Slayers and Vampires
Page 55
ELIZABETH CRAFT
(co–executive producer, Dollhouse)
I was terrified of Joss. I could barely speak around him. I was just so intimidated. He’s so smart and he’s so charismatic. Thank God I had Sarah, because I could not speak for the first season, which seems funny now, but I was just in awe of him. You know he really is 24-7 the way he is on a panel you might see at Comic-Con. That is how he is all the time, basically. He’s that smart, that on. But he’s also very inclusive. He cares about everybody. One year Sarah [Fain] wasn’t going home for Thanksgiving, and he was, like, “You’re coming to my house.”
SARAH FAIN
(co–executive producer, Dollhouse)
Later, I told him how terrified I was, and he thought it was totally absurd, of course. But it was a lovely Thanksgiving.
STEVEN S. DEKNIGHT
Joss has always been incredibly good to me, incredibly kind and encouraging. The last time I saw Joss was at the premiere of Avengers: Age of Ultron. I remember telling him, “I don’t know how you even started to figure out some of that movie, of how to shoot it.” It was so complicated. I know there was a lot of people that didn’t like it and a lot of blowback about Black Widow. I saw the movie, and, in fact, I still watch the movie whenever it’s on. I enjoyed it. Call me crazy. I’ve got to say, when Vision hands Thor’s hammer, I got teared up. I admit it. It was everything I ever dreamed of.
ELIZABETH CRAFT
What was great about also working for Joss was [that] you really felt like you were a part of something that had quality and, I want to say, was a movement. The cult of Joss is a good cult to be in.
CAMDEN TOY
(actor, the Gentleman)
I’m still actually amazed and lucky I’ve been a part of this television history and that it endures. Most shows, once they’re done, even if they were popular at the conventions, they usually disappear. Remember Heroes? It was incredibly hot and those actors were incredibly in demand at conventions for autographs, but as soon as that show was canceled, you weren’t seeing any interest anymore. It was like the shows didn’t even exist anymore. At conventions today, there’ll be three generations of women standing in front of me, and they’ll say, “We love your show. You scared us so much.” And I’m, like, “Oh, thank you.”
STEVE BIODROWSKI
(editor in chief, Cinefantastique magazine)
I do see influence on horror and fantasy shows featuring young, somewhat disaffected women who would like to return to their normal lives but cannot do so, because they are stuck in a situation that requires them to act responsibly. I’m thinking of Georgia Lass in Dead Like Me and Liv Moore in iZombie.
SARAH LEMELMAN
Buffy is hugely important for television. In my research, I found that Buffy was really one of the first shows that surrounded itself around a female cast and showed girls can be kick-ass just like boys. Sure, we have the ’70s burst of strong female characters, but Buffy is the modern version of the female heroine. In the shows that came out during the women’s movement in the ’60s and ’70s, we still saw females as being sexualized to hold their ground. Buffy satirizes this, and I think it is the greatest “F you” to the patriarchy that we’ve seen in a long time.
DAVID GREENWALT
There’s been books and there’s been classes on Buffy. The power of that really impressed me, and, again, it’s the power of genre and the power of myth. I meet people to this day that are, “Buffy was so important in my life.” People really connected to it. They were never given a cheap trick or a cheap product or a cheap manipulation. Not a bad day’s work.
SARAH LEMELMAN
Moreover, unlike Xena or Charlie’s Angels, Buffy is about powerful teenage girls, which is something that television really had never explored before. Since Buffy, we’ve seen a good deal of shows and movies that have powerful female leads with a supporting cast of women—Orphan Black, Orange is the New Black, and even Game of Thrones. Younger girls now are used to seeing strong female characters, like Katniss from The Hunger Games, and it’s normal to aspire to be more than just a “girl.” I don’t think this was the case back when Buffy first aired, since a powerful female was an anomaly. Buffy showed the world the true strength of girl power, and we’ve never looked back since then.
STEVEN S. DEKNIGHT
The last time I saw Joss was at a party for Drew Goddard, who had been nominated for the Oscar for The Martian. Every time I see Joss, I love talking to him. I love finding out what’s going on. He is just such a talent, and I think he has not just inspired and encouraged the immediate people around him but millions of people all over the world with what he’s done.
DAVID GREENWALT
Buffy certainly made a bigger splash, there’s no question about it. It was the first of that kind of thing to be seen. Now I see all of these vampire shows, and I’m, like, didn’t we already do that?
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to profusely thank everyone who graciously took the time over the years to be interviewed by us, in some cases multiple times for many, many long hours. Thank you for your indulgence, enthusiasm, and candor.
Regrettably, Joss Whedon chose not participate in the writing of this book, but interviews are taken from myriad previous interviews with Whedon conducted exclusively (and extensively) by Edward Gross over many years.
In addition, we’re particularly indebted to Buffy scholar Sarah Lemelman, who was willing to share her own original material and insights to help supplement this volume.
