have that."
The phrase "Blood out of a stone" springs to mind, so it seems to be a fitting time to change the subject, albeit reluctantly. There's something else close to James Marsters Heart at the moment. In addition to Spike and his music, there's now his movie career, which has recently received a boost, as he's been cast in a movie based on a play called Venetian Heat Filming begins in September. "I was just meeting with the producer and the director over there," the actor reveals, nodding his head across the room at one of the many tables dotted around the bar. "There's Derek Jacobi."
Resisting the urge to turn around, I listen to Marsters rave about the part "It's about being yourself. When I first got the script I was really impressed by it, but I was really reticent about the sex scenes. "I had to confront my own homophobia, which I thought, I didn't have any of. I've grown up in the theatre and I thought I didn't have any of that. It's not really about being gay ; it's about the incredible price you pay if you're not yourself ; if you choose to live a lie.
The movie takes place in fascist Italy, where being a homosexual means instant execution. The movie ends in swathes of blood. It does not go well for these people !" If you're worried about spoilers pretend you never read that ! Marsters, however, seems unconcerned that he's given away the films finale. "I think it's a happy ending !" he exclaims " because even if you die, if you die true to yourself, then you have honour, and that's a good death. If you live a lie for 80 years, what the fuck is that ? I uh-found.. I've had some unsuccessful relationships with women. Uh..and, without knowing it, lived lies, women have ..their own reasons." He pauses to structure his thoughts. "I don't want to get too specific because that's my personal life, but I know what it's like to wake up and realise that you are not living your own truth. And, when I made that connection with the character, I got really excited about doing this movie. I think I can play living hell out of this part. I think I know the anger, I've figured out what he thinks the problem is.I mean, he thinks..never mind. It's secret.
He stops talking with a shy smile, suddenly aware that he's on the verge of blabbing everything. We can safely assume that he's just as enthused about his film as he is about his music and his television work - the guy has so much energy it's a miracle he's still seated on the sofa. Only his hands move about, perhaps still itching to play some tunes on his guitar.
Understandably, it's difficult to have a conversation with someone from Buffy without the subject of the Willow/Tara romance popping up. "It wasn't about being gay ; it was just about being in love. Two human beings that were in love. It was beautiful," Marsters declares with pride. " Joss pushed the envelope. The executives, the higher-ups were very uncomfortable about that. He quit once, you know. He said "You make me cut this and I'm out of the office, I quit," and hey said `fine 'and And he said `FINE' He hung up the phone and he started packing his desk. They called him back and he told his assistant, "Tell them I am busy, I'm packing my desk, and I don't have time to talk to them, I need to get my desk cleared out." Wow. He was serious then. "And they went away for a while, and when they spoke again he said, "They haven't kissed yet" They wanted him to eradicate the relationship and he said, you know, `They're kissing in the next episode,' and he hung up. It was a big envelope to push to have it being two girls. If you are gay and happen to be a fourteen-year-old girl, it's really wonderful to be able to watch that on TV and realise your not alone. I am so proud of the show for that. A lot of times in my life I felt out of place or that I didn't fit in, and so I really feel for people who feel that way. And it's hard, it's really hard to be gay in America. Ten per cent of the viewership is gay, so they want to see that reflected on the screen, which is beautiful."
Here's where I make a mistake. I imply that the success of Buffy isn't just down to the writers (whom of course are brilliant) but to the cast as well. From his reaction you'd suspect that I have that I had just called his mother an old trout. He becomes vehemently defensive. "It is not. IT IS NOT. It is all writing, and a really good actor understands that. Good acting is Not Messing Up Good Words. If you can release the potential of the words..if you can find yourself in the position of having to overcome the material, your in the dog house. The best thing to do is to recognize a good script and then serve it."
Yes, but without a good cast, no-one would know if it was good writing or not, I counter. "Theirs a lot to be said for good acting, but most actors will mess up good words. I'm not saying that acting's not valuable and good acting is not rare - it is. But good acting is serving good words.It's releasing their true power." It's true. Good writing is rare. Marsters is deadpan, deciding to lighten the mood "Good beer is rare,too." And good sex. I add, rising to the bait.
The PR guy is now hovering in the way that says "the interview should be ending right about now." Marsters rises languidly from the sofa and stretches, looking mildly relieved to be moving again ; sitting still is defiantly not his thing. I wish him luck with Ghost Of The Robot and his coming year on Angel, and he looks truly grateful, in the oh-so-humble manner he's honed to an art form. He leaves with a smile on his lean face.
As he exits the hotel bar I wonder if I should warn him about the flood on the floor of the lobby - he'll ruin his shoes if he walks through it. But suddenly, he's no longer 1718 Visitors on this page.

James Marsters - At Suntimes.com

Long before he dyed his brown hair blond and sank his teeth into the role of Spike, the Brit bloodsucker with a soul on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," James Marsters was grooming his bad-boy image. First, as a reject from the famed acting school at Juilliard, then as a Chicago-based actor who wasn't afraid to bare all--much to the delight of many a blue-haired Goodman subscriber.

We caught up with Marsters--who's in town this weekend for a convention appearance and a gig with his band, Ghost of the Robot--to discuss "Buffy's" demise, his Chicago days and what the future holds.

Q. For those who missed your entrance in the 1987 production of "The Tempest," what was so special that people are still talking about it after all these years ?

A. Oh, for [expletive] sake. Bob Falls ! It was his first season at the Goodman, and he wanted to radically switch the subscription base, so he was big on nudity. I played the prince handpicked by the wizard father to marry his daughter. I was supposed to be the perfect boy. Falls wheeled me out, strapped to a wheel like Da Vinci's man, and you could hear a sea of opera glasses clicking open to get a better look.

Q. You're planning to spend your summer post-"Buffy" touring extensively through Europe with your band Ghost of the Robot. How'd that come about ?

A. Frankly, the initial interest is through "Buffy." We don't have a problem with that. We all have to eat. OK, so mine are paid for thanks to the show, but everyone else in the band has got to eat.

Q. Just how many times have you had to dye your hair in the course of seven seasons ?

A. Once for every episode I was in.

Q. Didn't that fry your hair ?

A. My hair was fine with it. The scalp, on the other hand, had all these blisters. We'd be in the middle of a shot and a blister would pop. We'd have to stop shooting because the pus was running down my face, ruining my makeup. [Laughs.] Glamor, baby. It's all about the pain.

Q. So tell us how the series ends, already !

A. I can't. [Laughs.] Let's just say it will be exciting, expensive, romantic, bloody and heartbreaking. Oh, yeah, and it will piss some people off, too.

Note : The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Fan Event will be held Saturday and Sunday at the Radisson O'Hare, 6810 N. Mannheim, Rosemont. Tickets are $25-$50 and available at the door.

Marsters' band, Ghost of the Robot, performs two shows, at 7 :30 and 10 p.m. Saturday, at the Pickwick Theatre, 5 S. Prospect, Park Ridge. For tickets ($35-$50), call (847) 825-5800.

Vulkon's Con - James Marsters Q & A
2003 - 05 - 1er

How does clothing or the lack of them affect how you act as a vampire ? Clothing make a big difference. Shoes tend to make the biggest difference. Generally, I had one costume for Buffy. Black jeans, black shirts, black boots and sometimes the black coat. There was a whole lot of money that didn't get spent on Spike. [Laughs] By the end of it, I was thinking I should go over to "Gilligan's Island" because it had about come to that but they tried to give me some new clothes recently and it didn't really work out. There's something about Spike that needs a kind of a dirty authenticity that's hard for television to really get so I'm glad we kept the black coat.

