Slayers and Vampires

by Edward Gross,Mark A. Altman

  BEN EDLUND

  The Whedonverse lived in a place where there was darkness plus this ability to let the air out, something that was not dissimilar from the pattern developed by Xena. What I thought Xena did very well, and part of why it got around the way it did, was that it wasn’t Conan the Barbarian asking everyone to take these people seriously. “They’re wearing animal skins—don’t take them seriously!” Take their emotional truth seriously, and have fun with the fact that you’re almost in a spaghetti barbarian movie. And there’s a sense in the Whedonverse that you want the breeze to be blowing through there.

  JEFFREY BELL

  To me, what five years of Angel were about is asking specific questions. Why are we in Wolfram and Hart? What are we fighting for, why are we fighting, and what are we fighting against? Will Angel get to be a real boy? Will Spike? And these guys who clearly hate each other but also love each other, and this gang who has been with them—what’s going to happen with them? We turned Angel into a puppet, we had Nazi subs and Mexican wrestlers, but we’ve always remained true to the show.

  BEN EDLUND

  The hinge between a Nazi sub and a puppet show was Angel finding its optimal versatility and true kind of muscle group. I don’t know how much of Angel is what it is because of that. It’s a rich field of ideas that manages to land our feeling story, but one of the things I enjoyed most about working there was how wild the ideas could get. Those were always helped by stand-alones, or at least some element of stand-alone in it. I don’t have a particular axe to grind as far as the ratio of it, because I went in and worked on far more serialized shit and enjoyed that, too.

  TIM MINEAR

  It was the end of an era. For a moment there, there were three Mutant Enemy shows on the air with Buffy, Angel, and Firefly. Then there was Buffy and Angel. Then there was Angel, and then there were none.

  JOSS WHEDON

  People were asking why Angel was canceled when it was, and I sort of asked the same thing. That was a bit of a blow out of the blue. The message we always tried to give with the show is that redemption is really hard and it takes your whole life, and it involves fighting all the time, sometimes against things that can’t be beaten. The last episode of Angel reflects that strongly. And the fact that through all the years of trying to find the format and trying to find the regulars and trying to find the relationships, that we held true to that premise and, in fact, came full circle to it, means to me that we really had something there. The whole time, in all the various incarnations, we always had the thing that I wanted, which was an exciting, strange, tough, funny, melodramatic show about the idea of redemption and what it is to be a human being.

  STEVEN S. DEKNIGHT

  Creatively the show accomplished so much. On a technical level, it’s a beautiful show. Just stunning. We were one of the cheapest hour dramas on TV and you couldn’t tell, because of the way it was filmed, thanks to the incredible Ross Barryman and our production values, and the choreography of the fights. Deeper than that, creatively I go back to the feeling that it created a mythological character in a battle between good and evil, where it’s not always black and white. We were more than willing to go to a very gray place. Angel, our hero, has done some horrible things with a soul. I mean, he locked up the lawyers with the vampires, and, in what is the best episode ever done, Tim Minear’s “Are You Now or Have You Ever Been,” he has a chance to save these people in the hotel but instead says to the demon, “Take them all,” because they deserve it. It’s moments like that that you will not see on another TV show: where your hero will do something like that, and you’re surprised by it.

  DAVID BOREANAZ

  The writers allowed me to do certain things that had been fantastic for me and exciting, because there’s a lot of history to that character. I had the ability to use his palette really well with each show, depending on what they’re asking for. Angel was multidimensional and had a lot of colors that I enjoyed tapping into. We opened him up and used his sarcasm in a very vulnerable way. The writers were great at using him in all sorts of different ways. I’d say the overall experience of doing the show was remarkably up-and-down. I kind of look at it as a huge arc for myself, personally striving and challenging myself every day, making the character fresh, unique, and different. Our job as actors is to communicate what the writer is trying to achieve, take their stories, . . . look at it as a whole, and . . . do our best to facilitate that. I was really a part of the whole, rather than an individual.

