Date: July 2004
Price: £2.99
Page Count: 52
Editor: Natalie Clubb
Stake Out
Despite the magazine’s new coverage speaking out about plans for the upcoming Buffy the Animated Series, there was nothing much new for Buffy fans as Summer 2004 came to a close.
It had become obvious by now that no former stars from Sunnydale would be joining the Angel team for their last hurrah, but when the news broke that the series had been cancelled, Buffy star Sarah Michelle Gellar briefly gave her thoughts on the decision.
“Buffy had seven great years,” she told Cinescape Magazine. “We were on our own from the beginning, but when it came to the end, it was time. We always said, ‘You gotta go out on top’. You don’t want to go out with people saying, ‘Man, that show should’ve been cancelled years ago.’ And if people say that and then you come back with a great season. But it doesn’t always happen that way. Unfortunately, I think for the first three years, Angel was the lesser Buffy for some reason. And it was an interesting show – it was so dynamic; it was so interesting in its own way. Angel is such a different character to Buffy; David Boreanaz is so different than I am. And it was only, I really feel, like the last year since Buffy‘s been gone, that Angel finally stood on its own. I’m sad that it didn’t get the chance to develop.
“More than anyone, I felt for David,” Sarah continued. “I felt like he’s always sort of been in our shadow. And when I say lesser that’s not my opinion, but that’s definitely the way it was looked at. I sort of looked at the show like, for me, it was a modern day Equalizer. That’s what it was – the anti-hero. And you don’t have shows like that anymore.”
Heads & Tails by Paul Simpson
Anthony Stewart Head is an extremely busy man. Not content with appearing in two West End shows simultaneously, being Prime Minister, and voicing Rupert Giles for the potential Buffy Animated Series, he’s also about to head off and hunt some vampires – in real life! Buffy Magazine caught up with everyone’s favourite Watcher for an exclusive chat about acting, Slaying and the elusive Giles spin-off, Ripper…
End of Days by Joe Nazzaro
Doug Petrie may have moved on to pastures new, but the former Buffy writer, producer and director was happy to reminisce with Buffy Magazine about his time on the show and recall his personal highlights…
Where Are They Now? by Tara DiLullo
Whistler the demon has a lot to answer for. Not only did he set the down-and-out Angel on a path of redemption, he also gave him his first association with the Powers That Be, got him, literally, out of the gutter, and then there was that small matter of introducing Angel to Buffy – the newly chosen Slayer.
Buffy Magazine caught up with Max Perlich, the man behind Whistler, to find out about life away from the mean streets of LA…
Demons have come in all shapes and sizes on Buffy, but very few have been as distinctive as the mysterious Whistler. While he only made brief appearances in the episodes ‘Becoming,’ his mere presence changed the way the Buffyverse categorised demons for the future. Up until that point in the show, demons (aside from Angel) were straight-out evil, solely bent on chaos and destruction. Whistler shook things up when he introduced himself to the pathetic, rat-loving, loner version of Angel back in 1996. He clued Angel up to the fact that there were demons in the world, like himself, working to maintain the balance of good and evil – and they wanted the vamp on their side. After sending Angel to witness Buffy Summers being called to her destiny, Whistler gave Angel the choice to be something more and mentored him into his path of destiny. It was a seminal moment in the show’s history, and for actor Max Perlich, who played the street-wise demon, it was his memorable introduction to the world of genre television.
Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Max explains that coming from a creative family gave him an early appreciation for the arts. “When I was young, my brothers and I would quite extensively entertain our parents with plays. I liked to do plays with different ethnicities or time periods and it carried over to my older years.” Max also credits their family friend, actor Calvin Levels, as a huge influence on his acting vocation. “He gave me my first exposure to New York theatre when I was 13. He took me to an acting class, which was intense, and I was blown away by it.”
Max pursued acting as a profession in Los Angeles and won a bit role as a student in the 1986 film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. He worked steadily in films and a variety of television dramas and sitcoms for the next decade, and was offered the role as Whistler on Buffy in 1998 without even having to audition. “I didn’t know about the show, and none of the shows I had played in before had a hook like Buffy,” he explains. “I had to play a demon and I had never done that genre before. It was a challenge and I enjoyed learning how to perform that way.”
