What are they doing now?

[dan k]

I am not saying they are not good actors i'am saying that i am surprised they are all still persuing an acting career. You would think they might have drifted onto something different like Amber Benson has with books for instance.

 

[Lyri]

Amber Benson is still acting, she's just writing on the side, something she's done for years, including during her time on BtVS. She even wrote a comic for the Tales of the Slayers graphic novel, and a web-seies with fellow writer Christopher Golden.

I don't understand why you would be expecting those people, out of the hundreds of actors who starred on the shows, to have 'moved on' to something else. This is their career, and they are damn good at it, too.

Out of everyone who appeared on the shows, the only person I know who is not actively perusing an acting career anymore is Robia Lamorte, who played Jenny Calender. She's become a born again Christian, or something similar, and now works as a Christian counselor, taking small commercial roles when she feels the need, which, apparently, isn't often.

 

[dan k]

I understand what you are saying. I just didn't imagine so many of them would still be acting. I'am not just referring to those who played Riley, Kendra and Gunn etc. The series ended about 7 years ago in my head i just imagined a few would have gone onto different things like you said about Robia. I don't think that is so hard to understand. I'am not critcising those actors i thought they did great jobs. :smile3:

 

[Lyri]

Okay, I'm not meaning to be rude here, I just want you to understand how this sounds to US.

. I don't think that is so hard to understand. I'm not critcising those actors i thought they did great jobs. :smile3:

That bolded part? Where you say you're not criticizing the actors? That's EXACTLY what it sounds like. Robia was an exception, not the rule. Acting is, more often than not, the ONLY thing that these people know. People like Sarah, Michelle, Alyson, they've been doing this their ENTIRE LIVES. They never went to college, they don't have degrees to fall back on.

To me, it's surprising when actors turn to something else, not that they're still doing it just because a show ended a while ago. They have to make a living, and acting is, for the majority of them, the only thing they know how to do.

 

[dan k]

Perhaps i didn't explain myself properly, didn't get across what i wanted to say. I mentioned characters like Gunn, Riley, Kendra because they were not in the show very long and i hadn't seen them in anything since. Therefore i thought maybe they had stopped acting. That doesn't mean i didn't see them as good actors but presumed after Buffy they might have taken up something else they are interested in.

Of course i knew people like Sarah Michelle and Alyson hadn't stopped acting because they are high profile people and its easy to hear about what they are doing. Add to the fact they are more successful and in the case of both SMG and Ayson exceptional actors. Acting is their life. That's probably also the case for the characters i mentioned but because they aren't as high profile its hard to know if they have degrees, are interested in something else.

That's why i found it interesting when i found out they were working because i hadn't seen them in anything else and didn't know much about them.

Does that make sense?

 

[Lyri]

Yes, it makes sense, but to me, your logic is slightly flawed.

You say that you expected Alyson and Sarah to still be acting, as they were the most high profile members of the cast, yes?

Well, out of the main cast members, Sarah, Alyson, Michelle, James, and David, Sarah is arguably the actor who has had the LEAST amount of success since leaving the show, while Alyson and David have had the most success. The majority of Sarah's movie roles have gone straight to DVD and then disappeared into obscurity, and her latest role, a pilot for a new show, wasn't picked up. Just because she was the star of the show, doesn't mean she'll have the most success afterwards.

An actor who was in only ONE episode of Angel has just been nominated for an Oscar. Just because they were only in a handful of episodes doesn't mean they haven't been in something you might not have seen, or aren't interested in watching.

 

[dan k]

I take your point but at first it seemed as if you thought i didn't think they were good actors and that certaintly isn't what i was trying to say. For me it was just simply a case of instinctively looking at the stars of the show and believing they would go to other roles, yet with the lesser known actors i wasn't so sure.

In the case of SMG, Alyson, David, James, Antony, i would think it would have been easier for them to stay acting because they were more established and were what made the show successful. That's not to say that the lesser known actors wouldn't have continued to act but i would assume they would find it more difficult to get roles because they didn't appear on the show for long.

You mentioned the person getting an Oscar in Angel who wasn't high profile i would assume they found it more difficult to get roles then the names i just mentioned. Nevertheless by winning an Oscar they must have been a skilled actor i never doubted that about the characters i mentioned. I was just interested in finding out about the less established actors.

I also think its logical to assume that the more high profile actors would be the most successful. Of course that's sometimes not the case but in hindsight you'd think well after Buffy, SMG would be more successful than Marc Blucas for instance because she was the star of the show and made more of an impact with fans worldwide, hence more people would want to have her in their movie or TV series.

 

[Lyri]

Actually, I think you have that a little backwards.