Fan presents him with a quilt.

That's fabulous, check that out ! It's beautiful. Someone else gave me a blanket that I use to this day, matter of fact. A black and red blanket. I get cold sometimes [Laughs] Thank you !

Now that the filming is over, what did they do with Spike's jacket ? There were actually two jackets. One for Steve Tartalia, who plays Spike when he is getting thrown up against a wall or out a window and one for me. They both got so ratty and gross because of?how do I say this?we use KY a lot. They smear it all over the plastic applications to make them look slick and sweaty - more like real skin. There is KY smeared all over that thing, fake blood, dirt. To the point where, I used to give the coat to Sarah [Michelle Gellar - "Buffy"] if she got cold and she just refused me for the last two years saying "Get that thing away from me !" But yeah, there was somebody in the crew that was trying to talk me into taking it and they were saying on Ebay people were bidding $400,000 dollars for the jacket. I just couldn't do that ! I couldn't steal. I used to produce theater and I hated actors who stole from me. It just drove me mad because I was working my fingers to the bone to keep the doors open and they are just taking costume pieces, which cost me thousands of dollars. I know that Joss doesn't have that problem. [Chuckles] He probably has money for a new jacket but I just couldn't do it. I was in my trailer staring at the thing and I'm like 'I can't live with myself stealing a half a million dollar piece of clothing.' If they gave it to me, it would be a whole different thing - that would be nice but they're not going to do that.

What's it like being on the set ?

You know we worked twelve to twenty hours, five days a week. We begin on 4 am on Monday morning and we get out about 5am Saturday morning, which we call Friday night. You know it's really fun but at the same time there is this quality of exhaustion that is behind everything. My memory of doing the show is a little hazy, frankly. Most of the time I feel like I'm stumbling around and as soon as we get the lines right, we move on and I'm always amazed by how good it looks. I read the scripts and I get these grand ideas on all this stuff I want to do and then the crush of television happens and it's just about trying to get these scenes filmed in the time we have.

There is a rapport. When you are doing work in front of an audience, you know if you suck right away. When you are really in trouble, is when you hear paper rustling - if they are checking their programs and you can see the flash of paper. Then you see actors turning upstage going "Get the lead out, they're bored." For real. Then there is shifting in the seats and you know maybe it's too warm in the house or maybe your not having a great night. Then there is that nice silence when you know you are doing your job well. And then there is the actual silence where people stop breathing, which is beautiful. You don't get that in film. You don't get that dialogue with people so there is something that is less satisfying than doing that. But what makes up the difference is the people - the crew and the cast. We have a lot of really hilarious people around. Nick [Brendon - "Xander"] was just fabulous. In the middle of a twenty-hour day, Nick comes in and starts joking around and all of a sudden everything is all right. I've got to say man, Buffy?we did some dangerous things on Buffy. We did a lot of things that scared us. We did a lot of things that we were uncomfortable having to do. It was all in the name of something that I am proud of and something that I think was worthwhile. But actually doing that - you are either doing something emotionally draining or something that is physically really uncomfortable. So, ahh, man?a hard, wonderful, frustrating, enlivening, everything all at once and sooo tired.

Does it freak you out when people dress like you (Spike) ? Pointing to a guy in the audience in full Spike dress Yo dude ! Stand-up !

James asks Spike look-alike : Oh, not when they do it well like that ! You look better than me ! And you've got the fingernails ! Yes !

Is that your own hair color ? Do you bleach or dye ? Does it hurt ? Lucky bastard ! You look hot man.

Does that freak me out ? No way - that's fabulous ! 'Cause Spike ain't me. I have a real bad temper frankly. I never lost it on the set but I was always going to my trailer and constantly breaking mirrors and stuff like that and people got worried. But I was professional enough not to let that interfere but when you take my kind of inner anger and you add the wit of the writers and the funny lines, that to some degree is Spike for me. Really he is created by writers and in a way, I feel like you are just as much Spike as I am. You have the costume and the hair - just say "Bloody Hell" and you are there !

How does one select acting roles ?

You know, that is the most important question for an actor because I think actors are servants. They do best when they just want to serve the words and let the words do the work for you. I see a lot of actors saying stuff like "Well, I don't feel comfortable saying that line. Let's change the line." I don't really believe in that. I think that you have all your decision making when you choose the role and after that process, you are just a servant and your job is just to go along and do it.

I like projects that seem to be about something have more meat for the audience to hook into and I think are much more satisfying than more empty projects or projects that might be saying things we've heard a thousand times. So, I look a lot at the overall script and what the effect is going to be on the audience - that is as important to me as how well my role may be or how big it may be. If you are in the middle of a really great project, you just look better even if you have five lines. It's a hard question. I've spent my life looking for good writing and I think I can recognize it. It's really the overall writing that I look at, if that makes any sense. Does that help at all ? A really opaque answer.

One of your co-actors in a previous play talked about how a prop gun didn't go off and you had to improvise the scene by saying "Bang !"

[Laughs] Is that Scott Lowell ? Yeah, he is on Queer As Folk now. He is a great actor, great guy.

Stories about when things just go up in theater are the most fun. Do you have other stories ? Yeah, you don't get stuntmen or that beautiful word "Cut ! Let's go again."

Well, one [story] that didn't happen to me. I was doing Ionesco's "Rhinoceros" which has thirty different rhinoceros popping over all the time and I was, like, rhinoceros twenty-eight. The third act revolves around a brandy bottle and all the plot points go through the brandy bottle and they forgot to set the bottle [on stage]. [Chuckles] So Toby Anderson, a fabulous older actor in the lead, could not get off stage to get the bottle. There was no exit for him so there was no way to fix it. So, all the interns were gathered around the backstage just watching this fifty-five year old actor figure out how to tell the story off the cuff. Yeah, he came backstage and he exploded. He was just "F--- !"

In general it is my favorite time, when things go wrong because something real happens. It gives a chance for the actors to respond in a real way and in a way that can connect with the audience like nothing else. I remember I was doing "The Tempest" in L.A. and a lot of the characters were barefoot. Mine weren't but my girlfriend's were and so were a lot of other people and they broke glass on the stage. Somebody dropped something and there was real glass shattered all over the stage. The audience was uncomfortable, the actors were talking and nobody could figure out how to slyly get all that glass. I just said 'Guys, I'll take care of it.' And in my next entrance, I just stopped the play. I picked up the glass and then started my monologue picking up the glass and just got it out and everyone was just like "Thank God !" [Laughs] An older actor once told me a long time ago, if something goes wrong - admit it. You can't deny it. Five hundred people just saw it happen so the best thing you can do is go "Bang." [Laughs]

Can you address the rumors on the Internet that you are being considered for a role in the next Star Wars movie ?

I would love that ! I got interviewed for the Darth Vader role because George Lucas was aware of me. His daughter is a fan and like every good dad, he loves everything his daughter loves so he loves me. [Laughs] They came to the set. I still have a candle from his daughter. I went on this interview for the Vader role, in which he was supposed to be seventeen. [Chuckles] I said 'I don't want to cut myself off at the knees here but I'm not really seventeen.' And they were like "We know we just wanted to meet you and see if there is anything down the road." So, I don't know. Maybe they are percolating something - probably not.

The stuff I was reading mentioned the role of the young Grand Moth Tarkin.