  Personally, I was able to play a character that’s 240 years old, and I’ve had the experience of playing the action hero, the experience of playing a demon, being very vulnerable at certain times. The palette that I had at my fingertips was a very rare thing. I wasn’t flapping around in a cape like Dracula. There was a lot to this character that I learned from starting at the beginning.

  STEVEN S. DEKNIGHT

  I kind of compare Angel to Jack Bauer on 24. Here’s a guy who knows right from wrong, and knows about the battle between good and evil and realizes that to fight evil sometimes you have to do horrible things for the greater good, and he has no qualms about it. He regrets it and perhaps it haunts him, but he will do it. Angel’s the same way. He will go to a very dark place to help save humanity, even if it means damning himself, which is something you don’t see a lot on TV. There’s not a lot of the antihero left. I’ve always loved antiheroes. You know, Luke Skywalker is great, but Han Solo, now you’re talking: the rogue, the guy who’s never on the up and up, but usually on the side of good. Those are the characters to me, where that gray area makes them interesting. And not just Angel. You can go to all of our characters and there’s a lot of gray there. I mean, Wesley went all dark and kept a slave girl in his closet. Gunn being hooked on brain juice, and Spike of course, who tries so hard to be good.

  Take the character of Fred. Sweet, innocent Fred, who almost killed a guy, but you know he was asking for it, and, still, you know what happens to her. She gets her soul destroyed and her body inhabited by an ancient demon, which really shows you that in this universe anything can happen to anybody. Nobody’s safe, and it’s kind of like the real world. Nobody’s safe, but there’s hope.

  DAVID BOREANAZ

  Buffy was a pop culture phenomena from the start. Our show remained just under the radar, and I found that refreshing instead of being this huge success. We felt successful in our storytelling and what we did show to show. I wasn’t looking to be number one in certain areas, I just wanted to do good work—wherever that landed us on the radar. The bottom line is that we remained loyal to our fans, and they were loyal to us.

  STUART BLATT

  Buffy was the flagship and, not taking anything away from it, but Angel, as far as I’m concerned, elaborated on that. Unfortunately, it always got looked at as a spin-off, and because it wasn’t a girl-power show, it didn’t get the same kind of credibility. And we did some crazy stuff on that show.

  DAVID GREENWALT

  You do a lot of things that don’t always land, but the success of Buffy and Angel—and by success I mean the way it reached people of all ages and emotionally—was so satisfying, because you work so hard. Yes it’s much more fun if it’s a hit than if it’s not. You’ve got to work as hard whatever one you’re doing. I was very sad to kind of leave Joss and Marti. We were very close and that kind of broke my heart a little bit, but I was very happy. Then I went on to do my own thing and the shows I worked on were really good, but with the exception of Grimm they just didn’t take off for whatever reason. That was a good six years, and I’ll never forget that.

  CHARISMA CARPENTER

  Both Buffy and Angel were so layered. They really hit on themes that are quite deep, and there’s a loneliness that people tap into with Buffy and Angel. Living your destiny at the expense of everything that you want for yourself. How do you negotiate those things through life? Just thinking about Buffy as a slayer and Angel as a vampire, and sacrificing their relationship to a greater cause. Lonelines
s, and what it’s like to take on that burden. I think people can relate to that. The dialogue . . . to this day, I don’t think you can match it. The quipping, and the wit, and the way the language was made its own by all the wonderful writers.

  Personally, I never grew more in my life or learned more about myself than working on those shows. It brought up everything for me—every demon, every button for you and about your childhood. “Am I enough? Am I smart enough? Am I talented enough? Am I worthy?” I learned work ethic. I learned when to keep my mouth shut. I learned what battles to pick and who not to piss off. I actually learned a lot by pissing people off.