BtVS was a great show, WE loved it. But many people didn't, including a lot of high-profile directors and producers. They might not want the tag lines to their movies being 'it stars the chick who was on Buffy'.

I agree that the show was great television, otherwise, why am I here? But there are people who DON'T think that, and think that it was a stupid kids show, so why would they want someone who was part of that for the entirety of its run on their movie? I'm sure that's one of the reasons why everyone who was a main cast member has stuck to television work rather than trying movies. With the exception of Seth Green, who already had a well established movie career before he joined the show.

Sarah was in trouble of being type-cast as the blonde super-hero, which is why she chose roles like The Grudge and Veronica Decides To Die, and died her hair brown, because she wanted to distance herself from the role as much as possible.

 

[Kean]

I think the problem here is assuming that the actors involvement in the Buffyverse was somehow a pinnacle moment in their careers. It wasn't. Lets just take Bianca Lawson, she had appeared on countless shows before and after Buffy, infact many people who would be familiar with her as an actor would have no idea that she was ever on Buffy. I'd wager most know her from Saved By the Bell, Dawson's Creek and Save the Last Dance.

For the majority of these actors Buffy was just another job, it was hardly the culmination of anyone's career, nor does the the significance of their roles in the verse have any reflection on the merit of their careers as a whole.

Fact of the matter is that while the Buffyverse seems like an immense community to us, the majority of people are not familiar with it, least of all of the lesser characters. What the actors did on Buffy has absolutely noindication what they did/would do afterwards.

 

[dan k]

Again can understand what your saying and maybe your right about even the high profile stars finding it hard to get work yet i still believe they would have found it easier in comparison to people like Riley and Kendra whose role in the show didn't do a lot for their acting career.

Would be interesting to know to look at people like Danny Strong, Marc Blucas, the actor who played Kendra and look at their careers and compare them to the more established stars. I'd be very surprised if they went on to have more success then the people who were there from the beginning.

Like i said before i think it is natural to assume that the actors who were popular with the fans would be more likely to get other roles even if they were typecast.

 

[Mumrik]

I also think its logical to assume that the more high profile actors would be the most successful. Of course that's sometimes not the case but in hindsight you'd think well after Buffy, SMG would be more successful than Marc Blucas for instance because she was the star of the show and made more of an impact with fans worldwide, hence more people would want to have her in their movie or TV series.

But the fans aren't the people casting her for roles. Whether SMG likes it or not, Buffy was the role of her career and distancing herself from it like she did probably wasn't her smartest move. I can very well imagine that casting agents would shy away from her for exactly that, thinking, well, what if we make her successful and she does the same thing to us she did back then?

I really doubt you'd have seen SMG in anything new over the past few years - much like the actors that you mentioned who had smaller roles - if you haven't specifically seeked them out.

She isn't "mainstream" high profile like Alyson Hannigan, David Boreanaz, Michelle Trachtenberg or Anthony Head (well, I don't think he's high profile in the US?) have gone on to be, she's only high profile to us because she was the star of our show, so, of course, we pay more attention to her, when in reality, she hasn't really been in more for the last few years than, say, Alexa Davalos (Gwen) or J. August Richards (Gunn) and she hasn't really worked on anything else either, like other a little lower maintenance people, like Felicia Day, Tom Lenk and Amber Benson did.

 

[Kean]

Again can understand what your saying and maybe your right about even the high profile stars finding it hard to get work yet i still believe they would have found it easier in comparison to people like Riley and Kendra whose role in the show didn't do a lot for their acting career.

Would be interesting to know to look at people like Danny Strong, Marc Blucas, the actor who played Kendra and look at their careers and compare them to the more established stars. I'd be very surprised if they went on to have more success then the people who were there from the beginning.

Like i said before i think it is natural to assume that the actors who were popular with the fans would be more likely to get other roles even if they were typecast.

Danny Strong is having, arguably, one the greatest careers of all the Buffyverse actors. He's had a string of extablished roles, most notably on Gilmore Girls but most recently he has been writing and won a couple of Emmy's last year for his mini-series John Adams. Alot of very high profile names were involved in that, Matt Damon springs to mind.

---------- Post added at 07:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:12 PM ----------

Also, I'm wondering how you know being on Buffy didn't do anything for the actors you mentioned careers?

 

[xaphania]

Would be interesting to know to look at people like Danny Strong, Marc Blucas, the actor who played Kendra and look at their careers and compare them to the more established stars. I'd be very surprised if they went on to have more success then the people who were there from the beginning.

IIRC, Danny Strong was there from the beginning - the unaired pilot, anyway. I think he writes for tv and film, now.

 

[dan k]

After reading Kean's post well i can see where she is coming from. Perhaps my attachment to the show is blinding me in that regard. I was just saying what i felt though. It is hard to believe that some people didn't view Buffy in the way the fans viewed the show.