Yeah, the Peter Cushing role ? He and I have those cheekbones, right ? [Laughs]

Oh, he destroyed Alderaan, didn't he ? Affecting a British accent he says "Foolish child"

Oh, did you guys notice in that scene, Carrie Fisher has an English accent ? Affecting a female British accent saying her line?You can just tell that was the first day of filming and they got the dailies back and George was like "Carrie, never mind the accent, honey."

What did you think of the Variety ad ? Wow ! That was one of the sweetest experiences. I understand that some of the people responsible for that are in the audience today and I want to really thank you guys. Thank you. That had an effect in L.A. that I don't know that you are aware of. To have fans come together and do something, that frankly, costs that much money and takes that much planning apparently doesn't happen very often - if at all. We just were swamped with calls after that asking, "What do you do to your fans ?" I didn't tell them everything. [Giggles] To some degree, it's hard for me to take compliments and so in a way I don't know how to react but at the same time, I am very deeply touched. I feel like I have worked hard and I do put in extra effort and, no matter how tired I am, there is a certain kind of passion that comes through. And I am glad that is in some way resonated with you guys.

You mention on the FX Network "Buffy Bites" segments that you and some of the cast would do Shakespeare readings on Sundays at Joss' house. Did that really happen ?

Yeah. They didn't happen so much this year because Joss was over on Angel but it is something everyone is clamoring for now that we have a little more time.

It all started when we were doing [Season 5 episode] "Fool for Love." On a Wednesday, I was on the Paramount lot doing total kick ass fight stuff in the New York Subway. [Crowd hollers in appreciation] That was one of the best days of my life ! Seventeen hours, Steve [his stunt double] almost never got in -I was fighting the whole time and I loved it. The very next day, I was playing William with the wig and the squinting. There was twelve hours difference between the two and I said to Joss 'Dude, this is just like Repertory Theater. This is what I dreamt of when I was in high school but when I got out of college all the Rep companies had gone bankrupt and there really isn't that experience of actors much anymore.' He got this little look in his eye and said, "Maybe we should continue that philosophy." And then he started having Shakespeare readings and then at the end of reading the plays, they would start drinking and I would watch them get drunk which is always fun, and we'd start singing. First we started singing old standards and then people started bring out their own material. I started bringing out my own material and finally Joss was like "Well, this sucks but I'll play it for you" and it would be amazing ! Week after week, he would keep coming up with songs and we kept giving him reinforcement saying 'Joss, you are really good at this.' Then he decided to go ahead and write the musical. [Audience applauds] It's one of the wonderful things when artists are put in close proximity and they are allowed to really talk to each other and not kiss ass and really cross-pollinate.

Is that how Ghost of the Robot started because of these musical interludes ? Actually, No. I've been performing by myself with a guitar in bars for a long time. I met this guy, Charlie DeMars, who had just moved into town and he is an amazing songwriter and musician. And we just started talking about life and about the songs we try to write about and what we try to talk about and we found a lot of common ground. He had some guys he had worked with before and we formed the band pretty quickly. That really just grew organically out of him moving into town and being my neighbor.

Of writing, acting or singing, which gives you the most satisfaction ? I can't split it up. The singing thing is much more vulnerable and scary to me both because it is live and somehow for me, sustaining a note and producing that sound makes you dig into an emotional realm or at least makes you connected to it. Also, the fact that I am singing my own material or material that I was on hand for when it was being made and I really know what it is about. So there is a real terror of 'God, I'm going to be too honest today' and then the joy of 'Hey, they love it !' I can't tell this to my own brother, you know. I can't tell most of this stuff to anybody but I'm just singing it out and they like it.

Acting for film is a little frustrating. I like to say on stage, the actor is like a chef at Benihana. He gets all the ingredients and he has to create the product at the point of sale, so to speak. So it all goes through him and everybody else is simply giving him ingredients to use to create the art at that time. But in film, you are just one of the ingredients and the chef is the editor who creates the art later. It's freeing to only be concentrating on the minutiae but it's also a bit of a smaller job so you end up having to do less of a job but you make it look much better and that is really cool. It's all different. I don't know if I have a real preference. I have to say being in front of an audience is something that is probably my favorite thing.

As for writing, I've kind of written all my life. I had theater companies in Chicago and Seattle and a lot of our plays were taken from other source material and put into a play or original material. At one point, we translated "La Vida es Sueno" which is "Life is a Dream" which is known as the Latin "Hamlet" written by Pedro Calderon De LA Barca. I was so proud of us because we read all the translations and they all sucked. So we went back and retranslated it and discovered that a lot of liberties had been taken with that play and that maybe a lot of people didn't know a lot about that play. We did a really successful production of it and I'm really proud of that. Writing music forces you to really get down to the core of what you want to talk about because you can't use that many words. I call it whining, you know, because a lot of my songs are dark, about love not gotten and all of this stuff but if you can take your pain and make it beautiful, I think that is the best thing. At least that is what I tell myself when I think that I am just whining.

I've always felt Joss had a Machiavellian idea about how he wanted the show to go but then you came in for a few episodes and ended up staying for all these seasons and evolving with the show. How do you feel about Spike being his wildcard ?

Yeah, it was really satisfying because it was so obvious that Spike did not fit into the pegs of this story at all. But in a way, that's what made it great. He was able to take the theme and put it on its head because the theme is how does one grow up. How does one become one's best self ? I mean it was frustrating a lot because I really would get just two to three pages of dialogue a script. I often felt that I was at this enormous banquet with the best food I'd ever seen in my life but my portion was always that big and I was salivating after everyone else's plate. But that is a glorious place to be as an actor because what it is not, is having to mumble a bunch of crap - which is death. So, both frustrating and rewarding. Actors are so greedy - we want everything.

Were you surprised when Joss gave Spike a soul ? Yeahhh. Completely. The thing is I didn't know. Even filming the scene where it happens, there were three different versions of that scene I had to memorize and the one we finally filmed was a fourth. I didn't know what the hell was going on. I didn't know why I went to Africa. I didn't know if I was going there to get something to kill [Buffy] with. I had no idea. [Spike] kept saying, "I'm going to give her what she deserves." So, Joss completely fooled me. I didn't even have the line "I will give you back your soul !" and they're rolling. It was cut and move on and I'm like?James looks around in complete confusion. 'Angel 2, yeah !' [Laughs] But that was the immediate problem is you can not go where Angel has gone. You don't follow up the banjo act with a banjo act.

What was your favorite episode of Buffy ? The Musical ["Once More with Feeling"] by a wide, wide margin. It was one of the great pleasures that every single episode pleased me. I found myself cursing the commercial breaks even though I had read the script and filmed the damn thing but I was like 'Oh, what's up ? !' I'm a fan of the show. I would be a fan if I weren't on it. But the Musical was one of those things where we were absolutely terrified as a company. I mean abject terror because not only the actors but the designers, the lighting department, everybody was asked to do things they never thought they would be asked to do and kind of like "Do it now." Sarah didn't know if she could be a lead singer and carry the lead. How many songs did she sing ? Six songs ? I mean she was apoplectic. To her credit, she boned down and got voice lessons and really got it down. Tony [Head "Giles"] and I were already singing publicly so we were a little more comfortable with it. Nick was being asked to dance which try doing that in front of six million people when you're not trained to dance. We didn't know if our boss could write a musical. We were like 'Ok, Joss. Flush the whole thing down the toilet.' [Laughs]

We filmed for like two days and he did a rough cut of the Anya/Nicholas dance sequence which was the first thing that we filmed, and showed it to us just because he realized we needed a little encouragement. It was brilliant. It was absolutely wonderful. At that moment, we just took off. Everybody was just flying and smiles all over. There is something about music that just taps into emotions more directly than words. I often feel like words have to be processed by the intellect and then accepted or not accepted by the heart. But music bypasses the intellect completely and goes right into the heart. So, we'd be acting the scene and the time would come for the song. Joss would hit playback and the big speakers would roar up and this beautiful music would come out and you'd lip-synch (but you'd feel like you were singing) and we were able to go to emotional places that you couldn't just doing dialogue. When a musical is designed, there is a point where the characters can't talk about it anymore. In order to express what they really want to express, they have to sing about it so it jumps up a level. Then Joss, of course, puts that on its head and he had people singing things they really should shut up about. By the time we got to "Tabula Rasa" which was the one after the musical, we were like 'Oh, this sucks. There's no music ! It's boring.' And in fact, "Tabula Rasa" was one of the most delightful, where we all lost our identities and it was complete farce.

