Playing the Anorak Pack by Abbie Bernstein

In the scene currently being played out, young sorcerers Jonathan, Warren and Andrew are filled with dread. After all, vampire Spike is in their lair, threatening to rip off the head… of their prized Boba Fett figure.
    Between takes, actors Danny Strong, Adam Busch and Tom Lenk are as animated as their characters, but in considerably higher spirits.
    Danny Strong, who plays Jonathan, has been with Buffy since it’s inception: “I actually did the original pilot presentation that never aired, as ‘student,’” he reveals. “But I didn’t appear as Jonathan until Season 2.”
    Tom Lenk, who plays Andrew, previously appeared in ‘Real Me,’ but as another character: “I was a vampire named Cyrus, part of Harmony’s gang,” he explains. “And I got killed off. But they brought me back as a completely new entity.”
    Adam Busch’s Warren was introduced last season, in ‘I Was Made to Love You’. “I built a robot,” he reminds us. “And now we’ve teamed up to wreak havoc.”
    The Trio had no idea ahead of time that their mutual plotline was in the works, although, as Danny points out, there was no reason to think they wouldn’t be back: “Jonathan was always left open-ended, as I could be up to no good again.”
    “And I was dead,” Tom adds.
    “So we didn’t really think it was gonna happen,” Danny continues, mock earnestly, “because we knew if Tom was dead, there was no way.”
    Although he’d already been hired, Adam says he first heard details of his sixth season subplot from a fan. “Buffy fans know what I’m doing,” he says. “Somebody stopped me in the Whole Food Market in Hollywood and said, ‘Oh, you were on last season. That’s cool, you’re coming back now.’
    “I said, ‘Yeah, I just found out.’
    “He said, ‘Yeah, you’re teaming up with Jonathan!’
    “I was like, ‘Really?!’”
    Away from Buffy, Danny and Tom are both writers as well as actors. Danny has a pair of screenplays in the works, while Tom is currently starring in a play he’s written, Save Me From My Sister. The two California-bred performers studied acting in college. Danny then went to USC, while Tom attended UCLA, two institutions whose football teams are bitter rivals. This makes the two guys “arch-enemies,” they chorus.
    A native New Yorker, Adam performs with rock band Common Rotation when he’s not acting. He began his career as a youngster in children’s television and was a regular on three seasons of The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo. According to Adam, the Trio’s debut as a group in ‘Flooded’ established a bond both on and off screen. “I think it’s really funny that the first scene that we ever did together was the first scene we did.”
    “The first episode definitely defined our relationship,” Tom agrees.
    “The best thing,” Adam recalls, “was that the first scene was of us all playing Dungeons & Dragons, and we all sat down and we’re like, ‘We don’t know how to play Dungeons & Dragons,’” he laughs. “Somebody said, ‘Roll that, move that.’ And we said, ‘Okay!’”
    “That’s not true,” Danny maintains, straight-faced. “Adam knew. He’s just trying to be cooler than he is.”
    They turn more serious when it comes to discussing how they play comedy, however. Although the characters ‘are there on the page,’ as Danny puts it, the actors are allowed a fair amount of leeway in their portrayal of the characters. “We’ll come up with stuff,” he explains. “The directors will come up with stuff, and we’ll just decide what is the funniest.”
    “Whatever makes the crew laugh,” Tom adds.

Jonathan and Warren have undergone some changes since they were first introduced. “Jonathan is being written a different way,” Danny observes, “because it’s more about the Trio and less about the individual character. Before, Jonathan was the shy, really awkward, soft-spoken guy who eventually lost it.”
    “We’re much more evil now,” Adam adds.
    Danny agrees. “I think Jonathan’s more aggressive, a lot less insecure and fumbling. I think we empower each other. To a certain extent, I feel like what Tom’s doing as Andrew is almost taking the role of what Jonathan used to be on the show. Although Andrew’s a lot stranger than Jonathan ever was. With us together, there’s a lot more confidence and a lot more ability to get things done.”
    “We’re sort of like the Three Stooges,” Tom concludes. “Their full power is not measured until all three of them are together.”

Cheese the One by Abbie Bernstein

Actors often explore the backgrounds of the characters they play. Elizabeth Anne Allen‘s Amy turned herself into a rat in the episode ‘Gingerbread’, so when the actress was asked to return to the role three years later, she duly researched the nature of rodents.
    “I found out that rats are very social creatures and they’re never supposed to be alone,” Elizabeth explains between set-ups of a scene in which Amy and Willow wreak magical mischief at the Bronze. “Keeping rats alone is like keeping a human in solitary confinement.” However, the writers have taken this into account. “They’re conscious of the fact that being a rat for a few years could really mess with somebody’s mental state,” she admits.
    Amy was first introduced as the magically abused daughter of an evil, cheerleader-obsessed mother in the first season episode ‘Witch.’ But Elizabeth had an introduction to Buffy even earlier. “I auditioned for the pilot and tested for the role of Buffy,” she reveals, “Joss liked me and brought me back for Amy and I just kept coming back from there,” she says.
    The actress returned for the comedy season two episode ‘Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered’ and season three’s ‘Gingerbread,’ and makes a very brief cameo in ‘Something Blue,’ when Willow unknowingly breaks the spell momentarily, turning Amy into a human for just a few moments.
    The character of Amy has changed a good deal since Elizabeth first played her in season one – and we’re not just referring to her temporary fetish for cheese and damp, dark places. “When I first came in as Amy, I did a lot of research on the Wicca,” Elizabeth recalls, “but she’s not really followed the Wiccan belief system as it’s written. She’s taken advantage of a lot of powers and put them to her use. That’s probably why she’s been a rat for three years – it’s just bad karma!” she laughs.
    It may seem odd to viewers that Amy is suddenly returned to human form in Buffy‘s sixth season after being a rodent for so long. According to Elizabeth, however, the show’s producers always hoped to bring back the character in her original form, but were waiting for an opportunity which would suit everyone involved. “I wasn’t available earlier and they had a lot of people that they had storylines for,” she explains. “It just seemed to come together nicely at this present time. It worked out for all of us.”
    Elizabeth’s favourite Buffy episode so far is ‘Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.’ “There’s a scene where Nicky Brendon walks down the hall, they’re playing this music and all the women are just completely enthralled and in love with him,” she recalls. “It was just the best – his facial expression was classic. Plus, I got to cast a lot of spells.
    “Amy’s gone through a number of things and it’s really taken an emotional toll on her,” Elizabeth says, summing up her character. “Now she’s just sowing some wild oats, trying to get all this out of her system. I suppose it’s like she’s having her adolescence now, since she’s missed a whole bunch of it. I missed the prom – that’s wretched!”
    Being back on Buffy, however, is quite the opposite. “I love it here,” she enthuses. “It’s so much fun!”