You started your career as an actor, primarily doing comedy/sketch comedy. In Buffy, you were the Mustard Man in "Once More With Feeling." And on Angel, you played a man controlled by evil puppets. If you had been offered a series regular role in Buffy instead of a staff writer position, what role would you create for yourself?
Probably a geek professor at Sunnydale U who stumbles upon the knowledge of the Hellmouth and pathetically attempts to battle the demons on his own.
Or some evil flunky. More like my own life.
What was your inspiration for your first Buffy script "“ "Go Fish"? Did it have anything to do with the masses of women ever so thrilled to see Xander in a Speedo?
I loved the old Universal monster movies growing up. And Buffy had done its take on almost all of them - Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy. My personal favorite as a kid was The Creature From the Black Lagoon.
I was equally inspired by a story by H.P. Lovecraft called "Shadow Over Innsmouth" in which the people of a creepy New England town began to transform into these horrific fish creatures. It naturally fell into a story about the high school swim team and about jock politics.
The original story did not have the creatures killing anyone. It was about them trying to breed and worked as a rape metaphor. David Greenwalt felt there needed to be the death to raise the stakes. And, yes, it was my idea to put Xander undercover on the swim team, hence the Speedo.
That's interesting -- they really took the breeding part out. Feasting, but not really reproducing. And I think many, many people were overjoyed to see Nick Brendon all speedo'd out. So thank you.
You're welcome. I'm not sure Nick was grateful.
In Buffy's season 5, you were fairly adamant that Spike was not redeemable. Then in season 7, you seemed to change your mind, solidifying that when Spike moved over to Angel. What made you change your mind?
Ah, yes, the Spike debate again. It was my personal conviction, based on the show's mythology, that a soul-less vampire like Spike was incapable of being redeemed. Otherwise, Angel having a soul was irrelevant. Spike could be domesticated, sure, he could be conditioned via the chip in his head not to kill, but he was still a soul-less killer. My opinion shifted after two things happened: Spike was given a soul at the end of "Grave," and I began to see that Spike was an anomaly in the vampire world. A small part of William's humanity was left within him after the vampire Spike took over.
Do you think that fighting against that humanity was part of what made Spike particularly evil?
I'm sure it played a large part. Even the Judge said of Spike and Drusilla that their relationship "reeked of humanity," or something like that. That was the first clue. Later, exploring the character in "Grave" and "Lies My Parents Told Me" helped me to come around on Spike.
Is it more rewarding to work on a show that's a massive hit like Lost, or a show that's been on for a while and then hits a stride of high critical acclaim (and good ratings) like Angel's final season?
Frankly, it was a lot more fun to be on a cult show that was highly regarded like Buffy and Angel. When your show's a ratings hit like Lost and 24, everyone feels too pressured. We never really concerned ourselves with ratings at Mutant Enemy. Joss was about doing the show that he loved. Consequently, I think his shows will resonate long after the others are gone...
Season 6 of Buffy does not tend to be the favorite of a lot of fans. From the number of interviews Marti did that year, it seemed that the writers were aware of the fans' frustration. Was the staff aware and what was the general feeling about that?
We're always aware of the fans' feelings, good or bad. But this was the story Joss wanted to tell, and we all understood it. Buffy couldn't just crawl out of her own grave and be fine a few episodes later. Joss felt it would be a cheat. Buffy's ambivalence toward her life, and the people around her, is a common phase many young people go through.
People hated to see her push people away, they didn't like the way she treated Spike - that has nothing to do with the quality of the episodes. There were great ones in there, along with one of Joss' masterpieces: "Once More With Feeling." Many people just didn't dig the darkness. I had the same reaction to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. So I get it.
The Willow's witchcraft equals heroin storyline seemed particularly heavy-handed for a Buffy plot arc. Did the way you tell a story change when the show began attracting a wider audience, outside of the hardcore fans that made it a cult hit?
Perhaps it was heavy-handed. But it was apt. Just as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was. We never changed the way we wrote the show, but sometimes the allegory becomes too overt: Magic equals drugs. You try things, you learn...
Obviously TV is your medium, but do you have any books in the works? Everyone has a story or two kicking around in their heads, and while you're blessed enough to be able to get some of those stories out on to the screen, surely there are some that you haven't been able to tell or that would work better in a printed medium. Have you ever considered it? Or perhaps a concept album? I mean, you did have that glorious "they got the mustard out" solo.
Heh - I've never considered a novel. I leave that medium to better, smarter writers than me. But I do have movie ideas that will see the light of day when I find the time to write them. And maybe a graphic novel. But for now, I'm riding the TV train and its been good to me. It's allowed me to work with brilliant, talented people who've given me a pretty good career. Not ready to jump off the train yet. They may have to throw me off.
I don't think you're in danger of that any time soon. But people may eventually come begging for more Mustard Man.
And, for the record, I am helping develop my wife Elin Hampton's musical. You may hear my sultry voice on a recording yet.
