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| NOCC: James Marsters Q&A |
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Company: Wizard World
Product: New Orleans Comic Con 2012 Coverage
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I had the pleasure of seeing James Marsters speak New Orleans Comic Con 2011 and I was pleasantly surprised to hear some new stories and information this year when he spoke again. James is very easy going and although he exudes plenty of that "star power" when he enters a room, he's so chill that he makes you feel as though you are all just a bunch of friends hanging out. He didn't have quite the same get-up-and-go that he had last year, but he attributed that to his partying the night before. Mind you, he was partying the new Hollywood way - have a steak, watch half a movie, and fall asleep.
James immediately opened the floor to questions, stating he is open to being asked pretty much anything, since he claims to be shameless. He was asked about the fact that he didn't do the narration on the last Dresden Files book and he said it was because he was busy, twice. Because he was shooting a movie, they rearranged the narration for him, but then another project came up and they couldn't wait for him due to deadlines. James mentioned that the fans put the publishers through a lot of grief for that, though so he will probably be back for the next book.
He was next questioned about the infamous bar scene in Torchwood. He said it was the best day of his life, with everyone thinking he was such a bad ass. Then they jumped right into the kiss, which was directed by his fiancée. He and John would kiss and then turn to her and ask how it was, and she would say, "Oh, that was good." But then she'd make them retake it, just to torture them. The fight was awesome because he and John were both stage actors. A 14-hour day where 8 hours were fighting and they had a blast. In another scene, James was swigging vodka and he decided he wanted a shot where he was downing the entire bottle. Naturally, this meant drinking A LOT of water, like 15-20 bottles. What a great day it was, until he was throwing up water. Ahh, the glamorous side of acting. When asked which was more pleasurable, the kissing scene or the fighting scene, he said the fighting was better. Love scenes that are scripted and controlled by someone else aren't very sexy, so when it comes to the romance, he'd rather be in control. The scene was comfortable for him because he and John are friends and trust one another, so that made things much easier. He did wish John had shaved though. Bottom line, he prefers the fighting because it is so delicious. He was always the type that wanted to know how the magician worked his magic and when he got into acting, it was to be in on the con of the audience. Not in an ugly way, but he enjoys weaving that magic. "The con of love" is what he calls it, because he considers the actors to be giving the audience a gift, not stealing their money. Therein lies the difference.
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When asked what it was like to work with a legend like Joel Grey, James stated he was fabulous. He's had the opportunity to work with a number of big stars and through the years, he'd found that the bigger the star, the cooler they are, the more humble and the harder the worker they tend to be. He chalks their stardom up to this, with that being the reason they rise to that level. After Buffy, James figured he'd probably go back to being poor, but Joel's comment that James will always remember was, "Oh James. You'll never be poor again. We know who you are now."
Someone asked him if Joss Whedon had talked to him about playing Quicksilver in the sequel to the upcoming Avengers movie, but James stated that Joss hasn't spoken to him since he threatened him following a quote Joss said about him. Joss called him "Angel's best ingénue" in U.S. Weekly, which was meant to be a complement, but James saw it as insulting, almost as if he was calling him "a pretty little girl." Joss wouldn't apologize, and James was threatened him. James said he should call to apologize before the Avengers comes out so Joss wouldn't think he was just kissing his ass and the audience egged him to call Joss right then, but James just laughed.
When asked about the character Spike that he played in Buffy, and whether he would have changed the direction of the character if he had a chance, James said he probably wouldn't change a thing because "he really did bake up pretty well." At the time, he wanted to change things and thought some things could have been structurally stronger, but in the end, it worked. He didn't think Buffy should have ever given in to Spike, though. He felt like Spike should have wanted to change and be a better person to win her, but that she never should have given in. In fact, he was stunned when he discovered that they would become lovers. He also wanted two months notice from Joss to get ready in case they wanted him to take his shirt off, and sure enough, Joss said they'd be doing just that in the following season.
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Another fan asked about all of his recent guest star roles and expressed sadness because although she and other fans were happy to see him back on TV, they wanted more, more, more. James explained that guest starring roles are the best because they pay well, you always get a fresh cast, so you don't get bored and once you've done the job, you can forget the lines and the characters. In the last two months, he's been able to play a wizard, a middle-aged guy who drags a girl into a bomb shelter, and even a British rock star. Of course, on the flip side, it is also nice to be a part of a show and to know everyone really well. There's safety in that. For him, there's good on both sides, so it's all good.
James talked about his role in P.S. I Love You and how it was to work with big stars like Kathy Bates, Gerard Butler and Hilary Swank. There was an accident on set, where Gerry's (Gerard Butler) suspenders got caught in a dresser drawer as he was doing his suspender dance, and he was trying to save the take, but the suspenders flew into Hilary's face with the teeth implanting into her forehead. For 6 weeks of shooting, this deep gash had to be removed from the scene with a computer and he just knew she'd be so upset because to a star, their face is everything. Hilary was so cool about it all and just said that she figured now, she was going to be a character actor. He just loved the experience of filming that movie. They put him up in a swanky hotel across from Julliard, the school he was kicked out of because they told him he'd never be an actor. He spent 6 weeks chilling, playing awesome video games and then, they ended up cutting a lot of his scenes to maintain focus on the main couple. James was fine with it, preferring to have a very small part in a really good film, rather than a larger part in a mediocre film.
Of course, the questions naturally went back around to Buffy and he was asked about his favorite song in the musical episode. He quickly replied with "Demon Song," but the fan had hoped he'd sing "Something to Sing About." James started talking about his band, Ghost of the Robot, and that they've released an album called Murphy's Law. They write all of their own music and they don't do covers, so he doesn't even remember the songs from that episode. He was also asked about the episode, Hush, where no words were spoken and whether anything was particularly challenging about filming it. He said that it was Joss showing off. When people said Joss is the funniest writer on TV, he made a sad episode where Buffy's mom dies. When people said he wrote the most interesting dialogue, what does Joss do? He writes an episode with zero dialogue. Hush was very carefully constructed to make it flow and Joss was quite particular about every detail. |
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He was asked about westerns and High Plains Invaders and James shared that when it was in the works, the name Cowboys vs. Aliens was suggested and quickly shot down. They used an old set in Romania that had rusty nails all over it because the art department would never remove the old nails when they took a picture down. Since James' character was constantly running for his life, he kept getting tagged on rusty nails and asked that the art department would remove the nails and when they didn't, he got a hammer and did it himself.
One fan asked if there was any one role, no matter how large or small, that he felt was the pinnacle of his career and he said no, he feels like that every single time. With each new thing, everything else has led up to that.
When asked if he had read any of the fan fiction about Spike and Angel or Spike and Xander, he quickly said no, although he has heard about it. He's not against it, but he has his own experience with the character of Spike and they are doing things with Spike that he doesn't think Spike would ever do. He always felt that Spike was a romantic and a one-person man, whereas Captain John (from Torchwood) was more of a slut, even though the characters were so much alike.
The last question asked about his work on Supernatural and his mini-reunion with Charisma Carpenter, who played Cordelia on Buffy and Angel. He really got to know her and never did on Buffy because her character was always running from him. On the Supernatural set, they would hang out, drink coffee and talk about their kids, so it was fantastic. The cast was always so fresh and excited, even though they had been together for 7 seasons, so it was a terrific experience.
New Orleans was happy to welcome James back again this year and we hope to see more of him in the near future! |
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-Psibabe, GameVortex Communications AKA Ashley Perkins |
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