Date: June 2002
Price: £2.80
Page Count: 52
Editor: Darryl Curtis
Stake Out
As this issue went to press, the final episodes of Season Six wrapped filming, and news was particularly thin on the ground, mainly due to SPOILERS!
This season, more than any other, had been plagued by leaks and issues. Nothing about the season so far had remained secret for those who knew where to look and when the notes for Seeing Red came in – down to the detail in the opening – we spoiler-fans went into meltdown.
We couldn’t believe it. While sites like SpoilerSlayer.com (archived here) began talking of a possible magical reversal at the end of the season, we clung to hope. But, sure enough as time ticked on, we saw it all unfold as Warren entered that back garden, gun in hand…
Of course, that was still three weeks away – and the magazine couldn’t say anything else about the episode apart from comment on location filming at the Six Flags Magic mountain theme park. It was also confirmed that the Firefly pilot had taken show creator Joss Whedon away from the finale completely – now, not only would he not direct it, but he wouldn’t write it either. But the other writers had the utmost faith in their abilities and Whedon himself said that Villains freaked him out ‘with the tears and excitement.’ Mutant Enemy script writer Steven DeKnight warned us all to trust the show’s producers. “I sure do,” he said, not sounding particularly sure of himself…
Over in La La Land, David Greenwalt was keen to get Angel and Cordelia together. “I’ve been dying to do the scene where Angel turns to a woman and says, ‘You know, I can’t know perfect happiness, but that doesn’t mean you can’t,” he told TV Guide.
This month also followed the cast of both series at the Bronze’s Annual Posting Board party, where the cast and crew partied with fans to raise money for charity.
Dark Angel? by Abbie Bernstein
David Boreanaz, talking as he completed filming for Season Three of Angel, tells Buffy Magazine about his character’s new challenges, what goes on behind the scenes and the series’ journey to establish it’s own feel and identity.
David Boreanaz is easy to pick out in a crowd – which is lucky considering the large gathering of stars, producers, writers, and journalists at the Warner Bros. TV party for the Television Critics Association in Pasadena, California. For one thing, there’s David’s height, which puts him literally head and shoulders above most of the people around him. Then there’s his style: the upswept hair and dark jacket make him look a lot like his onscreen persona, the title character on Angel.
However, there’s one big difference between David and Angel that’s immediately detectable. Angel, as everybody knows, is a vampire with a soul who suffers from a tragic curse that will cause him to become evil if he experiences a moment of true happiness. David, on the other hand, glows with good cheer and contentment, seeming not the least bit wicked as he talks about his work on a panel with Angel‘s executive producer David Greenwalt.
Angel has gone through a lot of changes since we first met him back in the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. At various times, he’s been a guilt-stricken noble outcast on a quest for redemption, a totally evil badass, and lately, a more friendly fellow with a goofy sense of humour and a strong paternal streak. Does David prefer playing any one side of Angel to the others?
“I really don’t,” the actor says sincerely. “For me, it’s just whatever works at the time.” He compares playing Angel to painting. “What’s great about it is that there’s a good palette to it,” he muses. “I tend to just roll with the different character types I can play or create, so for me, it’s a refreshing thing not to like one or the other. I really like them all the same.”
David Greenwalt observes that he likes it when Angel shows his flaws by being cheap or jumping in the wrong car.
“I love that,” agrees David Boreanaz.
David firmly believes that Angel has changed along with its hero, but feels it may now be finding its permanent tone. “It’s progressed considerably from what it was in the beginning and how it was kind of searching – what were these characters actually doing in the big city, in Los Angeles? In the middle of the second season, we came across what the show probably really is.
“To me, the third season really is where we’re going, what we’re going to do, because everything just fell into place from day one of Season Three. The characters are all strong, they each have their own identity, and they’re each going on their own paths. But all of those paths are going to the core, which is hopefully Angel’s salvation – or something different,” he adds, not wanted to appear to be making any plot predictions. “We’ve had the blessing of great writers and everybody who works on the show itself.”
One tough aspect of playing a vampire is wearing the prosthetic ‘game face’ that Angel sports when he’s feeling especially angry, bloodthirsty or just making a point. David says the make-up has gotten easier to deal with over time – and indeed, he wishes Angel would vamp out more often.
David beckons over his friend and co-star Andy Hallett, who spends three-and-a-half hours in the make-up chair every working day in order to become the amiable karaoke host Lorne. “Andy’s got to go through more of the make-up that I do,” he says sympathetically. “He’s got to wear a big piece of fig leave on his face with red cherries on his forehead. He’s great.”
Something David doesn’t think will happen is a romantic reunion between Angel and Buffy, however much fans lobby for it to happen. “If you actually saw those two characters get back together, it would be so different from what Buffy has done and where Angel is. It probably wouldn’t even work,” he points out. “I don’t know – it’s a strange thing.”
David seems genuinely surprised to learn of the recent developments in Buffy’s private life, however. “This is the first I’ve heard of Buffy and Spike being together. I’m serious!” he insists. As for a potential relationship between Angel and Cordelia – or anyone else – David isn’t sure whether any activity there would trigger the curse or not. “Who’s to say that if a consummation happens it really is true happiness? I mean, we don’t know until we’re there in the moment.”
