Green’s Day by Mike Stokes
An interview with Seth Green, conducted before his Season Four exit as a series regular in Wild at Heart. In fact, the interview hints that his exit was not planned.

Like his Buffy alter ego, Seth Green isn’t shy about saying what’s on his mind, and his mind, works quickly.
    He’s a smart guy with an easy smile, and he can wield sarcasm like a cattle prod, but mostly, he’s just really funny, and it translates into his work.
    Green’s career began as a six-year-old in a commercial promoting a John Denver record. By 12, he was playing a young Woody Allen in Radio Days. Now at 24, he’s the veteran of dozens of movies, television shows and commercials. Until recently though, he’s been blessed/cursed as one of those guys you just can’t seem to place.
    “It’s weird. People seem to know me from stuff that I never would expect them to,” he says. “If somebody recognises me, I’m never quite sure what it’s from.”
    “More often than not, I get accused of stuff I just wasn’t in, and when I tell them that I wasn’t in it, they don’t believe me,” he added. “They just go ‘Dude, you were in that Rogaine ad,’ and I say ‘No, I’m an actor, but I wasn’t in that commercial.’ Then they’re like ‘Yes, you were man! What a jerk! Why are you being such a jerk! Let’s kick this guy’s ass!’ So it’s good that I run fast.”
    With roles in blockbusters like Austin Powers 1 & 2, Can’t Hardly Wait and Enemy of the State, Green is in demand.

To die-hard Buffy fans, however, Green is just Oz: Willow’s boyfriend, lead guitar player in Dingoes Ate My Baby, senior with a van that changes colours more often than his hair, and, yes, occasional werewolf-boy. A three episode story-arc has continued to expand, and even though he’s not completely sure what’s in store for Oz, he’s become a full-fledged member of the Scooby Gang and the most popular guy at UC-Sunnydale.
    “The creators are brilliant writers who are incredibly passionate about it,” he says. “I expect this season, we’ll be able to delve a little deeper into the character now that they’ve got the assurance that I’m not going anywhere.”
    Though he says that working on Buffy is very similar to working on a feature film, he appreciates the faster pace of working in television as compared to movies.
    “The nice thing about film is that you have a lot of time to consider things and think about what you’re going to do with the character,” he says. “But on television, you get the opportunity to develop something over time, which Buffy is conscious about doing. The writers create long, long character arcs for people. They set stuff up early on that really pays off later.”
    Another perk Buffy affords Green is the chance to live out his rock-n-roll fantasy whenever Oz’s band is playing the Bronze. He’s no Hendrix, but with the volume turned down, he can thrash and wail with the best of ’em.

    “I’m not really skilled at all,” he says with a laugh. “I can strum a guitar and I know where the notes would be on the neck of the guitar but putting it all together and actually having the dexterity to make a cohesive and favourable sound is not my forte.”
    “I study the music I’m supposed to play with a guy who knows how to play guitar,” he adds.

Seth is also a major movie buff. “I go to see all the movies,” he says. He also has a soft spot in his heart for horror flicks, a passion which especially attracted him to Buffy. “I was in the original movie, but I got cut out because I sucked,” Green says. “Joss didn’t know that, and I  told him after I got the job on the series, but he still doesn’t believe me.”
    But it’s the television version that now tops the list.
    “I think Buffy‘s good and scary, and that’s my favourite thing about it. It’s tongue-in-cheek, but they’re not kidding around with the monsters at all. The monsters are scary, the imagery is creepy and the suspense is genuine.”
    He smiles.
    “That’s what makes it successful in my opinion.”