Slayers and Vampires

by Edward Gross,Mark A. Altman

  CAMDEN TOY

  When I came back to play the Ubervamp, Sarah and I had long nights between takes when we would just sit and chat. We’d certainly worked together before that, but that was the character where we really got to bond and get to know each other. And suddenly that night, she said, “Oh my God. I don’t have any idea what you look like.” So I went, “That must be creepy.”

  Sarah was a little bit like the Jewish mother on set, and I mean that in the best possible way. She was, like, “Have you got enough to eat? Are you warm enough? You comfortable?” Literally, one night we were shooting one of the Ubervamp episodes, and we’re going way into overtime and it’s really late. They’re serving the second meal in, and she’s, like, “They’ve got fried chicken over at craft services.” But I had the teeth and the hands in and I couldn’t eat. I told her I had to wait since we’re shooting the scene right now, and she’s, like, “No, no, no. If you don’t grab it now, it’s gonna be gone.” She literally grabs me and kind of drags me over there and starts serving me dinner. She’s, like, “What do you want? Do you want a wing? You want a thigh? What do you want?” So she’s preparing this plate for me, because I can’t hold anything with my vampire hands, and she said, “Now we have to hide this somewhere so that you can eat after this scene.” The star of the show was serving me dinner. She was very sweet. She and I had a great time together.

  SARAH LEMELMAN

  Since season seven is so largely focused on the Potential Slayers and Buffy’s empowerment of them, it is easy to overlook the other women on the program and feel that maybe this message of empowerment does not necessarily apply to everyone or is even relatable at all to viewers. Buffy continues to tackle this idea of enabling women, making sure that the empowerment it advocates can be applicable to all.

  FELICIA DAY

  I really didn’t understand what was going on. I was so new. They said you were recurring, but I didn’t know how many that meant. Every week, we would get the script and this was back when you got scripts on paper delivered on your doorstep. So you’d grab the script and you’d look at the last page and see if you were alive or not. Many Potentials died over the season and no one would tell you anything. So I always assumed I would die or piss somebody off and get killed or whatever. I was just so incredibly grateful to even get a script every week. It was really formative in my life, because seeing the fandom and the family on set, it really showed me what I wanted to do with my life as an actor. I didn’t want to just show up to work; I really wanted to be on a show that meant something more to people.

  SARAH LEMELMAN

  The episode “Potential” crushes any doubts that Buffy may not be relatable, as Xander tells Dawn, who falsely thought she was a Potential Slayer, “It’s a harsh gig being a Potential. Just being picked out of a crowd. Danger, destiny . . . They’re special, no doubt . . . They’ll never know how tough it is, Dawnie, to be the one who isn’t Chosen, to live so near to the spotlight and never step in it. I saw you last night. I see you working here today. You’re not special. You’re extraordinary.”

  It is a touching message that brings Dawn to tears, and defends the idea that any seemingly ordinary girl in the world is important, in her own way. It reminds the audience that even though Buffy is a supernatural show, its characters can still be relatable and have been relatable, all throughout its run, even though the final season overwhelmingly revolves around Buffy and the Potential Slayers. The episode “Potential” gently communicates that a girl need not have powers to be great.

  In the series capper, “Chosen,” written and directed by Whedon, the scope felt like a movie with thousands of Ubervamps, the death of some of the series’ most beloved characters, and the destruction of the Hellmouth—and, unfortunately, Sunnydale.

  JOSS WHEDON

  I feel that I wrote the perfect ending and wrapped everything up exactly the way it should be and really sort of hit the final chord of this beautiful symphony. That, unfortunately, was in season five. So with season seven, I sort of had to shut the door on this was the last episode a little bit, because the weight of that was crushing me. I was terrified. But I so very specifically knew what I needed to say and what I needed to have happen. That was all in there.