While Whistler is an important figure in the episodes, Max wasn’t given many details or a back-story for him to discover, so he relied on Joss for direction. “Whistler was very new and I didn’t know what way to interpret him. I’m an “in the moment” actor. I usually develop a back-story for a character and make decisions solely based upon how this individual was raised. I think about what is really being said and what information should be passed on to the audience, letting them think by not verbalising anything. So, Joss and I spoke and he had some really great notes and I appreciated them, took them to heart, and rolled with them. He was very giving. Joss’ notes had me focus on Whistler’s empathy and knowledge. Actually, the empathy was more mine and the knowledge was more his notes, but Joss was very good at giving me a sense of what was required in portraying that genre. That character was really Joss’ deal and I just asked for a suit,” he laughs.”
With his New York accent and odd sense of style, Max explains that he drew from a lot of resources to build Whistler’s persona. “I think you can equate him to Columbo, maybe one of the Bowery Boys, or in the best case, Jimmy Cagney or Edward G. Robinson. He wasn’t any one of those, but he was a mix.”
In a funny case of Deja vu, Max reveals that working on Buffy brought him back to the same set that he worked on for the film The Butcher’s Wife. “We were on a city street, literally the same street where I had done that film, but now I was walking on the same sidewalk for this other character, but this time I was a demon.” Looking back, he says the scenes played there were his favourites of the episode. “I was doing the scene on the city street where I first met Angel, and I was testing the waters right there because I didn’t have a feel for the character yet. Joss gave me great guidance. After that, I had a better understanding. There were no demons for me to hang out with so Joss was the guy. I also liked the scene in the tunnel. I had to play it like I was telling the truth and it wasn’t funny, but the comical sense came from the irony of the situation.”
Max also has fond remembrances of working with David Boreanaz. “David was so giving and warm and full of life. We sat together and one time went the wrong way and almost got eaten by the Universal shark in a golf cart,” he laughs. “We walked around and talked about our families and kept in contact and called a few times. I really enjoyed working with him.”
Considering the huge impact Whistler had on Angel’s life and the implied mentoring relationship revealed in the episode, many fans always expected a return appearance for Whistler, either on Buffy or Angel, but it never ended up happening. “No, I never got called again,” Max says. “I work a lot and did a few films right after that episode. If they had called, I would have probably accepted because it was a great experience and I think Joss is very original and talented. I was really impressed by what he did and I thought it was a cool concept. I enjoyed the shows I watched afterwards.”
Since then, Max has been busy doing character roles in films such as The Missing and Deuces Wild, as well as the TV shows Homicide and Gilmore Girls. He still resides in Los Angeles with his wife and two young daughters, Liana and Maya. He recently completed work on the independent film, In the City They Fell, which he describes as “a very dark, noir film – a cross between Badlands and Romeo and Juliet. I think it’s my best work.”
The 50 Greatest Buffy Moments by Tom Root
A Man Called Adam by Abbie Bernstein
Another former Buffy villain who turned up in the form of the First in Season Seven was Adam, Professor Walsh’s Frankenstein-esque creation who was, literally, the death of her. We caught up with actor George Hertzberg to find out how he brought his Buffy alter ego to life.
George Hertzberg is, in reality, a very handsome man who sounds both humorous and composed – which make him very different from Adam, Season Four’s Big Bad, who is an unnatural collection of human, demon and mechanical body parts. George, a native of Houston, Texas, studied acting at the University of Southern California, going on to gigs on 3rd Rock from the Sun, Providence and Any Day Now, writing and producing plays and a short film, and frequently working on the Los Angeles stage. Speaking by phone, he looks back fondly on his demon days.
What did you know about Adam when you auditioned for Buffy?
What I had gotten as an audition piece was a monologue that I ended up delivering in the second episode I did. Basically, it’s like a booting-up of Adam. A program coming online and this is what it is, so there’s a lot of self-discovery – welcome to the world, this is who you are. That self-discovery is fun for the actor. Adam’s circumstances in this situation are, ‘I’m going to question this little boy first and then I’m going to fillet him.’ The motivation for me was to come at it as a child – how does it feel the first time you pick up a baseball?; how did it feel the first time you felt snow? Those kinds of things are strong motivators. Adam doesn’t think he’s doing anything bad at all. Of course, this is how I’m supposed to behave, and this is his purpose.
Was getting the face and body casts and/or working in Adam’s make-up difficult?
