Courtesy The WB ,James Marsters

Courtesy The WB This Vampire Rocks! "I love being scared." April 27, 2001 What do Macbeth and Spike in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" have in common? They have both been played by the versatile JAMES MARSTERS, who enjoys making people feel uncomfortable

ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT: What can we look forward to seeing for Spike?
JAMES MARSTERS: He will be put through humiliation and degradation. I can't spill any beans because we are paid too much money to make you want to know that. We will lay that card out when it is most effective. I would rob you of the excitement of watching, if I were to tell you.

ET: Were you into the vampire mythology at all before you were cast in "Buffy"?
JAMES: I love scary movies. I love being scared and I love scaring people. I didn't know much more about vampires than the normal person, which is probably a lot actually. Most people are into vampires. The vampire is probably one of the most horrible myths that we have. It is more powerful than Frankenstein or the Werewolf or the Mummy. Vampires rock.

ET: Maybe it is more scary, because vampires are based on a real-life person -- Dracula was based on VLAD DRACULA, Vlad the Impaler.
JAMES: Vlad is the hero of Romania. It is an interesting story. He was in jail for years. His captors drove him psychotic. Frankly what he did had a big impact on the history of Romania. He is the basic reason that it is a Christian nation, instead of Muslim, which is right on the border. Romania had been overrun continuously -- almost like Germany in the next century -- because they couldn't decide who they wanted to be. He decided for them.

ET: So you like to be scared?
JAMES: I had a lot of dreams as a kid and I would tell people what they were the next day, and they would be, "Oh my God what a nightmare!" And I was, "No, that was a good dream."

ET: So with all these scary dreams, do you ever get a story idea for Spike that you pass on to JOSS WHEDON?
JAMES: I am not paid for my writing skills. I am not Spike. I just play him on TV. Spike is Joss Whedon. Joss likes to stir it up. He likes a little chaos. He likes to piss people off. He likes to deny them what they want. He is just the whole Willow terror thing. He loves it. He loves making people feel afraid. I have done writing myself. I have adapted from the stage a lot. I am good enough at writing to understand that the people I am working with are vastly better than I am, so it is not really in my interest to try to affect what they're doing. They're doing just fine without me. So, I've studiously avoided giving any of it. You ask an actor what he wants to do and he will come up with the same two ideas. He will be baggin' the babe, or kickin' butt with the guys.

ET: When you decided you wanted to be an actor, did you only want to do theater -- or were you also interested in television?
JAMES: I always just wanted to do theater. Theater is going through a hard time right now. It got its legs taken out during the '80s. A friend of mine MICHAEL WINTERS -- a great actor -- decided to come to L.A. because he couldn't get his car fixed. I figured if someone as great as Michael Winters -- and he is one of the best in America -- couldn't get enough money to keep a new car and was going out to L.A., than I was going out.

ET: Did you come out together?
JAMES: No. We were doing a play reading of Cider House Rules -- they were workshopping it before they brought it down to the Taper, and I had to drive him home. He was, "My damn car." Michael Winters could work at the Guthrie with a phone call. He had a recurring role in "Single Guy" and I saw him in a RON HOWARD film. He is doing all right.

ET: Do you want to get back to theater?
JAMES: I did a play last summer and once I have time again, I would like to go back to it. I still want to produce Macbeth. I have played the character, but I would like to direct it -- so always, always theater.

ET: What kind of roles do you like to play?
JAMES: Roles where it is challenging to keep the audience on your side. Roles that force the audience to look at themselves in ways that might be uncomfortable. I always come back to Macbeth as being a great example. Any time you play the lead and the lead is very faulted and very human then you can say something very profound about human beings being walking failures but human anyway. ANTON CHEKOV is my favorite playwright for that reason. We are all lovable, dear, vulnerable, silly, goofy and striving but failing more often than not.

ET: Is there someone currently doing it?
JAMES: Joss Whedon does it all the time. When Angel was on "Buffy," Angel would come into a room, trip for no reason, or bump his head. It was that foible. He was just a little clumsy. A lot of artists explore that. It is the more sophisticated, harder road. It is a more artful road, because most audience members want to see the hero as being perfect and strong and invulnerable. It is a very safe fantasy for them to put themselves in the shoes of that hero. What is more challenging is to go into the shoes of someone who is fallible.

Back