  JOSS WHEDON

  Buffy had a paradigm that was new. Angel was a guy who looks like a hero and is a hero. There were things about it that make it a very unique show, but on the surface of it you could have looked at it and said, “That’s an action show on the WB,” and not many people got “the more” unless you watched it. With Buffy, even if you don’t watch it, you say, “That’s the idea,” and it has that grand mission statement: high school is hell, little girl kicks butt. Angel didn’t have that. Angel was only as good as the show itself. I honestly believe if Buffy had not been as good as it was, people still would have watched it, because they liked the idea. I’m glad that people thought it was good and I worked hard to make it good. Angel will always be perceived by people as only a genre show and you really have to sort of watch it to understand what we had going on.

  DAVID BOREANAZ

  This show and this character will be remembered for its sense of risk, its sense of style: a uniqueness to deliver story in a different manner; a uniqueness in character to expand with the other characters around him, to evolve into different types of characters, to be ever changing; the angst of conflict within him. There’s so much to be remembered and so much to be proud of about this show. And its use of mythology and verse and language and texture—just the way it was shot. It will be remembered for a lot of things.

  Angel’s evolution remained an ongoing thing. I don’t think for this type of character that there will ever be an end to his evolution. As far as his personal journey—God, it was leaps and bounds. The guy just completely came out of the shadows, opening up, and became more vulnerable with a better sense of himself from the people around him. The evolution was amazing; emotionally he evolved tenfold. And then with the show’s ability to shift from the darker places to humor and back again . . . what a fantastic journey to be able to do that. It was great for me, because it enabled me to tap into those places on different levels and expand on those for different roles. I was able to use those opportunities in other parts. I really enjoyed the flexibility of the character and how the writers allowed me to interchange with him and move places. I welcomed that; it’s one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much.

  JOSS WHEDON

  We never made an episode where it was, “Let’s just do something cool.” It’s very much about the grown-up emotions, the decisions we’ve made. Territory that Buffy began to explore in its later seasons. The terrible decisions we’ve made and the life we’ve spent trying to come back from that. The show has an intense, epic melodrama that very much set its own tone. What it was trying to say, like Buffy, is mutable, but basically it was about, “How do I live? What do my actions mean? If I’ve made mistakes, how do I find peace and answers?” You never do. You have to keep fighting. I would never make an episode of television that didn’t have something to say, because that would be pointless and the work is too hard.

  It’s an approach that may separate these from other shows, but I think it’s also hurt. Television is designed to be comforting. It is designed for you to always know what you’re in for. And my television is always designed for you not to. The idea that if this is a funny scene, someone should keel over dead. If this is a scary scene, there should be a joke. If this is a wacky farce, there should be sudden, gut-wrenching melodrama. I always want to change it up. Angel had had a more consistent tone, with the exception of the Pylea adventure, which was basically, “Can we make The Wizard of Oz?” Basically, it had always been very serious with a wry edge to it, whereas Buffy—who knew? My shows will never be giant hits, because they’re not that. Ultimately, they work on a different model, and for a genre show to do that, I think it scares people a little bit.

  DAVID GREENWALT

  These shows were so personal to Joss. We sat in together on a lot of dailies, a lot of pages, and stuff that he’s always been so generous to me in public and in private. But in my mind I was there to serve Joss Whedon and to do my best to write like him. Into every generation one is born. That’s Joss Whedon.

  And nothing seemed to sum up Joss Whedon better than the last episode of the series, particularly the final shot when hordes of the forces from hell have been sent by the Senior Partners to destroy Los Angeles and Team Angel, but to their last breath the group is willing to continue the battle, Angel raising a sword, stating he wants to slay the approaching dragon, and leading them to what will likely be their deaths.

  CHRISTIAN KANE

  Interesting bit of trivia about that final episode: David Boreanaz and I are the only two actors who appeared in the first episode and the last one. Our good buddy Glenn Quinn checked out, and Charisma had left the show. Alexis and my dear friend J. August Richards weren’t on the show in the beginning.

