Sarah Hagan

OFFICIAL FAN CLUB NEWSLETTER From the Official Buffy Fan Club www.thebuffyfanclub.com Vol. 2, No. 5

FROM THE EDITOR...

Based on our love of cheese, Black Frost ale and Yummy Sushi pajamas, all of us at the Official Buffy Fan Club headquarters feel like we have what it takes to be potential Slayers. Unfortunately, most of us also seem to have those pesky Y-chromosomes and no martial arts skills whatsoever, so don’t come crying to us when vampires invade your town. We’re not completely useless, however. In fact, with so many potential Slayers running around these days, we were able to get the scoop from one of them and learned an important lesson in doing so. Let’s just say that it’s not a good idea to startle a Slayer, potential or not, or you’ll be picking splinters out of your chest for weeks. Anyway, this month we feature an interview with Sarah Hagan, a Potential with proven talent. Also: Willow fans will be put to the test with this month’s trivia questions and we expand your Slayer vocabulary. Enjoy!

MEMBER NEWS:

Buffy Finale Script - Through an exclusive offer, you will be able to pre-order the Buffy series finale script at the Official fan club website (www.thebuffyfanclub.com). This offer will be posted in early May, so stay tuned.

Buffy 2003 Yearbook - We are pleased to announce that our new membership (and renewal) offers now includes the Buffy 2003 Yearbook as one of the magazine issues included with membership. For a full listing or membership benefits, click on "Member Benefits" on the Official fan club website home page. For those renewing, you can view the renewal benefits and renew your membership in the My Account area (only accessible after you login with your Member ID).

Magazine#8 and Renewals - If your fan club membership is still a few months or weeks from expiring, but you have already received all of the magazines that were part of your original membership offer, make sure that you RENEW now so you don’t miss out on ISSUE #8. Your account will stay active for login until the expiration date, but you will NOT receive the next issue if you have already received the number of magazines promised to you when you signed up. You only have a few weeks until #8 is released, so login and renew now.

Fan Polls - We will be offering fan polls on the fan club website in the near future. The official poll results will be forwarded to Twentieth Century Fox and will also be included in future newsletters.

NEWS BITES:

LOVE SUNNYDALE STYLE Spike and Buffy may not have a traditional relationship, but that didn’t keep Entertainment Weekly online from ranking them one of television’s 10 hottest couples.

SPIN CYCLE Check out Buffy, Oz and Spike as they make crossover appearances on the Angel: Season One DVD in stores now.

SLAYERSPEAK WORD OF THE MONTH:

Tony Robbins: 1. (adj) big, scary, Frankenstein-looking human; 2. (noun) big, scary Frankenstein-looking human with a propensity for making inspirational speeches; see "The Yoko Factor" (4.20)

SHE’S GOT POTENTIAL Sarah Hagan is a potential Slayer with proven talent

Sarah Hagan is sweet, she’s genuine, she’s shy and she seems to be really good at fighting. In other words, she’s a lot like Amanda, the potential Slayer she plays on Buffy. Her life seems a little more subdued, however, than someone who has to constantly look over her shoulder for vampires. Hagan lives with her boyfriend, but only about a mile away from her mom and sister. She became a favorite of critics and fans from her role as "mathlete" Millie Kentner on Freaks and Geeks in 1999, and she still misses the camaraderie of working with the cast of that show. As she came into her own in Sunnydale, however, Hagan seemed to be finding a new home on the Hellmouth and there was no place she’d rather be. Except for maybe a Styx concert.

What’s it like to find out you’re a potential Slayer? I was excited. The first time I got the part was in September, and my friend, Rebecca Kirschner, wrote for that episode. She was also a writer for Freaks and Geeks, so it was really awesome getting to work with her. I was really surprised when I was called back in December to do another episode with a bigger part. It was really great. Rebecca was the writer for that episode, too.

Did she recommend you for the role? No, she didn’t actually. I had gone in to audition, and the same day I got a callback. As I was going in for the callback, that’s when I saw her. I was like, "Hey, how are you? What are you doing here?" She had been writing for Buffy for three years. That was so cool. I told her I was there for a callback for Amanda, and that’s when she told me she wrote the episode. So it wasn’t anything planned.

Were you a Buffy fan before you got the part? To tell you the truth, I hadn’t really watched the show. I watch it now, obviously, and after seeing a few episodes, I really enjoy it. It’s a really awesome show. It’s really well-written and has a lot of action. It’s cool. I pick it up every now and then on the T.V., because they show a lot of reruns. I think it’s good for me to watch it to know some history. I’m really happy to be a part of it.

Who is your favorite character on Buffy? As of right now, I really like Andrew.

You know he’s sort of evil, don’t you? He’s a really funny, cute character that lightens the mood of the show.

Did you take any karate lessons in preparation for fighting vamps? I didn’t really know I’d be doing any of that, but when it came to my fighting scene, it was really easy for me. I learned it in, like, two minutes, whereas other girls took the whole day. They were all really surprised that I caught on so fast. When I did my fight scene, it was all me. The stunt girl didn’t work at all for me, so that was pretty neat. They were awed by it. I had never done that before, so it was really fun. I enjoyed that.

Who is your best friend on the set? I hang out with the potentials a lot when they’re there. I hang out with Iyari [Limon], the girl who plays Kennedy, because I see her a lot. She’s in almost every episode, so we work together a lot. And Michelle [Trachtenberg] is really, really sweet too. There’s no specific person I really hang out with. They’re all really nice and we just talk whenever there’s someone to talk to. It’s really friendly.

Is it difficult to join a cast with so much history together? Not really. Maybe a little bit, because it’s been on for seven seasons and they’re like a family there. You feel a little bit out of place at first, but everyone is so sweet and they make you feel so comfortable on the set, it really doesn’t matter.

How did you find out Amanda was going to be a recurring character? My manager called me and asked if I was going to be in town for Thanksgiving, because Buffy would like to know. I wasn’t going anywhere, but after a couple weeks I still didn’t hear anything. When my manager called, I had left my phone with my boyfriend, so he told my boyfriend he had to close the deal for Buffy and asked if he thought I’d want to do it. My boyfriend was like, "Yeah, close the deal, hurry!" It was pretty interesting. When I finally saw him, he was smiling like, "I know something you don’t know." It was kind of cute. He was excited to find out before me, but we were both pretty excited.

What has been your favorite character to play? I think Millie, because she was the wise one and had a lot of fun stuff to do like playing the piano, eating Lick-a-Maid, hiding behind the bus and kissing her boyfriend, having slumber parties, the "mathletes" and playing with her dog. It was just a lot of fun things to do. Amanda is my second favorite, because I’ve been able to do so much. She’s such a fun and cute character, and the fighting is really interesting. She also has a lot of cute lines.

NEXT ISSUE:

Check out the revealing second half of the exclusive Sarah Hagan feature, find out whatever happened to that dreamy brooder Owen Thurman from "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date", the answers to this month’s Buffy trivia questions, and all the latest Buffy news.

Mike Stokes Editor, The Buffy Fan Club Newsletter