James Marsters Compares Working on Buffy to War

 

James Marsters: Back in Black

 

Let’s be clear from the get-go.  When asked what his favorite project has been, James Marsters answers “Buffy” with hardly a hesitation.  He credits the writers for that experience.  I had heard him speak highly of the writers in Philadelphia, but here at New York Comic-Con, Marsters elaborates on that belief.  The writers were honest – brutally honest – and put all their flaws, failures, and embarrassments on the page.  It’s the same thing that makes him such a distinctive actor:  he readily admits how his own personal weirdness fuels his acting.

Does that mean working on Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a walk in the park?  Far from it.  One fan asks for a “diva” story from the Buffy set.  Marsters hesitates, a slight smile at the corners of his mouth.  He was anticipating this; his answer is politic. “I’ve never been to war…,” he starts, “But the enemy is time and time always wins.”  Translation:  The days are long, tensions run high, and perhaps the cast, which was largely made of youngsters, didn’t always handle the pressure particularly well.  He clarifies by saying that he was, “thirty-four and mostly stable,” working with actors ten or more years younger than him.  It may not come as a surprise then that the cast member he got along with best was Anthony Stewart Head (Giles).  He and Head bonded from the beginning, with Head helping Marsters get his accent right, even going through the script line by line with him.

Still, he speaks highly of his co-stars.  One fan tries to trap him by giving him a choice of questions:  “Do you miss David Boreanaz” or “What did you think of Dragonball: Evolution”?  He opts for the former.  He hated Boreanaz for two years.  Why?  Because Marster’s girlfriend at the time was jealous of his relationship with Juliet Landau, so she told him she had a crush on Boreanaz.  He tells the story tongue in cheek to set up this more genuine story about why he has such affection for “David.”  During a particularly difficult shoot for an episode that heavily featured Spike, Marsters was feeling burned out.  He asked Boreanaz how he did it day after day.  Boreanaz responded, without even looking up, “Horse racing…don’t look left, don’t look right – just run.”  In Marsters’ own words, David was a “good guy.”

Another fan asked if he had better chemsitry with Boreanaz or with star  Sarah Michelle Gellar.  He praises them both for different reasons.  Gellar was a “technician,” mastering her lines quickly and never missing her spots.  She was the consummate professional.  Boreanaz was a different story.  Marsters never quite knew what he was going to do from take to take.  Marsters says Boreanaz, “had a whole universe in his eyes.” Another fan later asks if he would do a guest spot and Bones and he is quick to jump on that bandwagon, claiming he would love to work with David again.

As for Buffy creator Joss Whedon, Marsters is convinced the man hates him, mostly because of his looks.  In fact, he admits he often hid from Joss on set, claiming, “truth is weird” with a shrug.  Whether Marsters is serious or not is a mystery.  What is genuine, however, is the respect he has for Whedon.  Marsters calls him a “genius” who is “pushing the [television] ball in the right direction.”

Of course with great art comes great suffering.   First, there was the hair.  One fan asked if he missed the platinum blond hair.  He does not.  It was a painful process.  They bleached his hair every ten days, right down to the roots, leading to blood and pus, especially during fight scenes.  Oh…and then there was the sock.  Sex scenes required the donning of a sock, which he referred to at least three times during the session.  The worst part was that most of the scenes where he was required to be naked, Sarah Michelle Gellar geared up in coats and scarves and gloves, so much so that she looked like “the Michelin Man,” while he had to stand there in just his sock.

It wasn’t always perfect, but Marsters seems to genuinely appreciate the opportunities and professional growth afforded him during his time on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He has certainly become one of the most in demand genre actors on television right now, but Marster’s passion will always be in crafting original characters, whether they be for the screen or the stage.  Next up, we’ll take a quick look at Marster’s upcoming work.