  JAMES MARSTERS

  The finale was fun, but it wasn’t cool. Spike has no idea that he was going be the big hero. He just wanted a freaking necklace. He just didn’t want Angel to have that necklace and he was just proud that he got it and not Angel. It was just very petty on his part and thing starts glowing and he lights on fire and he’s, like, “What the f . . . oh no!” I played it as it wasn’t a big heroic act. It was a wonderful scene, though, between Buffy and Spike. He could proclaim his love before he was gone. But I don’t think of him as the heroic savior in that; I think of him as the guinea pig hero.

  FELICIA DAY

  We got along with all the series regulars, who were very friendly to us. But we had our own little clique, because there was, like, seven of us. It was really great. My fondest memory was when Alyson came in one day to the makeup trailer and she was knitting. I was, like, “Oh, you’re knitting. That’s really stupid.” I literally said that to her like a little snot. And then a week later I came in with my own knitting needles, and she was, like, “Oh, really? You’re going to knit now?” I was, like, “Yeah, I’m sorry.” Clearly. I don’t give great first impressions, but we were good friends after that. It spread throughout the other Potentials. Most of the times on set we would sit around at like 2 A.M. on a Friday shooting and we’d all just be sitting in a knitting circle, like fifteen-year-olds knitting. It’s really funny. Believe me, I learned more dirty stories from those other girls than any set with guys on it.

  JAMES MARSTERS

  One of the things that happened at the beginning of a lot of seasons was Joss would come to me and say, “I have no idea what to do with you. I know what the basic arc is for the show; I know how all the other characters have arcs within that. But I just have nothing. I don’t know what to do.” I was, like, “Well, you always figure it out, dude. You’re paying me anyway. I’ll be here waiting.” I was never that worried. I think what he did was he kind of plugged the character in as necessary to serve the other characters’ arcs. So I was the disposable bad guy at first. Then I was the whacky neighbor. And then I was the wrong boyfriend. And then I was the guinea pig hero. On Angel, I was the jerk friend who promised to only be on your couch for one week but just won’t leave.

  Because the writing was so good, it was stitched together into a journey that makes sense. But because it wasn’t one thought-out arc, it doesn’t have the smooth lines that a normal character trajectory has. It wound around, took a lot of surprising detours on its way, and it’s just this wonderful happy accident. Spike had a very interesting journey, because it was kind of made up on the fly. In lesser hands that would be very haphazard and not very satisfying at all. But in really talented hands, that all stitched it together, and it becomes something that you respond to.

  JOSS WHEDON

  When you get into actually writing the finale, you’re just, like, “Oh God, it’s not good enough.” Then you’re, like, “Dude, you’ve got to chill,” because it’s unbearable pressure. You want it to go out with a bang; you don’t want it to dribble out. You want the last episode to mean something that no other episode has. It was fucking large. It was so hard to shoot.

  RAYMOND STELLA

  That final episode was another fourteen-to-fifteen-day shoot. A lot of characters. A lot of visual effects. But by then I was pretty much going, “I’m out of here. Let’s get this thing done.”

  SARAH LEMELMAN

  Buffy the Vampire Slayer seems to recognize this oppressive nature of love and romantic relationships and appears to pose the question of the fundamental meaning of love, and if it truly is needed. This occurs with the exploration of its hero’s complicated love life and her involvement with Angel, Riley, and Spike. Each male she is embroiled with has her investigate w
hat relationships mean for a female in a man’s world.

  Buffy very clearly strives for this bliss in her relationships throughout the seven seasons of the show, but in the final episode of the series, she points out to viewers that, “I always feared there was something wrong with me. You know, because I couldn’t make [relationships] work. But maybe I’m not supposed to . . . because I’m not finished becoming whoever the hell it is I’m gonna turn out to be. Maybe one day I turn around and realize I’m ready. Then . . . that’s fine. That’ll be then. When I’m done.”

