Buffy The Vampire Slayer

[A little boy in leather coat approaches and tries to get the microphone out of stand]

JM: Yeah, just rip it off. Rip it off. [After the kid does get mic down] Right on.

Q: Do you have any favorite seasons or episodes?

JM: My favorite episode is the musical. [Agreement from audience.] Yeah. Because it’s the one, as a company, we were SO terrified. I wasn’t and Tony Head wasn’t because we were both already singers, but everybody else wasn’t a professional singer and Joss was asking them to sing in front of the nation, the world, and that’s not really necessarily fair. But we all dug our heels in, we all worked hard, and it came out well. I’m really proud of us for having that much faith in ourselves. As far as a favorite season. (Pauses, thinking) I can’t pick one. They were all terrifying and exhilarating and, uh, like every single time I would really get offended and terrified by some of the things they were doing with my character and I finally realized this, I’m SO lucky. Most times, when you’re on a TV show after five years, it’s already run its course and it’s pretty boring. But I was in a case where I was terrified and in the fifth and sixth year and I realized that’s really artistic gold. So I can’t really pick a favorite season but definitely the musical, in my book, is as good as any episode of television ever produced.

[Audience claps enthusiastically.]

JM: (as little boy leaves) Great coat bro!

Q: [New questioner] As an actor who would you say inspires you most?

JM: (without a moment’s hesitation) Meryl Streep.

Q: Why?

JM: She’s absolutely fearless. She shows you her vulnerability and it just bubbles like champagne from underneath. It’s impossible for her to be boring. She just, she has realized that every human being is beautiful, and that all she has to do is be honest to herself and that’s beautiful. She doesn’t try to make it up or make it cooler than it is. She’s the closest thing we have to Brando and Dean, frankly. There ain’t no guy that touches Meryl Streep.

[Audience claps. New questioner approaches mic.]

Q: It’s very much like meeting the Queen. A very sort of personal question. ...I’m just wondering, if you could tell us, how much do you really sacrifice to get to where you are? There must be personal sacrifices? In your life? [James shakes head no.] No? [Audience laughs.]

JM: I don’t know. Uh, I never had a normal life so I’m not completely aware of what I’m sacrificing. I would have said, before I moved down to L.A., I was sacrificing being able to put my kid through college. I was sacrificing the idea that, I had to live with the idea that I was going to die destitute. That’s the stage actor’s life. But then I went to Hollywood and (laughing) I got all this money, so I don’t really think I’m sacrificing much at all, uh, except probably a social life because the hours are so long. But the whole thing of the set is kind of like a social life anyway so no, I don’t think I’m sacrificing anything. Or, if I am, I’m not aware of it because I decided to be an actor when I was in the fourth grade so...

Q: ... so you obviously really enjoy it.

JM: Yeah, I really do. [Audience claps.]

Q: [Man comes up to mic with his young daughter hiding nervously behind him.] Welcome to Melbourne.

JM: Thank you. I really like Australia a lot. [Cheers from audience.] Like whenever you go to another country, you have to say, "BERLIN ROCKS!", you know, and (in funny voice) "I hate..." No (like he was kidding). [Audience laughs] In Australia I’ve gotten into more interesting conversations with people consistently than anywhere else besides Canada and I’m really impressed by that. Yeah, anyway. Thank you.

Q: I’ve got a question on behalf of my daughter who is a bit terrified. She starting in a play, her first play, this week and she just wonders what advice you have for her.

[Huge "ahs" from audience as the little girl clings to her dad. I don’t remember exactly at what point during his answer but James crouched down to talk to the young girl more directly and more at her level. It was incredibly sweet.]

JM: Here’s the thing. This is exactly what Bob Scogin told me when I got my first professional play. It was "The Tempest" at the Goodwin and it was Shakespeare and I was terrified. I said, "Bob, what’s the secret to acting Shakespeare." He said, (slipping into a voice) "Kid, stand up straight, say your lines clearly, and get the heck off stage."

At the time I thought he was being kind of glib. And I thought he was kind of shutting me down, but experience has taught me that if you share yourself—and when you’re sharing yourself you’re not even aware of that so just be yourself— (tone becomes very gentle as he talks directly to the young girl) but just make sure you stand up straight, and make sure you get those lines out and that they can be heard, and then get out. And that’s so courageous and the audience will love you for having the courage to do that much. But don’t try to be more interesting than you are. Brando said you cannot be bigger than you are. You have to be yourself. So don’t try to be more interesting than who you are. Just know that the audience is totally cool with who you are and show them that. Congratulations!