---------- Post added at 07:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:16 PM ----------

In regard to Danny Strong i know he was there in the beginning but he was a bit part character in most of the seasons of the show. It surprises me he has had so much success. When i said being on Buffy wouldn't have done much for there careers, well i just presumed that having a small role in the series wouldn't have endeared them into having other bigger roles. That was naive of me i accept that :smile3:

After hearing about Danny Strong i was obviously wrong about that but that's why i started the thread. I wanted to know how people like Danny and the lesser known characters were getting on. The original point made was that by saying how i was interested in these characters i was saying they were bad actors which wasn't the case.

---------- Post added at 07:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:20 PM ----------

After reading what Kean has said it has become obvious that the Buffyverse didn't have an impact in terms of who would be most successful in the future. Would people have thought though that this would be the case? I would have thought its natural to assume the stars of the show would go on and be more successful.

 

[Mumrik]

After reading Kean's post well i can see where she is coming from. Perhaps my attachment to the show is blinding me in that regard. I was just saying what i felt though. It is hard to believe that some people didn't view Buffy in the way the fans viewed the show.

---------- Post added at 07:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:16 PM ----------

In regard to Danny Strong i know he was there in the beginning but he was a bit part character in most of the seasons of the show. It surprises me he has had so much success. When i said being on Buffy wouldn't have done much for there careers, well i just presumed that having a small role in the series wouldn't have endeared them into having other bigger roles.

But why not? One role on one show, movie, no matter how beloved, is in no way an indication of a career.

Look at Summer Glau - she started out as a ballerina who didn't even have lines on Angel and went on to star in Firefly, The 4400 and T:TSC and that are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head and I highly doubt that's the end of her career.

Let's take a non-Buffyverse, really high profile example: Johnny Depp had a role in Nightmare on Elm Street where he had about two scenes and killed off quickly. Going by the logic you're using, if you were a NOEM fan, that boy couldn't have gotten too far, surely? And, well, I don't think I have to spell out his career.

 

[Kean]

Honestly? I've never thought that about the Buffyverse, I don't know why, maybe because I have seen so many of the actors in so many different roles.

It's sort of like the whole Take That assumption. Everyone assumed that Gary Barlow was going to be the next George Michael. Instead Barlow has one hit song and Robbie Williams, who was essentially a back up dancer in the group, becomes the biggest male artist in Europe and wrote what is arguably the most loved song of our generation.

When it comes to music/acting/writing what you have done before really is no indication of what you can do.

---------- Post added at 07:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:36 PM ----------

But why not? One role on one show, movie, no matter how beloved, is in no way an indication of a career.

Look at Summer Glau - she started out as a ballerina who didn't even have lines on Angel and went on to star in Firefly, The 4400 and T:TSC and that are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head and I highly doubt that's the end of her career.

Let's take a non-Buffyverse, really high profile example: Johnny Depp had a role in Nightmare on Elm Street where he had about two scenes and killed off quickly. Going by the logic you're using, if you were a NOEM fan, that boy couldn't have gotten too far, surely? And, well, I don't think I have to spell out his career.

Or look at Hilary Swank, she was in the Buffy movie (which really is garbage) and now has two Oscars to her name, while Kirstie Swanson who was the star of that movie is wallowing in obscurity.

 

[dan k]

My view has been completely squashed i can admit that. What can i say i just imagined in my mind that SMG would go and have more success. At least i know now how the others are getting on which was the point of the thread.

 

[Lyri]

I would have thought its natural to assume the stars of the show would go on and be more successful.

I don't think that necessarily true.

Sarah was the star of the show, yes, but she was definitely NOT the best actor on that show, as her limited success has proved. More times than not, people like Eliza, Michelle and James completely blew her out of the water. Joss himself said he gave Sarah 'sad scenes' because she was better at crying than she was at laughing. Surely a 'good' actor should be accomplished at both, and the director/writer/producer wouldn't say something like that about her?

Oh, and other 'bit part' actor I found, Carmine Giovinazzo was killed off during the opening scene of 'Welcome to the Hellmouth' (he was the guy Darla snacked on, who eventually fell out of Aura's locker) and he's now a series regular on CSI:NY.

 

[dan k]

SMG is superb in Buffy. I can't understand why you'd think Eliza, James or Michelle were superior to her. What did she do wrong? She played Buffy tremendously for 8 years.

 

[Lyri]

I didn't say she did anything wrong, or that I thought she was a bad actress. I thought she played Buffy amazingly well through the whole 7 seasons.

I said I thought there were other people on the show who were better actors than she was. That's just what I thought.