Audience screams "Randy" You don't even know ! [Laughs] Tony did not like being cast as my dad. "We should be brothers, damnit !"

What size was the stunt sock used last season ? [Audience roars in laughter]

It was a slightly larger than a normal sock. It was the one piece of clothing they would not remove or touch from my trailer. Everything else got cleaned daily, that got left there for about a year and a half. We're not going to put that on Ebay either.

Besides yourself, what actor do you think would have been a good Spike ? There would have been a lot of actors who could have played the role well. It's a beautifully written role. There is a lot of meat in there and a lot of guys could have been effective. Jude Law would have been wonderful. Oh, for Christsake, Brad Pitt would have kicked ass as Spike. I mean he is a pretty good actor actually. No, really ! Did you see Kalifornia ? Not bad. Twelve Monkeys ? Some of those pretty boys can act. [Laughs]

What's it like being adored by everyone here ? Oh, it's just torture. [Laughs] It is wonderful to be connected to people I've never met before, to have something in common with so many people. I made a decision a long time ago, and my apologies to those people who have posted on the web, I don't really go on the web because it plays with my head. You guys are sooo nice. In my first year, I went on and I meant to go on for fifteen minutes and I stayed on for like three hours and I got off and I was like 'I'm the shit !' [Audience laughs] When they say actors lose perspective and get diva-ish, they say we are going south and I just thought, 'I'm two steps to Mexico, man.' And for a long time I put my head in the sand because I thought this is going to steal my soul. I'm going to become a big egotist and I'm going to lose myself.

Audience member shouts, 'Joss will give it back !" [James and audience laughs]

There was like a really beautiful extra that was working one day and she was eyeing me and I went over to Joss and I was like 'That really hot girl is eyeing me.' And he was like, "Well, you could go over and meet her. You are an international celebrity." And I was just like, 'Man, I don't really get that most of the time." Then he said, "Never get that because if you ever get that you will start to suck." It's true. A big ego never translates well on film.

What was it like filming the last scene of "Beneath You ?" That whole story arc had me finally stopping doing the method. I am a stage actor who came into film realizing the acting techniques for stage don't apply in film at all. If I wanted to succeed in film, I was going to have to go to techniques developed for film. The techniques developed by Marlon Brando and by the people of The Actor's Studio. Which is really all about creating a well-detailed fantasy life that you can release yourself into and really believe it. But the thing is, these guys weren't thinking of TV. They were thinking of submerging themselves for a limited play run or for a specific movie. What I found was that I submerged over the course of two years and it really burned me. It sent me almost over the edge and I learned something about The Method - be careful in TV with The Method. I was playing a man who was riddled by the guilt of all these murders so I had to dredge up all these things that I had core guilt about in my life and just beat myself up with it. When you do that to yourself?and no therapist is going to tell you that's a good idea. That's why acting isn't necessarily healthy all the time. So, I got all my rocket fuel together and we filmed the scene. Dailies came back and Joss didn't like the lighting and he thought some of the writing needed to be switched around so he rewrote it and came in and directed it again. By that time, I was spent. I had already filmed it and I just came to the set wondering how I was going to rake myself again but it always happens that the words just carry you. There are five or six scenes throughout this season that really were very hard, that were not comfortable, that were not necessarily fun but that I am very proud of.

What was is like hanging out with Liza Minnelli at the "The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn ?" She was in the make-up room forever. I saw her very briefly as she was coming offstage and she was really upset that her segment ran long and they had to axe the comedian that was supposed to follow her. As she left, she spotted me and said, "Oh, I love you !" and I was like 'Why do you know me ?' It still surprises me that you guys watch the show. I'm so excited about making it that it doesn't dawn on me that there are people all over watching it. Like The Rolling Stones invited Ghost of the Robot to be their guests in Berlin ! What's up with that ? I'm just flabbergasted.

Have you ever been injured on the set ? Many, many, many times. Well, the worst one wasn't that dramatic. It always happens this way in stunts. The big dramatic stuff you don't get hurt on, it's the little tiny stuff that you crunch on. There was a scene were Buffy was beating the crap out of me and I had to pick my head up slightly up for the camera angle and take massive head whips. The bigger the head whips you make, the more likely you are to risk whiplash. We filmed it, Joss looked at it and he thought I looked too bloody so we redid it and filmed it again. It was in the middle of winter and they are spraying me down with sweat so there was no way for me to stay warm. I whiplashed on the first try and we had to go back and try it again with more makeup and he didn't like that so we did it again. By the end of it, I was pretty laid out.

This season I had to go to the hospital. We were doing indoor fires. We are simulating danger and peril and it's not comfortable. When the high school burned and all the students were going crazy, they really wanted high flames to come out of those trash barrels. The art of making interior flame both for theater and film, is one that is controllable and repeatable and it's all about smoke. How do you make fire that won't just completely fill up your performance space with smoke ? Unfortunately, there was no way to make these huge flames without smoke. I was just getting over bronchitis at the time and I didn't collapse. I finished the scene but I went over to Marti [Noxon - executive producer] and I was like (Wheeze) 'That much smoke' (Wheeze) 'is unacceptable.' [Laughs] So, she was like "Why didn't you tell me that at lunch before you were dead ?" Cause I'm a trooper ! Yeah, I went to the hospital and the doctor said I had fifty-percent lung capacity.

What else ? Getting dragged over gravel is never good. You end up picking up chunks from your back, dragged shirtless over gravel. The truth is that stunt guys get hurt all the time but they don't admit it because it's their job to be able to do these stunts safely and not get hurt. They take it as a personal mistake if they get hurt. They are always getting dinged but you'll never know about it. Finally, the stunt guys started to appreciate that I was of the same mind. I wanted to be one of the actors the producers could count on to do stunts. I wanted to do them so I would never admit when I got hurt. I would always say to the stunt guys, 'Swing hard, swing close, I want to sell this fight as being really great. If you clip me, it didn't happen.' Basically, if they clip an actor they can be fired. They are always trying to be more careful with the principles and I said, 'Just do it.' Once they figured out I wasn't going to admit to being hurt they started pulling out all of this stuff ! All these stinky brown liquids from China and all these pepper patches. Magical stuff ! Eastern medicine in amazing. They really looked after me and were always around rubbing me out and doing the things they do for each other. So, hurt pretty much all the time. It's like NFL Football, you don't go to the hospital every week but on Monday morning, it's hard to stand up.