  It may have taken her 144 episodes to realize that she needs to choose herself and continue to grow, but it is an important lesson to the viewers, many of whom are girls with insecurities about their true worth because they cannot find love. Despite that fact that she is hurt giving up these men, she is better for it in the end. She presents a stronger version of a woman to the world and demonstrates that there is nothing wrong with independence and an uncertain future in love.

  DAVID BOREANAZ

  We shot [Angel] on a sound stage in a big studio, and going back to Buffy, where they shoot in these little warehouses—that was interesting. The biggest thing for me was the height of the ceiling: it’s really low. As far as getting back to work with Sarah [Michelle Gellar] again, you know, she’s great. We just kind of stepped into the shoes, the characters picked up where they left off, and we kind of rocked it.

  STEVEN S. DEKNIGHT

  Here’s the thing that pissed a lot of people off is that David was very gracious to go and do a cameo on Buffy toward the end of their series. He didn’t make a big deal out of it and try to extort anybody for a lot of money. He wanted to do it, and I guess he expected the same consideration back, which we did not get. Which is unfortunate, because it would’ve been nice and it would’ve helped our numbers on Angel, but what can you do?

  One of the biggest surprises in the finale was Spike’s sacrifice to save the world. However, not unlike a certain pointy-eared Vulcan, audiences already knew this fan favorite would be back since it had already been announced that James Marsters was joining the cast of the WB’s Angel.

  DAVID FURY

  I don’t know why these things happens. Publicists do it, or networks do it to get people excited about it, but it ruins it to know when you’re trying to give a great emotional death scene to go, “Oh, he’ll be back on Angel.” It’s like, you just ruined it for everybody. I don’t love that, but it is a business. It’s more important to them; they don’t care about spoiling things as much as if they’ll get a few more viewers to watch something because they’re teasing you’re going to see James Marsters as Spike on Angel. That’s more important for them than whether or not they’re destroying a story.

  JAMES MARSTERS

  Joss was incensed that the WB let the cat out of the bag that I was coming on Angel, because he wanted to break the audience’s heart on Buffy. He was, like, “No one’s gonna be sad now; they know you’re gonna come back.” But at that time Buffy was on UPN, and Angel was on a different network, and so there was no loyalty to each other. Angel had no loyalty to Buffy, so they had no reason to keep the secret. I was just, like, “Light me on fire, OK? I’m fine.”

  SARAH LEMELMAN

  For the first time on the show, Buffy is no longer alone in the fight, as she has been for the past 143 episodes. Buffy’s power is now a shared power, as there has been an awakening of girls across the globe. Even though there are causalities in the final fight, and not every slayer survives, the First Evil is defeated, and Buffy once again rejects the fate that has been laid out before her, just as she had done when she was a young sixteen-year-old, destined to die at the hands of the Master. The show ends on a high note of female empowerment, as Buffy smiles, knowing she has truly defeated destiny and created a feminist revolution. Women and girls alike are free to orchestrate their own future and should not be afraid to do so. Thanks to Buffy Summers, viewers across the world have been graced with one of the greatest activists of girl power, serving as a role model, icon, and source of inspiration for young women.

  As Buffy proves time and time again, patriarchy is ever present, but it cannot prevail. The seven seasons of the show depict a world in which institutional, familial, and individual-level patriarchy oppresses and disadvantages women, but it is something that can always be overcome. The fight to end this domination is no easy feat, as there is always a struggle to gain equality and independence. Buffy shows a realistic version of an ideal world: men may try to control women, but their efforts can and will be beaten.

  JAMES MARSTERS

  I’m a subversive artist by nature. When I produced theater, we did a lot of subversion, which is not about trying to make the audience uncomfortable or angry, but when it happens you know it’s working. One of the things I loved about Buffy is that we were divesting the audience of the idea that women can’t defend themselves. Right up in their face about it. I never thought that I could be part of a subversive art when I came down to Los Angeles, because I didn’t know about Joss. I didn’t know that Joss Whedon existed yet.