[Huge applause from audience.]

What’s the play? [Father answers but I’m not sure what it was...] Break a leg. And welcome to our freaky circus. [Audience laughs.]

Q: I have a question too... [can’t make it out but something about theater]

JM: The acting, theater in America has been on the ropes since 1979. I used to run theaters in Chicago and Seattle and we would pay a lot of attention to how the other theaters were doing. And you’d read magazine after magazine report of theaters going under, of theaters cutting their seasons, producing less plays, producing plays with fewer actors, less performances per play, shorter rehearsal times, and you’d see the whole thing collapsing and collapsing and collapsing. And it is depressing to tell you that has not changed. It has been a constant dive since 1979 and that’s when we stopped funding the theater. Because art, sorry guys, art needs to be funded. It should not have to compete in the commercial world. Because the whole thing about art is that you have to inject so many man hours into the piece so that it becomes artistic and resonant and it is simply impossible to sell it for the amount of work you had to put in it. (sad laugh) So, it’s a bit depressing.

But we still have stuff, man. I really believe, like with Shakespeare, American actors have a fire that I sometimes miss on the British stage. I mean, sometimes Brits give that fire too, but mostly the British have a specificity and they have the rhythm and the iambic pentameter, and there’s [inertia??] when you’re able to do that right. But just as far as fire and spit, I love American actors for that. But, we’re sloppy, so it’s a balance. Ask me in 20 years, I hope, (pleadingly) I hope it gets better. [Audience claps.]

Q: I teach high school drama and when you were mentioning "Macbeth" earlier I just thought, oh I have to ask him... I teach Shakespeare and I’m trying to get children interested in it. I also teach English so I have English and Drama classes. Now the Roman Polanski version I just adore, I adore it and all teachers adore Polanski’s version. However, as I was teaching "Macbeth", some of the kids said to me, "Oh this is so boring. When does it get to the good bits." And I said, "He chops his head off in a minute, you’ll be alright." And I said look, "There’s this really great guy James Marsters and he’s going to be doing a production of ’Macbeth’ and it will be really, really great." [Kids’ response,] "Will it be as good as Baz Luhrmann?" And I said, "Well, I don’t know." You know, Baz, he did "Romeo & Juliet"...

JM: Yeah, which was great except you need actors who can say the words. [Audience laughs and claps.] Through the whole movie, the way he thought it out—because "Romeo & Juliet" for me is not a play about love, it’s about love getting crushed—and so, I thought Baz got it absolutely right. It’s just that he had a lead who was not willing to learn how to do Shakespeare. Leo, I read an article and he’s like, "I didn’t want to treat it like poetry." Well, then quit.

Q: So you’re going to keep the poetry?

JM: I’m going to try, but I’m an American so I’m going to smash the meter. I’m going to try not to, but, in certain parts it’s very important. What’s that last speech? (Starts reciting lines quietly to himself thinking, trying to recall the lines he was referring to) If you do it and you do those line-stops at the end of the stanzas, then what you get is a man almost short-circuiting but trying to work it out anyway. If you don’t pay attention to those stanza ends, it’s kind of a very confident speech and so there are times when you really have to give over to that. But, yeah, Lady M won’t be mean, but she dies.

Q: I was going to ask that?

JM: The thing is, the whole point of the play is the main character goes to the audience and he says look I’ve done so many murders I can’t feel anything anymore. Things that used to stand my hair up don’t even affect me any more. We hear a scream off stage. He says what was that noise and sends a guy off to look and he says oh, you’re wife’s dead. And now, if in the first act of this play we see these two people in love, we think well, that’s going to affect him! And then he says she should have died tomorrow. I would have time for it then. And that’s like, (breathes in as in shock) he’s lost. That is the ultimate crunch. And after that speech, then Macbeth is no longer the hero and we have Macduff as the new hero. But that has to, the only way that will resonate is if we care that she’s gone insane in the first place. So they have to cry for "out damn spot" or the end of the play is not going to work — well it’s not the end but the thematic climax — and if we’re going to expect to cry over this woman dying, she can’t have emasculated our hero in the beginning.

Q: Okay, so...

JM: And...

Q: [laughing] Keep going...