How was it to film the last scenes of Buffy ? It was not the emotional, sentimental thing that I had expected. My final scenes were done on second unit with David Solomon, who is one of our best directors. He does some second unit as well as directing some of our better episodes. There had already been tearful speeches made about how we began and how we got through it but that was all in the scene with the Scooby gang so I didn't have that. But there was something that was kind of right about that because, I never really fit into that gang on screen and that had a reflection in life too. So there was something kind of apt being in second unit again except the toys were just massive. You guys are going to love the final episode. Oh my God ! They pulled out the stops - there was some money there !

What happens to the rest of you and the actors now ? I think that we are all going to discover what a few of us have already discovered which is that there is a lot of interest in us as performers. Buffy was a show that gave good performers the ability to show off regularly and not just me. It's done so well, you probably don't notice it, but we changed up styles constantly within the same episode. We'll go from farce to melodrama to soap opera back to realism and we are expected to be able to do that and that gets noticed by casting directors. They're like, "Damn, that's acting !"

For me, I'm pissing my manager off is what I'm doing. I just turned down one offer and I think I will be turning down another one. I'm concentrating on doing a tour with my band this summer, not my band but the band I'm in. [Laughs] They'd love to hear that, "Oh, we're in the James Marsters Band now ? Great."

And then trying to get some material recorded before we lose our drummer who is going on a mission to God knows where. I really respect him for it but he is such good drummer, I don't know how we are going to replace him.

I'm not really worried. My real sense is that it's going to take a couple years to establish myself apart from Spike. In a weird way, people don't really know me as an actor, They know Spike and they love Spike but at the same time, they know that isn't me so they don't really think of James Marsters in a role unless it's a drug addict or a rock star. I think it will take about a year in some supporting roles and some guest appearances to introduce myself to people and at that point, I'll be really castable. So, that's my game plan.

Was it harder playing Spike this year ? Every year, I felt like I was playing a new character. I started as the Boy-Toy for Dru. I was cannon fodder and I was going to be done away with and Dru was the main thing. Then I graduated to villain then I guess I was the wacky neighbor for awhile. [Audience laughs] Then I was the forlorn man in the corner loving the woman who didn't give anything back, then I was the lover, then I was the unhealthy boyfriend. In this final season, I was the redeemed man or the man in search of that. In a way every year I feel, what am I going to do ? He is so completely different ! When they brought me on the show, the two things that I thought were the linchpins of the character was one - an extreme pleasure in hurting people and two - real love for my girlfriend, Drusilla. When they brought me on the show [in season four], I had neither one of those and I was like 'What are we going to play ?' and they found it.

I guess about mid-season, I was hungering for some swagger. I was like 'Spike, is getting really soft here.'

Even my brother who is so supportive of everything, he was like "Dude, you need to get some balls." But they worked that out too, the balls will be there.

[Audience laughs]

I thought your acting in "Lies My Parents Told Me" was tremendous. Can you talk about that ? I was really happy to go back to the William character. One of the things David Fury [director and writer] did with that episode that I really thought was wonderful was connect the dots on Spike. We saw him really early and then we saw him after he had really adopted his Spike persona - and he had been hanging out with Welsh miners and getting tough. But the interim part was never explored and [in that episode] we really got the morning after he was made and got to see the transition. That was something that had to be really carefully written and something David Fury and I were careful on the day to modulate. We didn't really know where we were going and we found it as we went. That and the woman who played my mother was hitting on me the whole time. [Laughs] It was so weird ! I kept saying 'You are very beautiful and very charming but you are playing my mom and you are freaking me out !' Great actor, wonderful person but she didn't want to hear that I didn't want to have that happen.

Will the movie you did with Amber Benson be released ? That's the movie Chance. I really have a soft place in my heart for young artists who are beginning. I remember the days when I was starting to produce theater and how hard that is and how much negative reinforcement you get when you try to become more than you were before. Amber showed me the script she had written and I thought it was brilliant. She said she wanted to film it for seven thousand dollars and I said 'Cool !' Basically, I wanted to support her in her first effort. She was wonderful. I dropped so many balls when I was starting to produce and she didn't drop one. She had no money but everything was right down professional and I really respected that. She made some really smart choices. When you shoot in digital or video, the color really blands out so she saturated her set with really bright colors to make up for that. And I understand that it is available but I don't know where. I think that movie was a really auspicious beginning for a very talented storyteller. I had a blast doing it because I got to play something completely unlike Spike. I was in a dress ! I look forward to her next movie. What you see is delightful.

How difficult was it to recite William's poetry with conviction ? [Laughs] Not that difficult because I decided they were good poems ! Early on, I really got into William's corner and I wanted to fight for him and I felt protective of him. I had this phrase going in my mind 'Effulgent is a good word.' But I was also struck by how hard it is to write bad poetry well. There was one point when we were waiting on a re-write from David Fury because he wanted to extend the very beginning of the poetry to include a reveal shot and it took him forever. People were like, "We have to film this ! This thing is on the air in two days, David !" And he was just like "Guys it's hard !" He's right !

Do you want to go back to theater, produce theater and if so where ? Los Angeles is a pretty frustrating town to try to do theater in. My problem is it's hard to get people to watch it. It's just not a theater town. New Yorkers think of theater as part of their city and Los Angeles does not have that at all. I do want to produce again but I think I would have a very frustrating time doing that in L.A. I would do it in New York and Chicago.

I'm trying to talk Joss into doing "Hamlet." I would like to direct him in "Hamlet." I saw him do "Hamlet" in his home and I've seen a lot of different Hamlets and his was one of the best. It was the most selfless. Most actors when they do Hamlet are Hamlet, you know ? They are important now. When in reality, its just about some kid whose thrown a lot more shit than he can deal with and it almost makes him give up on life. That's "Hamlet" and it's almost like "Catcher in the Rye" in that way. How do you become an adult ? It's kind of like Buffy actually. Joss mined the humor and I suddenly realized how that play could work because you see Hamlet and you see him whining again and he's attached to his mommy's apron strings but the guy is funny. There are a lot of jokes in that play. I'm always going 'Joss, when are you going to do it ? I want to direct you. It's time. You need to do three "Hamlet's" because you're not to get to what you want to do in the first "Hamlet." You are going to have to do two or three.' I'm going to break him down one of these days and I can't wait to direct him. 'No ! You are doing it wrong !'

The art of being... James Marsters

Most bizarre fan encounter: "When I was in England, a 75-year-old lady asked if she could grab my butt. I was mortified!"

Tales of a high school misfit: "Growing up I was totally uncool. But I didn't care. In fact, I wanted to be on the outside. I dressed like a freak and was into punk rock. With every gesture, I advertised that I did not belong."

Kitty pity: "My cat died last year, and I haven't had the heart to replace him. He'd been with me since day one."

Monkey business: "In the fourth grade, I had a brownish-red jacket with a hood. It made me look like Curious George, which earned me the nickname "Monkey."

No fear: "In the past, I've looked back on things I've done and thought, 'A smart man would have been afraid to try that.' I have an unhealthy lack of fear."

Marsters loves life playing the undead
By Scott D. Pierce
Deseret News television editor

BURBANK, Calif. -- It isn't hard to pick James Marsters out of a crowd -- even a crowd of several hundred people on the Warner Ranch, just down the street from the Warner Bros. backlot. What with that bleached-blond hair, he's pretty easy to spot.

But hearing him is another story. Fans of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (Tuesdays, 7 p.m., WB/Ch. 30) might be shocked to hear the native of northern California speak without the British accent he affects so convincingly in his role as the vampire Spike.

What surprises Marsters, however, is that he's still on "Buffy." Moreover, that after two years of occasional guest appearances, he became a regular in the show's fourth season.