I’d never, ever done anything like that before. Short of breaking your back in real life, they don’t put you in a full-body cast. But I had an okay reaction to it. The only time I got a little claustrophobic was when they did the entire mould of my head and they were smearing this stuff all over my face and all over my chin and my neck, down to the top of my shoulders, and then they put straws in my nose so I could breathe. There I was thinking, ‘If today was the day when people were going to gang up on me and decide to take me out of this world, they could do it very easily!’ Working in the make-up was fine. By about the third time it was applied, we’d got the process down to five hours. You’d get there, change into a unitard, which was a quarter-inch thick latex going from my neck down to my waist. Then I’d have the neck cowl piece, which is glued from the face to the body, and then there’s the face piece and then there are the gloves. Nothing was glued to my skin, except on my face.
Was it different on set on the days when you were working with other people in demon make-up?
Everybody has a different reaction to the make-up. And because I tended to have the heaviest make-up on the set when I worked, people would say, ‘Oh my God, how do you stand the make-up?’ But I didn’t really have any complaints, and I think maybe that deterred other people from complaining. ‘I’ve got a full body suit. I can’t pee without 30 minutes’ worth of warning [laughs].’ I think they thought, ‘If Hertzberg isn’t complaining, I don’t have any grounds for complaints.’ It’s interesting to work with other people that are in make-up – how they’re going to react and how they’re going to look and how they’re going to pick up a rock, for example, could be totally different.
When you do conventions with other actors who play demons, do you share make-up stories?
Yeah. We all feel for one another. James [Clem] Leary and I were talking about what it’s like when you eat with make-up, with the prosthetics around your lips and your mouth. No sauce, no salad dressing, no anything can touch your lips, because if it does, the plastic will come unglued from your face. So there are a few times when you’re working when they’ll say, ‘Cut! George’s mouth is flopping open underneath the chin.’.
How did you come up with Adam’s distinctive walk?
My upper body had to remain relatively still because of the mould, so some of my mobility was definitely compromised, but it was more about me finding something that was natural. I mean, how is a supervillain supposed to move? I fell back on stuff I learned at USC in terms of placement of energy and how to highlight different places in your body. Adam’s energy was a lot in the chest, right in the heart area.
Do you have any favourite fights and /or dialogue scenes?
My arm morphing into a gun – that rocked! The wonderful guys that worked props on the show had essentially built a gas cannon that spun and spit out gas. I basically put my hand in the suit and held onto a handle, and there was a guy off-screen, controlling gas flow and all that stuff. It was pretty heavy, probably about 45 pounds, but it was a blast. I also really enjoyed working with James Marsters as Spike. James is a very, very solid actor – the kind that makes you a better actor. My favourite episode is ‘The Yoko Factor’, in which I was riffing back and forth with Spike.
How far ahead did you know you would be doing the out-of-make-up scenes in ‘Restless’?
About two weeks before. I was very thankful to have a scene out of make-up. It was kind of reconstructed from Buffy’s memory, based on what Buffy imagined he would be like. I felt it was written to be very in line with Adam, and it seemed to draw parallels between him and Buffy.
When you got the call for Season Seven, how did you think Adam was going to come back?
I had no idea. My agent called and said, ‘They’re bringing back everyone for this episode,’ and he said something about how the bad guy was going to be a morphing bad person.
How was the Glory-into-Adam-into-Mayor done?
We had to walk side by side, step by step. Clare Kramer as Glory lengthened her stride a little bit and I shortened mine quite a bit. We did the walk and then we stepped right into it. She had to watch Adam Busch as Warren and I had to watch Clare. Clare’s a small girl and she was trying to walk in stride with this big guy. I was able to make my stride smaller, but it was hard to look like I was walking normally. To make it clean, we had to be more than stride for stride, we had to know exactly where our feet would hit the ground. So we had to be coordinated. The bit that I worked on with Clare, I think we probably did the take 16 times.
Was it difficult to recreate Adam’s make-up for the part?
There was one make-up guy there who had worked on two episodes that I had done in Season Four, and a woman who had helped out in Season Four, but nobody else had done Adam’s make-up before, so it was mostly a case of me trying to remember! Everybody was very professional – it was just tough trying to map something from two-and-a-half-years earlier. Plus my hair was different – shorter and a little more spiked.
What have you been up to lately?
I’ve been doing a fair amount of theatre in LA. I’ve also been doing some writing. I’ve been writing a comedy/drama pilot.
Would you ever want to play a monster again, following your experience on Buffy?
I loved being on Buffy, and would love to do a show like that again. It would be better with less make-up [laughs], because of the time factor – my earliest call was 3:30am. But that’s fine. I was the baddest villain of them all!
Classic Scene
Buffy Vows to Protect Dawn from ‘The Gift’.
Poster
A publicity shot of the Buffy cast, circa Season Five.
