Angel

How will Cordelia’s coma be dealt with?
I do know that at the beginning of this next season we address that issue. And [at] the fact that she’s in a coma, we find that he’s pretty disturbed, but at the same time moving on, and taking control of these [Wolfram and Hart] offices.

He doesn’t really understand why he’s all of a sudden got control of the kingdom, so there’s something that’s happening that’s really going to be messed up. There’s a lot of forces that are happening behind the back. It’s just too good to be true.

I do think that the subtext of that will bother him all through the season. Same with his son Connor, he doesn’t know what’s happening there. No one has any memory about it. I know they’re playing with an episode where he comes back, and he doesn’t know who I am, which should be interesting.

How will Angel manage without Cordelia?
I have to say it will be very difficult, as far as the character is concerned. [It was] more of an attachment than love, I think. Somebody who [he] could identify with as a warrior, somebody who was very characterful and strong, confident.

Not as truly deep, I think, as love, but Cordelia, for Angel, was a pivotal part of his understanding of having a son, understanding who he is and his place in the world.

That relationship did kick off, but I think there’s a misunderstanding between the two of them that’s not been resolved. Where else it’s going to go I don’t know, she’s in a coma. Joss Whedon, ha ha ha.

She’ll be back.

How did they film the Angel/Angelus fight in Orpheus?
That was a probably one of my top five episodes, that one.

The filming was all split. They were using a double, but I did all of my dialogue back and forth to the double, with myself.

[To do] all of the angles it went through, I had to time out. The camera [would] move, I’d watch the movement of myself while doing it, and get that down, [so that] actually playing the other, Angelus part, [I’d] understand his movements.

There was a technical challenge to that aspect of it. It took a while. It was a hard episode to shoot.

If you could do an Angel film, what would it be like?
Shooting a film version of Angel would be pretty amazing, the stuff you could do.

What I would like to see, actually, would be to do for Joss to do some sort of Angel/Buffy character thing. It would be interesting to see those characters somehow end up [together]. It would be tough to do, because his character didn’t find Buffy until later on.

I would love to shoot it really deep. I’d love to go all over Europe. I think that would be great, with a great storyline. Talking about cast, well, I would leave that up to the casting director. [Laughs]

How did you get the job on Buffy?
I was out walking my dog one day, and my manager, Tom, spotted me. We were talking, I was looking for a manager, and before I knew it I was going in to see Marcia Schulman over at Twentieth Century Fox and [being given] a breakdown for this character.

It was only a set amount, twelve episodes sort of deal. They said [he was] something like a prize fighter, Joe Louis, get knocked down but keep getting back up [type of character], and I thought that was the coolest thing.

I talked to Marcia, and the whole conversation at our first meeting was about restaurants in New York city. We didn’t talk about the character at all. We talked about pizza, zabaglione and pastas, New York.

Then I came back and read for David Greenwalt, Joss, Gail Berman and all the studio heads. It worked out fine.

It was a very bang-up, nerve-wracking audition for me. Because it was very early on, it’s a very terrifying experience. I walked out saying, "I almost lost it." I didn’t think I was going to get this part, and I could feel my body tensing up inside. You go through that and I was able to get it, and just to walk out on the first night of shooting was great.

What posters did you have on your wall as a kid?
Posters I had on my wall as a child? I had a Farah Fawcett poster. Classic seventies, on the Mexican rug in a bathing suit. That was great.

Let’s see. Dorothy Hamil, the ice skater, [in her] short hair era. Starsky and Hutch, Planet of the Apes, I used to love that. The Six Million Dollar Man.

What was your most emotional episode to film?
[Finding out that it’s the questioner’s sixteenth birthday, David invites her to sit next to him on stage. Now that’s a birthday surprise and a half.]

My most emotional episode? There’s two. I really enjoyed working with Vincent, Connor. I really think he’s a great actor. So the one where he was in a sporting goods store and he was strapped [to explosives], that was really heavy for me.

Also where he was disrespecting me as a father, and we did this huge 360 degree [pan] which was really cool.

What are you really drinking in the blood-drinking scenes?
Actually, it’s a cup. They created a cup, it’s like a spill cup, so it looks like there’s stuff inside, but actually not really. So it’s actually air. Tastes good.

They do have a thick syrup they use sometimes, for blood scenes.