Buffy : On Specific Scenes- On the wheelchair
- How did you drive the car with the windows blacked out in Becoming?
- On singing' "My Way" in the car
- On the "posing" scene in "Restless"
- About the "impotent" scene with willow
- On Spike getting tasered on the roof by commandoes.
- On the dream sequence where Spike fantasises being in bed with the Slayer.
- On sex scenes with the Buffybot
- Did you have anything to do with the choice of "I Want To Be Sedated" in "Crush"?
- At the end scene of Fool for Love, the way your facial expressions changed, that was just awesome.
- When Buffy threw money at Spike and Marsters decided to cry... soulless Spike expressing something so deeply human.
- How do you prepare for the emotional scenes like when Buffy threw the money at Spike and said he was beneath her?
- Did you genuinely cry for the season 5 finale when Spike sees Buffy lying dead?
- On the "cuppa tea, almost got shagged" scene
- On the sex scene in Smashed?
- Buffy and Spike's "bring down the house" sex scene was recently voted TV Guide's number one hot scene in television history. Your opinion on that?
- What was it like doing the scene in Buffy when she was invisible and you were both in bed?
- On the attempted rape
- We've heard everything against the rape scene but what you may not realize is that scene has helped many of your fans that have been in that situation, that have been at a point in their lives where they couldn't carry on anymore or they've got emotional and physical scars, and they have come to a point where they have watched your scene more than once and through the development of your character, I'm pretty certain that they feel it as well, and they have said that they wish they could come up and thank you for helping them carry on with their lives. To know that you were nothing like the person who had attacked them and that they can even find forgiveness for the person who had attacked them.
- Did you talk about the AR scene beforehand with Sarah?
- On the last scene of “Beneath You?”
- (4-03 Cleveland) What was it like to film the last scene of ‘Beneath You’. (takes deep breath, looks like it was pretty tough.) That whole story arc had me finally stopping doing the method. I’m a stage actor who… I came into film and realized that the acting techniques for stage don’t apply in film at all, and if I wanted to succeed in film I was gonna have to go to techniques that were developed for film. The techniques developed by Marlon Brando and by the people of the Actors Studio. Which is really all about creating this fantasy, a well detailed fantasy life that you can release yourself into and really believe it. But the thing is these guys weren’t thinking T.V. They were thinking of submerging themselves for a limited play run or a specific movie. And what I found is that I submerged over the course of two years, it burned me, it really burned me, it sent me almost over the edge, frankly. And I really had to kind of like (steps back) ok, learn something about the method, be careful in television with the method. Because like I dredged up… I was playing a man who was riddled by the guilt of all these murders and all of these things. So I had to dredge up everything that I had core guilt about in my life and just beat myself up with it. And when you do that to yourself… I mean no therapist is gonna tell you that is a good idea, you know. And that’s why acting is not necessarily that healthy all the time. And so you know, I got all my rocket fuel together and we filmed the scene, dailies came back, Joss didn’t like the lighting, he thought some of the writing needed to be switched around a little bit. And so he re wrote it and came in an directed it again. By that time I was spent, you known I had already filmed it and I just kind of came to the set, (walks across stage head hung) like how am I gonna rake myself again? But it always happens that you just get carried by the words and you just get carried there. You know, there are 3, 4, 5, 6 scenes through out this season that really were very hard. That were not comfortable, that were not necessarily fun, but that I am very proud of. Yeah, thanks.
- (5-03 Chicago Con) Acting is not always very healthy, and I had to dredge up everything that I felt bad about, every choice in my life that I felt guilty about. I had to dredge it up, remember it completely and beat myself up about it. Because I was playing a man who’s coming to terms with all the things that he’s done in his life. I went through a real spiral down. When we were filming that stuff, I was really truly depressed. Ah, a lot of that stuff you see on film, there’s not much acting there. And I mean, that’s how you do it for film, you’ve got to be true to it, but it cost me. I’ve got to say, it was really hard. I’m proud that we did it, but I don’t want to do it again.
- (6-03 Buffy Magazine) In the first [version]," James explains, "it was a lot more of Spike talking about what his experience was, which works really well on the stage. Both Doug and I come from the stage, and we were actually excited it was becoming theatrical. This is all hindsight, but I think [a soliloquy] is dramatic onstage because it's amazing for a person to stand in front of a group of people and be honest and open. But there's an implied privacy about film, and someone proclaiming themselves in a room with only two people in it is just not that dramatic. And so Joss employed the great cinematic device of potential danger in the shadows. Spike went away into the shadows, and Buffy didn't know where he was, and that tension held the scene while Spike talked about himself. Also, having me come in from the shadows allowed me to be more theatrical. Because you couldn't see my face, I could put more in the voice. Stage is hanging words in the hair. Joss gave me a situation where we could get away with doing that on film.
- (9-03 DragonCon) You see, this is the sick thing about acting. You see, that pain was real. I dredged up everything I felt guilty about in my whole life. And there's a lot of things I've done wrong in my life. It was a process of getting all of that to the surface and living it. Acting is not really healthy. There are a lot of things you do to yourself that a therapist would say, "You're an IDIOT". You're never going to be happy if you keep beating yourself up like that. That's why… You know, I can't watch "Rebel Without a Cause" any more because I think that I've realized the truth about film acting, which is that it has to be real. When I watch James Dean… it's obvious that he is going through something real and at this point, it's like, "oh, God". I can't even watch it any more. It's just too painful. The camera… the camera is demanding… demanding son of a b… it will catch you lying. It will love ya for telling the truth, but anything other than the truth just ain't good enough. So when they ask you to do those scenes, you know, if you really want to do them right you put yourself through a lot of pain. And there's a lot of stuff on "Buffy" that I … I mean I was just… god, I'd come home just weeping, you know. You know, usually the writing in television is mediocre so you're safe. (laughs) But on "Buffy" and on "Angel", these writers are cutting close to the bone sometimes. [audience claps] The thing is, you know we became friends, so we would start talking about our lives, and they'd chop my life up and put it into the show. And I was like… I finally went to the producers… and Marti and I was like, "Marti, you just can't hide around here. Shit. Stop it." That's why I wonder why the he… heck I'm still an actor. I look at myself in the mirror and I'm like "What are you doing to yourself? What are you doing?" It's either courage or desperation. I'd like to think that it's not… I don't THINK that I need the validation. Maybe I used to so I got into it. I'd like to think at this point that I just found something that I can do (laughs), you know, and I have fun doing and that's why. But there are days I really ask myself, "What are you doing?" It's a weird thing to do to yourself.
- (6-04 Moonlight Rising) (asked if he'd change anything) I wouldn't do anything different because what it came to was… self-knowledge is about self-loathing. That's deep. That's just deep. I'm so proud of that scene. We filmed a different version and it sucked. Joss came in and he's like, "James, we don't know what to do with you this season. Your episode sucks, but I'm going to save it. Trust me." And he went and he rewrote it, and he came in and directed it, and he saved my ass. And it's now known as one of the best scenes, but in fact, it's saving us because we sucked.
- On the "I'm drowning in footwear" scene
- On the final scene between Buffy and Spike
- What was it like filming the last scene of Buffy?
- New!When Spike burned at the end of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, why did he laugh?
- Is there scene in particular where you think you failed?
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