"I was supposed to die after three to five (episodes). I was reading scripts last-page-first to see if I died," he said. "But the fifth one came and I didn't die. Of course, I could have died. If the money hadn't worked out -- bye-bye Spike."

Not that it was easy to incorporate a character who remains at heart unrepentantly evil into the show on a weekly basis.

"I really didn't see it coming," Marsters said of Spike, the vampire whose goal from the beginning was to do in the star of the show. "I saw the character as a functioning villain and the thing about a villain is that he can't achieve his objective. He can't kill the slayer, because then we're all unemployed. But if he keeps failing to do so, he becomes stupid. He becomes foolish and bumbling and ineffectual. So he has to stop trying. And so I didn't know what the heck they were going to do because Spike's whole thing was all about killing slayers."

What he didn't see coming was that creator/executive producer Joss Whedon would cook up a plotline in which the Initiative -- a secret government organization devoted to hunting vampires, demons and the like -- would implant a computer chip in his head that would prevent him from killing humans. And that Spike, always a surprisingly funny character, would replace Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) -- who left for the "Buffy" spinoff "Angel" -- as a comedic center of the show.

"What Joss said was, 'You're going to be the new Cordelia.' Which meant to me that I'm the guy in the corner saying, 'You guys are all dumb. It's stupid and this is not going to work. We're all dead and I'm outta here,'" Marsters said.

It all makes sense in a "Buffy" sort of way. And Spike is certainly one of the most interesting characters on any TV show -- a genuinely funny presence (the bit where he tried to stake himself earlier this season was hilarious) who remains, at the same time, a menacing presence.

"I'm not given a soul. I'm still a sociopath. I'm still the biggest jerk in the world. It's just that I'm kept from actually hurting people," Marsters said. "It's more like -- well, I'm not the actor Malcolm McDowell is -- but it's more like 'Clockwork Orange' when he's been experimented on and kept from doing what he wants to do.

"I'm going around going, 'I'm evil, damn it. Even though I can't bite you, I'm evil!' But that frustration is wonderful to play. Trying to figure out how to ask for things. How do you ask for help when, basically, as a vampire, you get immediate gratification? Whatever you want, you take it. I mean, vampires don't carry wallets. They don't have cash. I like that coat -- you're dead. So having to deal with all the things that human beings have to deal with is interesting."

And he's intrigued by Spike's storyline.

"He's been taken down a peg. He is going through kind of a hero's journey of testing," Marsters said. "But, in typical Whedon fashion, it includes a lot of humiliation. And I just think it's brilliant."

It's that brilliant writing that attracted Marsters to the show. Before "Buffy," the Julliard-trained actor had done most of his work in the theater with only occasional guest roles on TV.

"I think it surpasses its genre. Most fantasy shows are not nearly so well written," he said. "And I think it's better written than it has to be to reach its targeted demographic, and that's why it expands beyond that. Anybody who likes good writing, if they are lucky enough to discover it, is kind of hooked.

"I've got so many actors around this country hooked on this show -- actors who gave me untold amounts of crap about, 'You're on what, James? You used to do Moliere!' I'm like, 'Dude, just watch it.' And, immediately, they give me a call. Tuesday night, 9 o'clock -- ring -- 'Oh my (gosh)!' "

And he deflects any praise he receives for his portrayal of Spike.

"I think that would be giving me too much credit," Marsters said. "I mean, I like my acting. I'm not trying for false modesty. I'm proud of myself. I worked very hard to become an actor. But I haven't worked with someone as good as Joss ever. And I've worked with Tony Award-winning playwrights."

He's also Sarah Michelle Gellar's biggest fan and is obviously pleased when told that the woman who plays Buffy has kind words for him as well.

"Sarah is so good. She's surprisingly good. You don't think so, because she's real pretty," Marsters said. "The two things I like about Sarah are her acting and also the way she uses her power on the set. She uses her power to make sure everybody is working and not screwing around. She's always on time. She always knows her lines better than anybody else. She never misses work. She is always there for your off-camera stuff. She is a pro down to her last fiber. She had been mistreated before she was on 'Buffy.' She has had jobs where, maybe, the lead actor was not so nice to her. I'm not going to name names, but we all know what we're talking about."

(That would be Susan Lucci on "All My Children," by the way.)

And Marsters rhapsodizes about his favorite episode -- an installment earlier this season in which Spike and Buffy, under the influence of a wayward spell, fall suddenly and totally in love. It was hilarious, largely because Whedon told the actors to play it straight.

"And, wham, she's tearing it up. She's just right there and it's just amazing," Marsters said. "She has the ability to just go there immediately. And I'm trying to discover how to do that. I'm used to having rehearsal upon rehearsal, weeks upon weeks to kind of work into that. She just jumps right there. I'm learning a lot by watching her, actually."

He pretty much loves everything about being Spike -- except for that bleached-blond hair.

"Oh, aaargh!" he said. "What I have to say is, if you ever meet a dyed-blond, man or woman, they've got (courage), I'll say that. Because they have to do it every 10 days. And, you know, the scalp would just peel right off after a while."

The first couple of years were really hard on his head.

"My scalp would start to bleed. I'd be walking around after the dye job and a little puss-pocket would break and start dribbling down my forehead. It's like -- oh my gosh!" he said. "And then your scalp starts to fall off. I mean, it peels. Big, thick clumps of it come out."

Things have been "much better" this season since a new hairdresser started working on it and tried new products. Not that Marsters is complaining about the hair trials he went through.

"I mean, some people dig ditches for a living. I have to get my hair dyed. Big deal," he said. He's in the midst of a two-year contract on "Buffy," and he wouldn't mind staying longer.

"As long as Joss is there, I'm there," he said.

And what about rumors that his character might go on even after "Buffy" calls it quits? We've already seen an "Angel" spinoff; is there any possibility of "Spike"?

"I would love it," Marsters said with a laugh. "I don't think Joss is going to want to keep doing 'Buffy' forever. There are some really brilliant writers on that show. I would work with any of them again. But I don't fool myself. I would love to win the lottery, too."

The Deseret News, May 9, 2000

James Marsters: A Vamp Called Spike In 'Buffy'
Kate O'Hare
Tribute Media Services

He's got bleached-blond hair, black fingernails and a long, black leather coat. And right now, he's just about awake.

"The coffee's working," says actor James Marsters, "I'm breathing. It's good. I have to scrunch my lips and talk strange. I'm in the makeup chair. I'm going to be evil Spike. I look terrible, in a really cool way."

The 30-year-old Marsters (currently on the big screen in "The House on Haunted Hill") joined the cast of The WB's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (8 p.m. Tuesday, KTWB-TV) in season two, sacrificing his dark locks for Spike's platinum 'do (add four to seven packets of Sweet 'n' Low to the bleaching solution, he advises, much less painful that way).

He appeared in tandem with Juliet Landau (daughter of actor Martin Landau) as half of a British vampire couple, vicious punker Spike (formerly known as William the Bloody, later Spike for his habit of torturing victims with railroad spikes) and unbalanced, clairvoyant Drusilla.

After knocking around Sunnydale for a season - and being knocked around by both Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and good/bad/good-again vampire Angel (David Boreanaz) - Spike gathered up Drusilla and left town. Spike later returned - sans Drusilla - for an episode last season.

