That’s Why the Lady is a Vamp by Paul Simpson
Drusilla may have made her final appearance in the BuffyVerse, but that doesn’t mean that things are going to be less busy for the actress who played the crazy vampire for seven years. Buffy Magazine caught up with Juliet Landau to discuss Buffy, Angel and what the future holds for her.

The Sound of Silence By Joe Nazzaro
In Sunnydale, no one can hear you scream – at least, not when the Gentlemen are in town. Buffy Magazine hunted down Doug Jones, the actor behind the lead Gentleman, to discuss his time in the fan-favourite episode ‘Hush’, and find out what it was like to play one of the scariest and most memorable villains the BuffyVerse has ever seen.

The Gentlemen may just be the creepiest villains in Buffy‘s seven-season history. Series creator Joss Whedon described them in his original script – which he also directed – as ‘old, bone-white, bald – Nosferatu meets Hellraiser by way of the Joker.’ Add a pair of gleaming metal teeth, a penchant tor still-beating human hearts and a knack for levitating a few feet above ground level, and it’s probably not too surprising that The Gentlemen had everybody talking, so to speak, when they appeared in the fourth season episode ‘Hush’.
    For Doug Jones, playing the lead Gentleman was superb casting. Physically, the lanky, six foot-three actor fit the bill perfectly, plus he had more than a decade’s worth of experience in playing characters in prosthetic make-up. And in a very peculiar job qualification, his contortionist and mime abilities came in handy for a creature that didn’t speak a word of dialogue.
    Of course, Doug had no idea about any of that when he first went in to audition for ‘Hush’.
    “In the beginning, I didn’t know anything,” he recalls. I tend to see the usual suspects when I’m out auditioning, but for Buffy, oddly enough, I didn’t recognise anybody in the room that day.
    “The casting director came out to the lobby and told the few of us that were there that Joss was going to be directing this episode himself.
    “What he was looking for was a flow-y kind of movement, and an eerie smile while we were doing dastardly things to people. That’s what I knew when I walked into the room, and then we did an improv with the scene where my partner and I are cutting out the heart of a college student in his dorm room. That’s pretty much the scene we auditioned with, and I remember Joss and everyone who was sitting in the room going [Doug makes a disgusted sound] when I was done, so I guess I hit it! I was the tallest one there, and in the rewrite of the script, I was referred to as the ‘tall one,’ so I became lead Gentleman, who the script referred to as ‘the tall one.’”
    While Doug brought a physicality to the role, it was the Gentlemen’s make-up, designed by Optic Nerve and applied by Todd McIntosh, that sealed the deal appearance-wise. “Once we booked it, I had to go over to Optic Nerve for the teeth, and I think they already had a life cast of my head, which is already all over town because of other characters I’ve played. What was interesting was that Camedon Toy [who later placed several other roles on Buffy and Angel] was my partner in that episode, and that was actually the first time I met him. He’s a terrific actor, and he has the eeriest smile. We were the only two actors that had dentures that went over our own teeth, and they fashioned the prosthetic make-up onto our own faces and mouths. The other four Gentlemen had these enormous built-in smiles, which was originally the plan for all of us. It wasn’t until after Joss met Camedon and I that he decided that he wanted at least the two of us to have our own smiles, which was a nice little pat on the back for us. We were able to get more expression that way.
    “When I went on set, Todd did my make-up. Since there were four of us, they brought in extra make-up people for that episode to do everybody, but Todd did mine, and I thought he did a great job with it. I think it was the airbrushing around the eyes and the way he blended it all together that was uniquely brilliant. We also had prosthetics on the hands, just the top of them was glued on, with a little more accentuated bones and knuckles and tendons and things like that to make them look a little grosser.”
    Doug also gives high marks to Joss Whedon, not only as a director, but also his bold decision to write an episode (later nominated for an Emmy), where a large part of it was conducted in silence. “A lot of actors will tell you, if you’re working with a director who’s also producing and writing, that can make for a tense situation on set because the project is that person’s baby, so they’re looking at everybody as someone who will drop their baby. That’s a running theme among actors, who’ll say, ‘Oh no, they’re doing all three?’ But with Joss, it was totally the opposite, because he absolutely knew what he was doing. He wrote a brilliant script and directed it with such confidence. There wasn’t a fear that somebody was going to drop his baby. He was saying. ‘No, I’ve got my baby right here and I know exactly what I’m doing!’ and nobody thought of questioning him. There was just no need.”
    As it turned out, ‘Hush’ was the only episode of Buffy that Doug appeared in, making that one appearance even more special. “I’ve never actually had any meetings to go back. I’ve been in to audition for Angel Season Five a couple of times, but didn’t get the part for whatever it was, but that’s okay.”
    No stranger to playing unusual characters, Doug’s ability to bring even the toughest creature suit and prosthetic make-up to life had made him a long-time favourite among Hollywood’s make-up FX community. His television work includes The Outer Limits, Tales from the Crypt, Crusade and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. He’s also appeared in countless feature films, such as Hocus Pocus, Batman Returns, Tank Girl and Men in Black II. He’s currently working on comic book adaption Hellboy with Ron Perlman. As for his appearance on Buffy, Doug Jones remains both pleased and surprised that his episode still strikes such a powerful chord among fans, even today. “I’m still waiting for the beach towel, myself!” he jokes, referring to the wide range of Gentlemen merchandise that’s been released since ‘Hush’ first aired.
    “Of course, on everything you work on, you think, ‘Oh, this is the one that’s going to hit it big!’ Whether it’s a film or this episode, it’s going to be the Emmy-nominated one, but when we worked on this show, we knew that there were a couple of special elements. It was a daring move to do half the episode in complete silence, but you’ve also got these well-dressed, gentlemenly polite guys, floating around, bald, and ghoulish-looking, and smiling and so polite and happy while they’re doing horrible things to people. That also was unique, and the way we floated just barely above the ground. It was great not having to worry about how I was going to have to walk. We just floated around, but there were still enough differences between us. The characters themselves were unique enough that I thought, ‘This is going to be special.”‘ I’ve done a lot of film and television work over the years, but this one episode has brought me more attention than I ever thought possible.”