Also, thank you to the publishers of Cinefantastique magazine over the years for their gracious assistance, ranging from the legendary Frederick S. Clarke to our good friend Mark Gottwald, Joe Sena, and current publisher Steve Harris, and a very special thanks to Mitchell Persons, who graciously allowed us to excerpt several interviews from his indispensible coverage of Buffy in Cinefantastique as well, including Kristy Swanson and Fran Rubel Kuzui, who declined to participate in new interviews for this volume.
In almost all cases, material is taken from original interviews, conducted by the authors, with the exception of the aforementioned material as well as public comments excerpted from personal appearances at press conferences, Paleyfest, Television Critics Association presentations, and conventions.
In addition, a very special thanks to our research assistants, without whose help we would probably be publishing this book for the fiftieth anniversary of Buffy: our indispensable senior research assistant, Jordan Rubio, as well as our additional research associates, Josh Rubin, Hilary Paige Taylor, and Lucille E. Brillhart. We would like to also single out the help of New York University professor Andrew Goldman for his gracious assistance in helping round up a group of talented and hardworking millennials (for the most part) to assist us as well as Brandeis University professor of American studies, Thomas Doherty, for his always-welcome advice, counsel, and inspiration.
We would also be remiss not to thank our patron saint, editor Brendan Deneen; Tor jack-of-all-trades, the awesome Christopher Morgan; and our intrepid literary agent, Laurie Fox, at the Linda Chester Agency, for her boundless enthusiasm, undying love, and affection for Buffy.
You can follow the authors on Twitter at @markaaltman, @edgross, and @Slayersandvamps, or contact them directly at 50yearmissionbook@gmail .com.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
MARK A. ALTMAN is a television and motion picture writer/producer/director who most recently served as co–executive producer of TNT’s hit series, The Librarians. Previous TV credits include Agent X, Castle, Necessary Roughness and as executive producer and cocreator of Femme Fatales for HBO, for which he also directed several episodes.
Altman has also produced the $30 million film adaptation of the bestselling video game, DOA: Dead Or Alive, which was released by The Weinstein Company’s Dimension Films. His first film was the award winning Free Enterprise, starring William Shatner and Eric McCormack, which he wrote and produced and for which he won the Writers Guild of America Awa
rd for Best New Writer at the AFI Los Angeles Film Festival prior to its theatrical release. He is also a producer of the House of the Dead series, based on the videogame from Sega, released by Lionsgate. In addition, he produced James Gunn’s cult classic, The Specials, starring Thomas Haden Church, Rob Lowe, and Judy Greer.
His bestselling two-volume book written with Edward Gross, The Fifty Year Mission: The Complete Uncensored, Unauthorized History of Star Trek, was released by St. Martin’s Press in Summer 2016 in hardcover to nearly unanimous critical acclaim including raves in The Wall Street Journal, Booklist, and Publishers Weekly.
Altman is a former entertainment journalist. He is the founding publisher of Geek, a hip lifestyle magazine devoted to movies, television, technology and pop culture. In the past, Altman has contributed to such newspapers and magazines as The Boston Globe, Written By, L’Cinefage, Film Threat, The Manchester Guardian, The Boston Edge, Cult TV, Computer Player, and many others, including Cinefantastique, for which he launched their independent film division, CFQ Films, which produced numerous successful genre features for DVD and VOD release, including The Thirst, starring Buffy-verse alums Clare Kramer, Adam Baldwin, and Tom Lenk.
Altman has spoken at numerous industry events and conventions, including ShowBiz Expo as well as the Variety/Final Draft Screenwriters Panel at the Cannes Film Festival. He was a juror at the prestigious Sitges Film Festival in Barcelona, Spain. He has been a frequent guest and panelist at Comic-Con held annually in San Diego, CA, and a two-time juror for the Comic-Con Film Festival. In addition to being a graduate of the Writers Guild of America Showrunners Training Program, he is also a member of the Television Academy.
EDWARD GROSS is a veteran entertainment journalist who has served on the editorial staff of a wide variety of publications, among them Starlog, Geek, Cinescape, Life Story, Cinefantastique, RetroVision, Femme Fatales, Movie Magic, SFX, and Sci Fi Now. He is the author of a number of nonfiction books, including X-Files Confidential, The Alien Nation Companion, Planet of the Apes Revisited (with Joe Russo and Lawrence Landsman), Rocky: The Ultimate Guide, and, with Mark A. Altman, the two-volume The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete Uncensored, Unauthorized History of Star Trek. Currently he serves as executive editor of Empire Magazine’s empireonline.com/us.
ALSO BY MARK A. ALTMAN AND EDWARD GROSS
The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years
The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek
First published 2017 by Tor US, a Tom Doherty Associates Book
First published in the UK 2017 by Boxtree
This electronic edition published 2017 by Boxtree
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
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Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-0-752-26636-7
Copyright © Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman 2017
Cover Illustration © Sam Hadley @ Debut Art
Author photograph: Edward Gross © Steve Wilkie
The right of Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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