This fall he officially joined the regular "Buffy" cast of characters, beginning with a two-part crossover between "Buffy" and its Tuesday-night companion and spinoff series, "Angel," in which Spike battled Buffy and then went to Los Angeles with a vampire torturer in tow to impale Angel (hot pokers this time, not railroad spikes)

Now, at the tender age of 126, Spike, who was made a vampire by Angel, faces a crossroads in his life in an episode Tuesday called "The Initiative," which offers some answers about the strange, combat- suited soldiers who have been skulking around the campus of Buffy's college and snaring vampires since the season premiere.

For Marsters - who spent a decade in regional theater, from Shakespeare in New York to the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, to the American Conservatory Theatre in Seattle - his role as Spike offers many acting opportunities, beyond the perfectly credible North London accent that the California native is asked to don for the character.

Although as bad as they come, Spike has a puckish sense of humor and harbored a real love for Drusilla. He's also no slouch in the fighting department. And if Marsters seems comfortable in hand-to- hand situations, there's a reason for that.

"I have had my rough years," he says. "I'm better now, but there were years when I spent a lot more time in emergency rooms and police stations than I do now."

Do tell. "Ummm . . . "

Tell one, then. "Um, well, I was up in Harlem trying to, um, complete a business transaction, and a guy pulled a knife on me . . . "

Was said transaction for merchandise or, er, personal services? "No, no, no, not personal services. That's the part of it I really . . . well, anyway, like I said, I'm better now. Guy pulled a knife on me, and I wasn't carrying anything, so he chased me out of the stairwell. As I came out of the stairwell, I saw a 2-by-4 on the ground, and I hit him full on the head when he came out the door.

"Actually, it's kind of a serious story, because I left him there, and I still, to this day, don't know how he did. It was in a very rough section of Upper Harlem, and I'm not sure if anybody would have helped him.

"See, these stories I have are not really fun fight stories. They're really stuff I'm not actually that proud of, but, anyway, yes, much better now. I'm much happier now."

Was acting the thing that turned Marsters around? "I think just ... I needed to go through that. I had that, then I moved on. A lot of people just need a chapter in their lives when they need to break their skin. And having been there, you quickly discover that the ramifications of living that way are very far-reaching.

"That's the nice thing about 'Buffy.' When you get into a street fight for real, you can deal with the aftermath for years. But here, you can throw someone through a wall, and then you just go home. You don't have to go to the police station, you don't have to go to the doctor, and you shake hands with the guy afterwards and smile."

His youthful escapades weren't Marsters' only brush with death. As a fifth-grader, he sliced one leg open on a sprinkler head while playing. He wound up off his feet for a year, enduring staph infections and skin grafts. "I got to read a lot of comic books and build a lot of models," he says.

There was also a life lesson in this. "I discovered that during the times when a person has the license to whine, if that person does not whine, you can store up major brownie points and can, in fact, get more models and more comic books."

His makeup finally applied, Marsters is cut loose. "Cool," he says, "I can go outside and be an idiot and smoke."

These days, Marsters is a most happy fellow, with a girlfriend (actress Liz Stauber, at last report) and a steady job on what he considers one of the "best-written shows on television." Granted, Spike's wardrobe is limited to black jeans, engineer boots and that coat, but he did get a new shirt this year.

"They made a new one, exactly the same red shirt as I had before. Wonder why I didn't notice that?"

He only has one wish. "I just don't want them to stake me. When I came on the show, all I wanted was a good body count and a good death. I want to be struck by a train or something. I've got the body count, but I haven't been given the death, and that's even better."

Golden Spike James Marsters' nasty vampire becomes a regular on 'Buffy' this fall

The bloodthirsty Spike is about to make life a living hell for Buffy and Angel. Actor James Marsters couldn't be happier about that.

Marsters, whose evil vampire Spike will become a regular on WB's hit "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" this fall, recently talked to The Kansas City Star from Jerry's Famous Deli in L.A. Unable to make it to his car because of construction, his cell phone fading in and out from interference, he ducked into the deli.

"Well, well, who's here ... there's all these stars around here," he said.

Marsters, 28, a rising star in his own right, has worked on stage and screen. Before landing the role of Spike, he studied at the Juilliard School in New York and the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco.

The California native learned the British accent he uses on "Buffy," in fact, from a North London actor who played Caliban in "The Tempest" at the Shakespeare Festival in Los Angeles - and from watching "Monty Python's Flying Circus."

And the role Marsters did in that production?

"I played Sebastian, the bastard brother of the king who's plotting his overthrow. Another villain."

The new season of "Buffy" begins Tuesday. Spike returns in Episode 3. "There is a crossover with ('Buffy' spinoff) 'Angel' on the same night, so it'll be two bloody hours of Spike ... In the stuff I've shot so far, I am meaner and nastier and bloodier than I've ever been before."

As for getting into the role, Marsters said that "most of us have severe limits on our dreams. ... For vampires, it's just immediate gratification at all times. That's a very easy fantasy to give yourself over to."

And when Marsters makes his season debut, he'll have fight scenes with Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Angel (David Boreanaz). He relishes the orchestrated violence on the show.

"I love the stunt work. ... What's nice for the crew and the stunt choreographer is that I can fight Sarah, I can fight David ...

"David and I, we just love to get going. ... We just had a couple of fights on Buffy's show, and people were coming up afterward saying, 'Did he really hit you!?' We weren't leaving a whole lot of air between our punches and the guy's face, because there's that much trust."

When asked whether he hoped to return to the theater, he said: "Yes. Not immediate plans. I came down here and had to really consciously decide to commit to doing film and television. ... But, I mean, (the stage) is my first love. There is a lot about film and television that I am enjoying. It is its own challenge and a worthy effort."

As for what he would do on the stage, Marsters said, "My favorite Shakespeare play is 'Macbeth,' and I would very much love to direct (it). The play points up that the common person shares more with the beasts than we like to admit. ...

"It is a big challenge to keep him the hero right up until the middle of the fifth act, when he does become the functional villain. Until that moment, you have a hero who's committing atrocities, and that's not something that people are used to.

"To make it work as an actor, you have to respect him and to use yourself and to realize that the reasons that he commits these murders is from ambition, which is one of the most universal human feelings.

"I'm very ambitious. I want the world. But it also can lead, if one's not careful, to cutting moral corners."

And speaking of ambition, Marsters said, "You know who I was sitting next to? I was just sitting next to (Robert) Shapiro, the guy who defended O.J. Simpson."

INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE ....and one feisty librarian.

'Buffy' boys Spike and Giles stick their necks out for EW's Mary Kaye Schilling

Anthony Stewart Head and James Marsters are giggling like schoolboys on a sugar high. The two men, who make their living playing demon-watcher Giles and bloodsucker Spike on The WB's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, are recounting the previous night's revelry: "I was so stimulated," says Stewart Head. "It took me hours to fall asleep." Marsters chimes in: "It was lovely. There were fairy lights in the garden."

What's this? Cryptic revelations of carefree debauchery? Not exactly. Turns out TV's bitter adversaries were united in a celebration of (hold on to your tights) Shakespeare. Buffy creator Joss Whedon hosts semi-regular readings of the Bard with various cast members and writers; last night they performed A Midsummer Night's Dream, (Bagely note: Hey, me too!) with Head playing Oberon and Marsters as Demetrius. "Tony and James are true theater geeks," says Whedon. "And I use the word geek advisedly."