JM: (excitedly) I’m going, I’m going. [Laughter] See the middle of the play wasn’t written by Shakespeare. There’s a very important scene in the middle of that play where the witches call the devil to town...and in Shakespeare’s day, they would have been afraid that the devil would actually come through the floorboards and grab one of the actors. So Shakespeare wrote the most irresponsible, inflammatory scene he could possibly devise. But, he died, and he didn’t bother to record any of his plays—he didn’t really understand that people would care—and our only recording is of a court performance where some guy, they had a bunch of money to impress the King with the Hecate scene so they rewrote it and it’s horrible. So the problem with "Macbeth" really is that if you play the Hecate scene as written they’ll laugh at you, and if you cut it, you cut out a really serious turning point where everything, where the stakes really...

Q: I agree. I said the same thing to the kids.

JM: So that’s why I think in film, it’s very easy to correct that because in film, a "dumb show" is not a dumb show. You can have a long sequence with no words and still communicate a lot. Whereas on stage, if you have a dumb show, it really lays kind of flat.

Q: Please get this film out soon so I have something other than Roman Polanski. I love Roman...

JM: See the problem with Roman is that Macbeth is apologizing for himself half the time. I can’t stand that. The whole point is if “I decide to do this I’m not looking back”.

Q: He’s a weakling.

JM: Bingo!

Q: He’s a warrior. Macbeth is a warrior.

JM: (getting very excited and passionate) YEAH! And the, and the only person... [Audience laughs]

(Catching himself) Okay, are we boring you guys? (laughingly to the questioner) You and I are having a great conversation here. [A resounding, "NO!" from audience.]

No, and Banquo’s ghost, man, the only person I’ve ever heard do it right is Olivier. And he stood up on the table and (getting into it and motioning) he took his sword out and he’s like, (full of force) "Why don’t you come to me now!" Right? Then you have the other part of it, like Nicole—what is it Williamson? There was one Macbeth, he hid behind Lady M’s skirts, (slipping into high-pitched, funny, cowardly voice) "oh my gosh". (In puzzled, exasperated tone) What are you doing bro? You’re a hero. Don’t wimp out. (Big laugh)

Q: Thank you.

JM: You’re welcome. (Laughing) I’m going to stop talking about Shakespeare now.

Q: [New questioner asks about musical influences]

JM: It’s almost, uh, I’m going to name some people who are a lot better than I am but who inspire me: Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waites, Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. [Audience claps.]

Bob Dylan’s always in the background going, (in Dylan-ish voice) "You ain’t good enough." And Joni Mitchell’s going, (in reassuring tone) "It’s okay. It’s okay."

Q: [New questioner...not sure of question...something about "would you actually consider it?" Based on answer, maybe it was something like if someone had given him enough money to keep the theater going would he still have tried to make it in Hollywood, in film.]

JM: I would never have found out how rewarding it was. Because seriously, the only reason I came down to LA is I didn’t want to die poor. And if someone would have just given me a lot of it, I never would have left Seattle. I never would have discovered all of the great artists that I’d been missing out on. Knowing what I know now, I’d do it for a penny, but don’t tell them that. [Audience laughs.]

Q: Another quick question, you’ve said you like the Care Bears [see Sat’s transcript and one of my friends wants to know you’re favorite?

JM: Tenderheart Bear, baby! [Roars, claps from audience.]

Q: [New questioner approaches - a young girl] I was wondering how did you feel about Spike dying at the end?

JM: When Spike did what?

Q: Spike dying.

JM: Dying? [Audience offers, "In ’Buffy’"] Oh, yeah. (laughs) The big one. It was weird. Joss came up to me in the beginning of that season. It was right after the episode, we had just filmed the first shot of that episode where I end up on that cross. And the first scene we had shot was not very good. It was way too theatrical and not cinematic. He came up to my dressing room and goes, "James, we don’t know what to do with your character this year. You’re episode sucks, but the one thing I know about you is that I want to kill you." (laughing) Then he left.

But luckily I know Joss. And so, I really didn’t take offense—I mean he can kill me when he wants to, it’s his ball—but I started to think that he was trying to kill off the spin-off. Because me, or Spike, being on a spin-off gives him a lot better chance of getting it on the air, and so I thought he was killing me off to take me out of the formula. So I went up to him and said, "You know, Joss, just tell me not to do the spin-off. You don’t have to kill me off. Just tell me to get off." And he’s like, "No James. No, I want to make that money too. I don’t really want you dead. It was just the most dramatic thing I could come up with. You’re coming back later."