  ARMIN SHIMERMAN

  When Buffy was shooting its last episode and I was long since dead, they called me up and said, “Armin, we’d love for you to come down to the set and shoot a picture with the cast and crew on our last day of shooting.” Because I’d always watched the show before I was on it, while I was on it, after I was off of it, I knew that there were hundreds of reoccurring characters. So I assumed it was going to be a large party, a ton of people.

  I got to the set, only to see three other people besides myself invited to take the picture. I was really surprised by that. We took the picture, I caught up with some old friends I hadn’t seen in a long time, and when the picture was done and we all said goodbye, I was talking to Joss Whedon. As I was walking back to my car, I posed to him the question “Why were there only four of us?” And he very nicely said, “Armin, the four of you are the only four people that all of us liked.” So, my weaselly character on Buffy, which was my on-camera persona, was not my persona off camera. We got along really very well.

  ELIZA DUSHKU

  (actress, Faith)

  Faith is my girl. She’s always been good to me, and she’s been a good friend to me. I love that character, this show, the places we’ve gone, and all the different emotions we’ve experimented with. I feel like she’s a part of me. It was good to be back on Buffy. Sarah is such a doll. We were like reunited high school friends.

  SARAH LEMELMAN

  As Willow says in her final line of the show, the future of American television was truly changed after the production’s completion. Not only did shows about teenage feminists begin to sprout but also television programs began to utilize concepts like the normalization of lesbian relationships, long story arcs, and new slang that Buffy the Vampire Slayer both laid the foundation for and helped popularize.

  Buffy empowers females on the show, as well as its viewers, who are taught to embrace girl power. By giving its viewers a new female model to look up to in a time when girls were not always taken seriously, Buffy stepped into the limelight and defied traditional depictions of women on television. Vampires, and even the experiences of high school students, may not seem like “serious” topics, but the show demonstrates that a fantasy/action/drama has the ability to both teach a lesson about feminism and be wildly popular and influential, to this very day.

  ELIZA DUSHKU

  I’ve gotten letters from girls who have said, “I was being abused for six years. Your character came on, and I realized that if Faith could stand up to these guys, trying to bring her down, so could I.” That stuff is really intense—cool success stories from people who just watch this character.

  SARAH LEMELMAN

  What began as a passing thought of an amateur writer became a hugely successful reality and overturned the doubts of critics that young women could hold a commanding presence on screen. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is truly a feminist and popular culture land
mark.

  FELICIA DAY

  Joss gave me some amazing, really great lines, action, and scenes in the finale. In the comics canon, I’m the head of the New York Slayers. We worked together on several things since then, and I will always attribute it to my smart mouth. He invited everyone to the Mutant Enemy strike day during the Writers Guild strike. When I was walking around, I was, like, “Hey, did you see my Web series?” In 2007 it wasn’t as annoying, because they didn’t really exist. It was before that. Old-school. He told me, “Yeah, I’m thinking about doing a musical myself for the Internet.” And I’m, like, “That’s amazing!” And then two months later I got an e-mail about Dr. Horrible. Then I got to do Dollhouse as well with him. I don’t think there’s another person whose work resonates with me soul-wise in a way, and I’m just really lucky I got to work on so many different things with him.

  DAN VEBBER

  (co–executive producer, Futurama)

  Buffy gave Warner Bros a network. It certainly gave some actors a career. Now you don’t even think about it anymore when you have a strong female protagonist, but back then it was the only game in town. It’s the type of thing where some pop culture television show or movie will create an idea that then becomes so cliche over the years that when you watch the original thing you think, “Oh, that’s so cliche.” But you have to remember, no, this thing created the cliché. That’s how I feel now watching those Buffy episodes. They feel really charming and retro and ’90s to me—and a little simple in some ways. When you think of it in context, it was a big deal. They were the first one to try it. I’m really happy that I got to be a part of that.