As far as David’s concerned, the Buffy and Angel series are now very seperate, creatively different entities which are successful in their own right. “When I signed up for Buffy‘s first season, I was a recurring character, so I was kind of hanging out in the shadows. Now I’m able to actually drive cars around and have a life as a character in a big city, which is fantastic. So I don’t look at the show Angel as, ‘It needs Buffy.’ I’m very proud and pleased to stand here and represent Angel along with the co-creator David Greenwalt, and say that we’ve worked really hard to get to this point. We have a lot more work to do, because I feel it’s just a scratch on the surface.”
As the star of Angel, David has the opportunity to offer his own input into the series’ progression, but he admits that he generally leaves the plot developments to the producers and writers. “The way I started the show, and how I see it going, I let that be put in the hands of the creators,” he says. “It’s like, ‘Okay, I kind of understand where it’s going, but I don’t feed into it.’ I just let it happen. I mean there are certain things that we will say and do in real life that these guys will take on and say, ‘Hey, that would be a funny scene,’ and you’ll find it in the next script. It’s funny, because when they allow you to do that, it opens up real-life experiences and leads to an onscreen genuine moment which shines, and that’s a blessing to have.
“I’m just very pleased at the place I’m in right now, creatively,” he concludes. “I think it’s going to be a very interesting end to this season and a flourishing year. So I’m very excited about things that are coming up.”
Sweet Harmony by Rob Francis
She may have fled Los Angeles after facing the wrath of best friend Cordy, but Mercedes McNab was eager to talk all about playing the blondest, ditsiest vamp of them all!
Harmony Kendall is a former key member of the Cordettes, a group of High School snobs famously described by Angel as “The Soviet Secret Police if they cared a lot about shoes.” Now a vampire, and for a time, Buffy’s self-appointed arch-nemesis, the ditzy blonde has been brought to life since the show’s pilot episode by actress Mercedes McNab.
Daughter of 1970s English football player Bob McNab, Mercedes has been acting professionally since she was 11. Her initial brush with comedy horror saw her appearing in the first two Addams Family feature films, before entering the world of Joss Whedon in 1996 in Buffy‘s unaired pilot episode.
Like Julie Benz (Darla) and Elizabeth Anne Allen (Amy), Mercedes was initially interested in another role. “I originally auditioned for the part of Buffy,” she reveals. “But they liked me and brought me in for the part of Harmony.”
In retrospect, from a character point of view, would you have preferred to play Harmony or Buffy?
I don’t know. I love my character and think she’s so much fun to play and has developed so well over the last couple of seasons. In the beginning, her character was pretty one-sided, but now that she’s been turned into a vampire I feel that there are a lot more facets to her and she’s a lot more fun to play. So, I would choose my character. I’m a little biased though!
Can you tell us your reaction when you were originally told that Harmony was to become a vampire?
Well, I used to read the scripts and everyone was dying from left to right and I thought, “Gosh, it’s only a matter of time before my character dies.” So, when I was turned into a vampire, I was actually really excited that I wasn’t officially dead. I still had a chance to come back in the show. I didn’t know, when I was turned into a vampire, that I’d be around so much after that. At first I was just relieved…
Was it all planned out, or was Harmony bitten on a whim when they staged the battle in ‘Graduation Day’?
No, it was planned. It was scripted. Joss is the mastermind.
If you hadn’t been vamped, do you think there would still be a place for Harmony on Buffy?
I think the character was a little boring before she became a vampire. She was just a dumb, bitchy girl at school. She’s gained strength as a vampire, so had she been left human, it would have gotten stale and not as funny as it is now.
When you’re in full make-up, how do you feel seeing that vampire face staring back at you in the mirror?
I can’t look at it. It really irks me. It’s scary because it looks like me but it’s really deformed and weird. When you put the eyes and the teeth in, it’s like you really are a different being. My friends come on the set, and of course it’s always the days when I have the vampire face on. Half the time they will look at me and say, ‘I can’t stay here and look at you like that ‘cos it’s so scary!” In real life it’s almost scarier than it is on television.
Are there any particular things you’d like to see the character do?
One thing is that in every episode Harmony either scampers away, runs away, or hides and then runs away. I’d like to see her stand her ground one time and not scamper away. Just once. Hopefully that doesn’t mean she dies at the same time.
Having now worked on Buffy and Angel, can you tell us the differences between working on both shows?
With Buffy, the cast generally has a younger feel to it, as everyone’s been around a bit longer, everyone’s used to the way it goes. So it’s faster paced.
On Angel, there’s an older feel. It’s a little bit more mature. For me – I’m 21 years old – I can definitely feel the difference, Plus they haven’t been hanging out together quite as long as the Buffy cast have. So it’s new and not so hard to break through. But when I’ve been gone from Angel for a while and I’ve come back, I’ve found that it’s not so disorientating. It’s easier to be back on set without having been there for a while.
Do you think you will see Buffy through to the end now?
I love the show and have so much fun every time I go there. I love the people, so I would definitely stick it out to the end if I could. They’ve been so loyal to me that I can only return the favour.
Golden Years
Buffy novelist, comic book writer and author Christopher Golden talks about his latest Buffy adventures, including the four-part mini series The Lost Slayer.
Comic
This strip is labelled as Invasion (Part 1), material from Buffy the Vampire Slayer #32.
Poster
A Season Two Angel promo of David Boreanaz as Angel.
The Watcher's Guide 