Q: [same little girl] And, I was wondering, can I have a hug? ["Ahs", laughs from audience. James hugs her. Audience cheers.]

JM: Okay, but we can’t hug everybody though because that... [Audience laughs.] although I kind of want to.

Q: [new questioner — asking about how she is studying theater and film and finding the transitioning to film restrictive.] ... How did you find it and how did you deal with it?

JM: The same, restrictive. I basically realized quickly that all of—or 95%—of what I’ve learned for stage is not applicable at all. And, no matter how proud I was of my ability to be on stage and hold the attention of the audience and tell a story and all that, that I was going to have to flush that out.

The epiphany happened for me when I was reading an article about Meryl Streep. And she said that she doesn’t even know if the scene is the beginning of the movie or the end of the movie, she doesn’t even pay attention to that because her character doesn’t know what that is. It dawned on me, don’t tell a story, just be, be the ingredient for someone else to tell the story. You know how on stage you’re supposed to take the inner workings of a human being and give all those corners physically so that people a long way away can understand what you’re doing? The camera doesn’t need that. They will cut to your close-up and you just think it. Keep holding to your objective. Get what you need out of the person, but don’t worry about any of those plastic tools— and when I say plastic I mean artificial, not bad—but any of those tools that you’ve got, don’t need them, don’t worry if they’re going to get it or not. The best work you’re going to do on film is the stuff you’re not even aware of.

Q: [New questioner asks something about how he gets asked about accents a lot and can he do an Australian one]

JM: I had to, when I got Spike, I had to stop doing Irish, Scottish and Australian because I would find that it would pollute my accent.

Q: Give it a go. Go on. [Audience laughs.]

JM: I’m kind of, you see, the thing is if you can’t do it well, don’t do it. And so, I’ve got to go study it and I’ll come back and do it later. I don’t want to suck. [Audience laughs.]

Q: I was going to give you a heads up on Friday night [at the dinner event] but I thought no.

JM: (doing the accent) Friday night. [Audience laughs, cheers]. (still in an accent, just not quite Australian but not quite Spike) It goes right back to Spike within two seconds, pitiful. [Audience laughs.]

Q: And I just wanted to say thank you for wearing a sleeveless shirt. You look really fit and good in it. [Cheers, whistles from audience.]

JM: Thank you. (embarrassed tone) I’m not an exhibitionist. [Audience laughs.] (pained but laughing tone) It was so hard to be naked, oh my god, on that show. I am not the guy you want to be asking that. [Somebody asked something.] No, it was me, in a sock, right, and that’s it. And Sarah with gloves and a muffler and a hat going, (girly teasing voice), "Ha ha ha." [Audience laughs.] Everybody’s nightmare, you go to work, you’re the only one naked and they’re laughing at you.

JM: (to next questioner) Hello. (laughing) Let’s raise the level of the conversation.

Q: ... I’ve been studying Tae Kwon Do for about 10 years now and I read so did Sarah Michelle Gellar. I think she’s a brown belt. Did you have to have some kind of training to be Spike for all those fight scenes or did you just get in there and strut your stuff? [Audience laughs.]

JM: The way that Hollywood works is that no one assumes that anyone knows marshal arts except the stuntmen. So before you’re cast, they do doubles of the costumes and get a stunt guy to do it and the way that they film it does not take into account even the idea that any actor would be able to fight. So I was always pushing Steve (laughing) out of the way. But it was like a happy surprise for them to find out that I was trained in the arts, but also, probably more training in actual fake fighting. I’m a green belt in judo and I’ve taken a lot of classes in kung fu—I’m not belted in kung fu—but I’ve had years of stage fighting because in stage you don’t get a stuntman, right. So, it was kind of a plus. But even so, after seven years, if we got a new director I’d have to go fight my battle to go get in the fight again because he wouldn’t realize that I was able to do that. And Steve’s like reading the paper going, "What do you need me for?" [Laughter] But Steve, (laughing) Steve could kick my butt. (fighting motions) Bam. He showed me some moves, oh my god. Here’s a great move— if this guy is being really snarky and if you hit him you might go to the jail, right? So you just trip and hit his thigh. Oh whoops, wham. (motions) "Oh I’m sorry, I tripped there bro. Oh no, I’m fine." And he’ll be down like (laughing) all quivering. [Audience laughs.] I like that move.

