Better performance: Nathan Fillion as Caleb or Sarah Michelle Gellar as The First Evil?

Technically SMG was playing the big bad, Nathan Fillion was playing the Dragon.

I'm going to go with Nathan Fillion for the fact that he only had a short amount of time to bring Caleb to life and make the audience root for his demise whereas SMG had practically all season as the First.
 
Its a tough call. Guess SMG as the First Evil wasn't given a lot of screen time. She was great but I would give the edge to Fillion just.
 
To be honest, I don't like Caleb or The First as Buffy. However, I think my problem with Caleb is in the writing and not Nathan Fillion, but my problem with The First as Buffy is in both the writing, and the bland, unconvincing acting on Sarah's part. I rarely have problems with Sarah's acting but being the villain isn't her strongest suit.
 
I'm not a fan of Nathan Fillion, I think his acting can be very bland and I don't understand the hype he gets. Yes, he's great as Mal Reynolds, but everything else I've seen him in he's been average, as far as I'm concerned.

I'll give the edge to SMG, mainly because she's SMG and I think she's flawless, but it bothered me in the few eps where Buffy had a hoarse voice, like she had was suffering a cold, and The First suspiciously had the same affliction. If SMG really was ill during the end of that season, as many reports suggest, I think it could have been wiser to have another character play The First in those scenes, instead of putting double duty on SMG and ruining he continuity.
 
Carrie Hopewell said:
To be honest, I don't like Caleb or The First as Buffy. However, I think my problem with Caleb is in the writing and not Nathan Fillion, but my problem with The First as Buffy is in both the writing, and the bland, unconvincing acting on Sarah's part. I rarely have problems with Sarah's acting but being the villain isn't her strongest suit.
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Don't really agree with either point. And to be fair if you watch SMG in Cruel Intentions she proves that she can play a Villain very well. In fact, her performance as the First is a bit like that. Its very icy, and cocky. Think she did it really well. When you look at certain other moments during the series like Buffy acting out of character in When She was Bad or the classic example of her playing Faith in S4 then I think she really excels in the more sinister or unlikeable role.
 
Lyri said:
I'm not a fan of Nathan Fillion, I think his acting can be very bland and I don't understand the hype he gets. Yes, he's great as Mal Reynolds, but everything else I've seen him in he's been average, as far as I'm concerned.

I'll give the edge to SMG, mainly because she's SMG and I think she's flawless, but it bothered me in the few eps where Buffy had a hoarse voice, like she had was suffering a cold, and The First suspiciously had the same affliction. If SMG really was ill during the end of that season, as many reports suggest, I think it could have been wiser to have another character play The First in those scenes, instead of putting double duty on SMG and ruining he continuity.
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To me playing deadpan like that but having comic timing to go with it is a skill very few actors master. I'd say Caleb was a nice change of pace for Fillion. Yes he was still quite deadpan but he had more menace than Fillion's normal parts.
 
Mr Trick said:
In fact, her performance as the First is a bit like that. Its very icy, and cocky. Think she did it really well. When you look at certain other moments during the series like Buffy acting out of character in When She was Bad or the classic example of her playing Faith in S4 then I think she really excels in the more sinister or unlikeable role.
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Sarah's performance as The First was uninspired. She wasn't scary or cold, it was just the usual performance for that type of character. The bad writing didn't help. I only watched the S4 Faith episodes once and I wasn't impressed. Her flirtation with Spike or the bathroom scene didn't look one bit like Faith and I don't think Faith looked like Buffy either. I like Sarah in "When She Was Bad" but she wasn't unlikable or sinister. She was being colder than usual, while still being Buffy. SMG was very sexy and standoffish when she wasn't trying to be the cliched bad girl ('When She Was Bad', 'Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered').
 
Carrie Hopewell said:
Sarah's performance as The First was uninspired. She wasn't scary or cold, it was just the usual performance for that type of character. The bad writing didn't help. I only watched the S4 Faith episodes once and I wasn't impressed. Her flirtation with Spike or the bathroom scene didn't look one bit like Faith and I don't think Faith looked like Buffy either. I like Sarah in "When She Was Bad" but she wasn't unlikable or sinister. She was being colder than usual, while still being Buffy. SMG was very sexy and standoffish when she wasn't trying to be the cliched bad girl ('When She Was Bad', 'Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered').
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Well I didn't see anything wrong with the writing of her as the First either, but putting that aside I think she was much more subtle than you are giving her credit for. That's one of the hardest things for an actor play.

Disagree strongly I think its a great episode😉 What are you talking about? The point of the episode is not Buffy and Faith looking like each other. They've swapped bodies. Whoever said they looked like each other? They purposly look different because Faith is meant to be the anti-Buffy. The alternative Slayer.

I'd say she was being unlikeable a bit. She came off as quite full of herself and the way she treated Angel and Xander came off like that. Hey when Cordy is noticing your attitude then it must be bad😉 Good point on her still being Buffy but a bit colder.

Well I don't think there's anything cliched about her performance in WSWB like you said it was a subtle mix of her nomal persona mixed with a more spikey, and cold one. That is why the episode works so well. You don't figure out at first that Buffy is different and acting out of character, and her change during the episode feels very natural. In BB&B she is under a spell and it is played as comedy. Don't think you can really count that one.
 
Mr Trick said:
Well I didn't see anything wrong with the writing of her as the First either, but putting that aside I think she was much more subtle than you are giving her credit for. That's one of the hardest things for an actor play.
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If I were to count the amount of times the word "Bitch" is used 🙄. The First seemed like one of the easiest characters that SMG had to play on Buffy.

Mr Trick said:
The point of the episode is not Buffy and Faith looking like each other. They've swapped bodies. Whoever said they looked like each other? They purposly look different because Faith is meant to be the anti-Buffy. The alternative Slayer.
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I didn't say they had to physically look like each other. Faith needed to act and behave like Buffy and vice-versa and I think both actresses failed.

Mr Trick said:
In BB&B she is under a spell and it is played as comedy. Don't think you can really count that one.
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I meant that BB&B is an example of an episode were Buffy is seductive and it works. Her seduction of Spike in Who Are You didn't work well for me.
 
Carrie Hopewell said:
I didn't say they had to physically look like each other. Faith needed to act and behave like Buffy and vice-versa and I think both actresses failed.
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Not necessarily. The actresses had to play the other character trying to play their character rather than a straight Buffy is now Faith and vice versa. It's a bit like AH play regular Willow and Vamp Willow separately then having to play regular Willow trying to play Vamp Willow and Vamp Willow trying to play regular Willow.
 
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I'd say Nathan as Caleb, he was pretty convincing as a bad guy. I don't think SMG got much to do as The First. There wasn't any real standout scenes of her appearing as The First. I thought she was used well in the narrative sense but I don't think she was creepy or evil. It would have been cool to see The First as Buffy appear to each of the Scoobies. That would put a better explanation on her sudden eviction from her own house.
 
Nathan Fillion as Caleb. He was so despicable that I actually worried I wouldn't be able to like Malcolm Reynolds when I came to watch Firefly for the first time. I mean, Caleb's a one-note villain (he's only got a few episodes at it is) but he plays that note well enough, and he makes his mark...

SMG as The First was...well, at least she seemed to be enjoying it more than she was at being Buffy at that point. There was some spark in that performance.
 
Nathan, I enjoyed him as Caleb, he brought something likeable to a despicable character. SMG did what... stand around and monologue with her arms folded across her chest? Usually I think she's flawless, but here it felt bland. Like maybe they shouldn't have made her play two characters, and maybe they should've ponied up some money for someone else to be the First.
 
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