JWBcom

Killer Threads

For a blood-sucking vamp, Spike certainly has it going on in the style department, and James Marsters' fashion sense is pretty much the same.

His portrayer, James Marsters, admits Spike's fashion sense and his own are fairly identical - with one basic exception: "I don't kill people for my clothes," he jokes. "I have to buy them."

Men In Black: "The T-shirt I wore for the first two years of the show was my own," Marsters says. "It's the shirt I auditioned in." In real life, the actor usually sports the same clothes his character wears: basic black jeans, boots and T-shirts. "In general, men have to look good without looking like they took more than five minutes doing it," he says. "It's a fine line, because guys are not supposed to appear overdone." One thing Marsters says he won't borrow from Spike's closet is that long leather coat.

Lighten Up: After he joined the cast, Marsters says producers experimented with his brown hair before finally settling on the bleached-out look. "They tried spraying it black, and it just looked terrible," says the actor, who very much digs his new hair. He only wishes the bleaching process weren't so painful. "My initial reaction when they first bleached it was: Aaargh! It hurts! We bleach it before every episode; every 10 days or so. If I'm stupid and scratch my head beforehand, it really burns."

Face Time: Marsters says the show darkens his eyebrows for each episode to accentuate the punk look. "Male actors are actually more persnickety about their make-up than women, because we don't like anyone to know we're wearing it," he says. "But Spike's a little different since he's a punk rocker."

The Bare Facts: Since Marsters never knows when he'll be called upon to do a shirtless scene, he tries to maintain a peak physique. "On TV, you have to be ready to get naked at any time," he jokes. The actor's exercise regimen includes high-repetition lifting of 100-pound weights, 250 sit-ups and an hour's worth of inline-skating each day. "I don't go crazy - I just do enough to keep in shape," he says. "This routine gives me good definition without a lot of bulk."