Q: [New questioner, nervously] You are SO much better looking in person. [Huge laughs from audience.] Sorry.

JM: Well, I had them make me up like a cadaver every day. [Audience laughs.] You know really, they tried to get me off that and I’m like, "No, no, no, I..."

Q: Your hair is brown. It looks good. It looks nice.

JM: Thank you. But they kept saying, (in tone of disbelief) "You want to be lighter than Dawn?" I’m like, "Dawn has BLOOD in her veins. I’m dead."

Q: My question is, I want to know what kind of after shave you’re wearing so I can get some for my husband. [Audience laughs, claps.]

JM: I don’t use it. (Kidding tone) I should lie to you so you could buy some stuff. Uh, uh (trying to think of a brand) Old Spice. [Big laughs from audience.] I use this thing called Kiehl’s. It’s an astringent that’s got a lot more medication and stuff and less perfume, but it helps keep razor burn down. It’s not sexy. [Audience laughs.]

Q: Don’t worry, you’ve got enough of that. (Big laugh from James.)

Q: [New questioner... talks about how she has seen Derek Jacobi performing on stage.]

JM: What did you see him do? Was it "Master Builder"?

Q: He was here with [??] doing Shakespeare doing Her Majesty’s Crown.

JM: I would love to see Derek do some Checkov. I think he would do Checkov brilliantly.

Q: [says she is looking forward to the production of "Venetian Heat"...]

JM: I don’t know if that’s going to happen, man. It kind of fell apart twice already and I’m starting to think that it may not have legs, which is really depressing because I would love to act with Derek Jacobi. He’s SO good.

Q: Can I ask you another question? The whole Buffyverse is set up on the theme of girl power, and there are many strong, powerful, independent women, what do you think it offers to boys?

JM: The same. That’s the thing. We all told you that it was all about girl power, but it really wasn’t. It was about human beings and their power. And the idea is that heroes are doing a dicey thing to even say they’re going to be a hero because in the real world, if you meet someone that defines themself as a hero, you usually have met a jerk. Because usually what the philosophers will tell you is just take care of your heart and your own thing. Don’t try to correct other people’s behaviors. So you see characters of Xander and Spike tripping up trying to be a hero, getting taken advantage of. I love that in "Angel" right when Spike is trying to be a hero for once and stop being so cynical and really try to do good in the world, he got set up as a patsy (snaps) like that. We got the same kind of themes as the girls got. Joss is not a sexist; he’s a humanist, just like Shakespeare. So things that are applicable to one sex group are exactly applicable to the other sex too. [Applause.]

JM: [As young man comes up to mic.] Hey, man.

Q: Hi James. I was just wondering since "Buffy" and "Angel" have both been axed, will you star in a series of just Spike?

JM: See, this is, what do you call a spin-off series of Spike, "Not Angel"? [Audience laughs.] Black coat, soul, vampire, hmm? [Audience laughs.] Yeah, uh, (sighs) I used to think it was going to happen, but then I noticed over the years everybody, and I mean everybody, talked to me about a spin-off except Joss.

Q: Why’s that?

JM: Ask him. (Big laugh.) I don’t know. I’d get in trouble even trying to answer that one. There might be a TV movie with Spike. [Woos from audience.] And if that goes really well, who knows. But, if there is a show with Spike, I don’t think Joss will be involved. I think he’s had enough of this.

Q: I wonder what you think about Oscar ceremonies? Would you ever aspire to have an Oscar? Does it mean anything to you?

JM: It would be really good to get a nomination but beyond that it’s meaningless. Beyond that, it’s just kind of throwing darts at a board, who’s better than who. I used to thumb my nose at Arts awards as a bunch of back-patting, but what I noticed, when I was in Chicago, we had the Jeff Awards. And what it did was it got everyone in the same room, looking at each other’s work and talking to each other and it really helped form a community. And when I went to Seattle we had no, we were too humble for that, so we didn’t really (laughs) know each other. So, I think the Oscars are really good because for one week Hollywood at least pretends to care about art, and we find out we really do care about art and that we really are trying to make something more worthwhile than commercialism all the time. In that way, it does fight against the commercial river, but it also gets swept up in the commercialism itself so...

Q: Are they rigged?

JM: No.

[Applause.]

[Organizer comes out and announces that it’s the end of the Q&A. Loud cheers, applause from audience.]