  JAMES MARSTERS

  The problem with the ending was that we had no money. We had the big buildup of the monsters—hell is opening up; all the monsters are coming: oh, no! We only had enough budget for, like, a two-and-a-half-second shot of computer-generated Hellmouth opening up and all the dragons and stuff. And the only thing left to do was just dump ice water on the cast for the rest of the night and hope for the best. I think a lot of shows put into the position that Joss was put into wouldn’t have even tried. They would have said it was impossible to wrap it up, it would’ve been just another episode and then—surprise, surprise—we’re not coming back. That does happen, but Joss was not satisfied with that, and he moved heaven and earth to try to wrap it up. I’m impressed that he did as well as he did.

  STEVEN S. DEKNIGHT

  I wish the show had continued on; we had more stories to tell. But I’m thankful that we got a chance to wrap it up. Where it ended, I love the fact that it didn’t end with, “Oh, OK, everything’s great. We defeated evil. We won.” It ended, if memory serves me correctly, with Gunn wounded, probably going to die. They’re going into this impossible battle against the forces of evil, but they’re never going to stop fighting. I thought it was a great, great note to end on. I thought Jeff Bell did a phenomenal job with that last episode, and I’m very proud of where we ended up. That season, to me, was just so delightful.

  J. AUGUST RICHARDS

  I know that ending is really controversial. People love it or they hate it, but what’s funny is that the more years that go on, the more I understand what Joss was trying to say or what they were trying to say with the ending of Angel. The essential question is, If you knew you were going to lose, would you still fight for what you believe is right? Would you still fight for good or what you believe to be good? The answer that the characters came up with was yes. My character was the one who asked the question. That means more to me now, especially in these times politically. I was actually just thinking about it over the last few days, and the meaning of that has become even more relevant for me right now in our history and where we are as a nation. I think it’s beautiful and was perfect.

  KELLY A. MANNERS

  That last big fight in the rain was the last thing we shot, and there were lots of tears. You become a family when something like that goes for five years. We didn’t make a lot of changes in the crew, so it was very emotional. And what a way to end. Standing soaking wet and then saying cut, print, goodbye.

  J. AUGUST RICHARDS

  That last scene was us in an alley, facing the giant in front of us, facing forty thousand on the left and forty thousand on the right. In an o
dd way, that was my goodbye to the characters and that world. When the comic books came out and continued the story, I had no desire to read them, because it was finished for me.

  JAMES MARSTERS

  When I produced theater, we would do a lot of shows that were big risks. I always said, “You guys. We’re jumping off the cliff with this one. You know, we’re either going to fly or we’re going to splat . . . . so we better start flapping.” And the cast started flapping hard. I’m reminded of the final scene in Angel, which was meant to be the most heroic thing that Joss could think of for Angel to do, which was to sacrifice his life for the good of other people when he knew he would lose. “Let’s go to work!” That’s the point of that episode; we know we’re going to die, but we can’t help but try anyway. And I think that that’s the ultimate heroic act.

  DAVID BOREANAZ

  We ended Angel like an open-ended book. You kind of see the characters going out with a fight, which has been prevalent for Angel since the inception of the show. He’s always going to be fighting, which is true today with humanity and all of the things that are going on in the world. It ends with a battle for his own self, and a battle for humanity. Striving for excellence and continuing the good fight, whatever that good fight is.

  JOSS WHEDON

  We got to see how efficiently Wolfram and Hart could pick these people apart. We got to see how that affects Angel. His attitude about what he does and why he does it has always been so shifting and, to me, so interesting. He has to go to a very dark, weird, selfish place to start playing at a level that Wolfram and Hart had been playing off of from the start. We tied up some loose ends, but not all of them, because life doesn’t work that way. But the situation at Wolfram and Hart deteriorates to the point where there is a reckoning and a bloody one—because ultimately they’re not going to sit down and play canasta.