Brace yourself for more shockers: Despite Spike's Johnny Rotten stylings, Marsters, 28, is not British, but a native Californian who, prior to Buffy, toured America's regional theaters. And although Head's accent is legit (London born and bred, his wife and two daughters continue to live there), unlike his tweedy, ascetic Giles, the 46-year-old actor honed his chops playing the stud next door on the English stage and, most famously, in Taster's Choice commercials. "They are both very iimmature and unlike their characters" says Whedon fondly. "The whole point of casting Tony was to have someone who wasn't a stuffy grown-up. He brought the underbelly of Giles, the irreverent side. James just has that anarchic energy going on. He could have brought a dark, broody thing to playing a vampire, but he's so goofy."

As fans can attest, nothing in the Buffy universe is ever exactly what it seems, which is why there's more than a little Spike in Giles, and vice versa (viewers recently learned that Spike's alias, William the Bloody, stems not from his body count but from his 19th-century incarnation's knack for bloody awful poetry). "Spike is what Giles used to be and Giles is what Spike refused to be," sums up Whedon.

Seated at an outdoor cafe in sunny Santa Monica, the two multilayered gents in question serve up some devilish charm, explaining why their sinfully underused characters are actually Buffy's secret weapons.

James Marsters commenting on the state of the pizza he's ordered: I said light cheese. The bastards don't respect me. They don't know my power.

Anthony Stewart Head Perhaps if you were on the show more, you'd get less cheese.

Entertainment Weekly Aside from the recent sweeps Spike-athon, what's the story with the extreme absence of both of you this season?

JM Speaking personally, they give me really cool s--- to do, and I don't have to work very hard. I come in, do an interesting scene in three hours, then it's back to the beach and the sunblock.

ASH I was wondering how you filled your copious amounts of spare time.

JM Sleeping, you pathetic workhorse. Counting sheep and canoodling with multiple beauties. (laughter) Seriously, though, the problem is we need a two-hour show. There are so many people who are regulars. Look at the opening credits - what are there, 10 of us now? - and everybody wants more pages.

EW Who's the scariest cast member in real life?

JM Joss. You can't get anything over on him. If you want to improvise, he'll say, "Fine, we'll just keep the camera on the back of your head."

ASH We're very faithful to the scripts. I see a gag and I'll try and play it, and Joss says, "No, there's a time and a place for a gag and this is not it." We've had our run-ins, but invariably he's right.

EW Joss say he's all about giving viewers what they need rather than what they want. And this season has been full of twists some fans find unsettling, like Buffy's out-of-the-blue sister Dawn, and Spike's emerging Buffy love. Everyone has theories as to the reasons behind these developments - can you offer any clues?

JM Whatever theories you may have, it will be a lot more interesting. Joss wants to stir you up. He wants viewers to go, "What the f--- is this?" Spike's feelings for Buffy, his going a little soft - I don't know if people are going to be able to accept it. A lot of people might not like my character anymore.

ASH Not true, absolutely not true. What James is worried about is that Spike isn't cool. But when I was reading the script for "Fool for Love"), I was thinking, oooh, James is not gonna be happy with this. And then as the episode progressed, Spike gets his cool back.

JM There's a part of Joss that doesn't want to please everybody. I don't think he's comfortable unless someone is mildly offended. He wants characters to get under your skin. And the moment they say they like a character because of one specific quality, he'll go the opposite way. Nothing ever stays the same season to season. Nothing.

ASH Do you ever worry that Spike is too comic to be truly scary? I'm thinking about the shorts and the Hawaiian shirt...

JM I don't think dangerous is interesting to Joss, frankly. He can create a character that is that way, but it's usually a setup - he's exploring something much more human which has gotta be about fallability and degradation, really. Spike was never meant to last. He was really just a boy-toy for (his vampire maker) Drusilla. But when Juliet Landau (Drusilla) couldn't come back in Season 4, Joss said, "How about Spike without her?" It made me pathetic and more human.

ASH Which became instantly attractive to Joss.

JM Exactly. Joss is Jacobian in that way. He sees that human beings are lovable fools, that we all walk around with big hopes and stumble on banana peels all the time. And frankly, if Joss wants to make me a scary guy again, it'll take him about 20 seconds to achieve it. Don't worry guys, Spike's still Spike.

ASH One of the chief greatnesses of the show is that it can make you laugh - truly laugh with witty, sardonic humor - and in the next moment scare the living Jesus out of you.

EW What's the worst part of playing your characters?

JM Keeping my hair dyed.

ASH Sweet'n Low is the secret - give the readers a beauty tip, James.

JM Four to seven packs in the bleaching solution will save your butt. (It alleviates the burning.)

ASH Makes you think twice about what you're putting in your stomach. The worst part for me was disappointing America's librarians. I spent time in a school library as background for Giles, and the librarian there said, "At last! A voice to represent us!" Little did she know - in fact, little did I know - I would blow up my library.

EW And the best part?

ASH My own action figure (available this Christmas). I was sent the prototype and I have something like 12 points of articulation.

JM Sweet, man. You've got G.I. Joe manipulation?

ASH But there's two breaks in the thighs, which is bizarre.

EW I was going to ask Tony how it feels to be the only grown-up in the Scooby Gang, but clearly "grown-up" may be overstating things, so moving on: If either of you could change one thing about the show, what would it be?

JM More boy fun. I crossed over to Angel, and they get all the fun stuff. They get all the killing people - Angel gets to kill a LOT of people. And I would like to see Giles commit murder - forced to totally compromise his integrity.

ASH I'd change how the show is marketed, make it truer to the conception. (The WB) believes it's a teen show, but it was never written that way. It's set in a teen environment because we can all identify with that, but it's as much an adult show. It airs at 11 at night in Britain and has a huge audience. It's the No. 1 show in Australia because they've targeted EVERYONE. Marketing to such a small audience diminishes what Joss ha acheived, frankly. He's taken the medium and screwed around with it in ways a West Wing never would.

JM When Joss was told to tone down the violence on the show last season because of Columbine, I wondered how he would take it. He ended up doing a semipornographic episode ("Where the Wild Things Are") where Buffy and Riley basically had sex the whole time. Joss is a bit of a rebel. Like, everyone kept telling him his dialogue was the best anyone's heard. And so the man writes an episode with no dialogue (last season's Emmy-nominated "Hush").

EW Any secrets you'd like to reveal?

ASH When Giles' sordid past came up and they needed a picture of him in a band, they stuck a photo of my 17-year-old head onto the body of Sid Vicious.

JM When I read for Spike, I also did it with a Southern accent, which would have been sexy but not as dangerous. I'd have been staked if they'd gone with Southern; I'd be dead by now.

EW Do either of you have a finale fantasy?

JM Sunnydale gets sucked into hell.

ASH It's kinda been there.

JM Okay then, she loses. Buffy loses the good fight. (pause) Just kidding.

Vamp Veteran
"I remember having a beer with Bob Scoggins and asking, 'How the hell do you do Shakespeare?' He looked at me and said, 'Kid, stand up straight, say your lines clearly and get off stage.' That may be the most helpful advice anyone's ever given me."

The 28-year-old chisel-cheeked stage actor is not considered too long in the tooth to play Spike, the sarcastic nemesis of TV's favourite Vampire Slayer. Still, Californian James Marsters is wise beyond his years at New York's Julliard School and the Chicago stage. Though on camera he emulates every girl's fantasy, behind the scenes he exercises humility and a sense of humour about his trade. "Theatre made me want to be an actor for two reasons: First, for the sense of community. And second, I get to fool large groups of strangers."
A lover of Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, his 1966 Ford Mustang and girlfriend Liz Stauber, Marsters is presently hard at work on his latest goal: "Cracking Level 7 on Playstation's Die Hard Trilogy II."

 

 

 

 

 

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