Green Machine by Tara Dilullo
Seth Green has been an extremely busy actor since he finished his stint on Buffy as Oz – in fact he now has more than 100 projects to his name! Buffy Magazine spent time with the talented actor to discuss his latest big-screen outing, river-rafting and filming in his underwear…

For three seasons of Buffy, Seth Green entertained and touched the hearts of fans everywhere with his portrayal of Daniel ‘Oz’ Osbourne – Willow’s shy, sensitive and completely cool boyfriend, who also happened to be a werewolf! When he left Willow and Sunnydale for good in Season Four’s ‘New Moon Rising’, Buffy fans were left broken-hearted, but there’s been plenty of opportunity to see the enigmatic actor since.
    Having appeared in numerous big-screen and TV projects, it was probably his role as Scott Evil in the Austin Powers films that really launched Seth into the public eye. He’s also the voice behind many of the characters of the hit animated series Family Guy, and more recently could be seen in the re-make of The Italian Job, as well as helping Mystery Inc., solve another spooky case in Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, which also featured his former Buffy co-star, Sarah Michelle Gellar.
    Seth’s new film, with Matthew Lillard and Dax Shepard, may be called Without a Paddle, but the term has little in common with the actor’s amazing career. Having turned 30 this year, Seth is in the enviable position of being able to say that he’s been a successful working actor for more than two-thirds of his life. Even with more than 100 film and television parts on his resume, he reveals this current film is easily one of his favourites. “At the end of the day, I can say this is one of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had,” Seth reveals. “It was the the most physically and emotionally challenging thing ever, but I had a blast and I really like the movie. It’s a fun, funny, sweet movie that just about anyone can relate to.”
    The charm of the film lies in the strength of the winning chemistry created by the three leads, which Seth says came naturally to them. Seth says that he and Matthew worked so well together on Scooby Doo 2, they were eager to find another project together. “I had honestly been looking for an opportunity to work with Matthew from the first time I saw him perform. I remember when I saw SLC Punk thinking that we would get along really well. He’s just a funny, smart, creative guy.”
    The trio packed up for New Zealand last year, where together they literally had to navigate water rapids, stunt bears, rappel from trees and drive ATVs in the dense woods. “It was a challenge everyday but a really welcome challenge,” Seth admits. “As scary or frightening or as exhausting as it was, we had fun every day. It was such a relief to have two people to share it with, because that kind of thing is so individually intimidating, but we agreed very early on before rehearsing that we were all going to operate on our highest level. If one fell, the other two picked you up, so it was a great exercise in trust. People who watch the movie say that we seem like we get along so well and have so much fun and honestly, I’ve never worked with people that I’ve had so much fun with and never had an experience like this.”

    While the film is one of the most physical that Seth has ever done, he relished the experiences. “I think we had an appropriate level of caution and respect for what we were going to do, but we were all about being as daring as we could be. We had each other to rely on and we agreed really early on to go for it as much as possible. We shot in New Zealand and we were allowed to be more ambitious with the stunts than we would have been able to in the States.” Seth says shooting the scenes where they actually had to traverse some serious rapids gave him the most anxiety. “I think it was more frightening to be aware of each other in the water than to do it yourself. You have yourself to rely on. When I was in the water I was just like, ‘relax’ – we were always told ‘you don’t fight the river’. But any time any of the guys were in any form of trouble, that’s when it would get scary. But you don’t have too much time to be afraid. You get there and get freaked out for a second and move on.”
    He also cites a scene where he had to slide, almost naked, between two redwood trees on a belt, as another particular challenge. “When we did the tree slider, they hook you onto a harness and they retract you all the way to the top of a 150 foot tree and you have a camera attached to a zip line and they pull the cord and you drop. So, I’m literally hanging out there in my tightie whities and boots, with my arms going numb from hanging there. People below me are rolling dice waiting to load the camera and I’m freezing cold, dangling and on camera the whole time, so anybody watching the monitor just sees me and my junk swinging… bummed, waiting to shoot,” he laughs.
    Considering how well the guys got along, it made sense that they were able to draw off their natural camaraderie to improvise a lot of their scenes n the film. “Every scene where there was dialogue, we screwed around with it,” he explains. “There was a lot of room, because Steve Brill, the director, was so receptive to letting things happen. We would workshop silly things between takes that would find their way into the movie. Inevitably, great things would happen that nobody expected and surpassed what we hoped for.”
    With so many recognisable roles on his resume, like Buffy and the Austin Powers films, Seth admits his fan base is extremely varied, but always supportive. “I’m always appreciative if somebody likes something I did because the things I do, I put a lot of effort towards it and in the last few years, I’ve made a concerted effort to only do things that I really stand behind or believe in. If you do something that is very important to you and people acknowledge it as cool or fun or interesting, it’s always flattering. It’s like going to a concert and seeing people around that you never thought you would have anything in common with, but you all like the same music.”
    As to where Seth is going next, he jokes, “I’m going to be working at the Chuck E Cheese in Toronto. Actually, I haven’t found any movies just yet, but I’ve been reading a bunch of stuff. I try so hard to find stuff that really means something and I haven’t found anything that’s knocked me out. But my friend and I sold a stop-motion variety show to Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim – we’re in pre-production on that right now, so I’m going to focus a lot of attention on that.”