3 Questions with "Buffy"/"Angel" Writers

Marti Noxon
Jane Espenson
David Fury
Tim Minear

1.) Who was your greatest influence?
That's a tough one. I don't think I can really pick out any one exactly... It's all this crazy soup of music, books, movies... I'll tell you some things that have had a HUGE impact on me though... For movies, I'd have to say that "Wings of Desire" by Wim Wenders (Not, however, "City of Angels", which was a tepid remake of the same idea) and "Poltergeist" are two of the biggies. Both of them deal with the idea that "we are not alone" - with the fear of and longing for a world beyond the one we can see... This is a theme I'm drawn to again and again... The desire to touch a place beyond death and the physical world... The romantic longing for connection even in the afterworld (see also "Truly, Madly, Deeply" and "Ghost"...) Favorite filmmakers are Martin Scorsese, Billy Wilder, Steven Soderbergh - loved "Out of Sight" and King of the Hill!! - (in which you can see our Ms. Amber) I could go on and on...
TV - Sopranos, ER, Malcolm, lots of the Bochco stuff - Hill Street, St. Elsewhere, Northern Exposure (!!), My So Called Life and (yes, I'm a yuppie) ThirtySomething
Music - Crowded House, Steve Wonder, Michael Jackson, Shawn Colvin, The Gap Band, Prince, RadioHead, Nivana, Tori Amos, NIN - (anything with lots of sex and pain - basically)
Books - Anywhere But Here by Mona Simpson, The Hours by Michael Cunningham, Generation X by Douglas Coupland, The Grapes Of Wrath by Steinbeck, To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee, Operating Instructions and Rosie by Anne Lamott...
Again, I could go on and on. Told you it was a soup - are you sorry you asked?

2.) What did you want to do with your life when you were a kid?
I wanted to be Judy Garland in an MGM musical. Then I realized that was going to be tough and the real Judy didn't exactly have the happiest life - so I decided I wanted to be some kind of actress/filmmaker type.

3.) Do you feel you have satisfied your dreams?
Some of my dreams have already been well surpassed - and some I still hold for the future. Also - I have a bunch of new ones. That's the great thing about life, if you're in the mix it keeps changing and growing. It used to be that my dream was to make my living as a writer (actually - it still is! I hope I continue to until I'm old and gray and done...) Now I also dream of my working getting better and deeper, of directing and writing movies and TV, of sharing more of the great gift in my life with others... And of rasing a happy family with my wonderful soon-to-be husband.

1.) Who was your greatest influence?
I'm tempted to say Joss Whedon, because he has taught me so much about TV writing and story-telling in general, but there is an influence that goes further back. Television itself. I grew up watching quite a lot of TV and being completely diverted and entertained. Something about the intimacy of watching these great sweeps of character's lives over years and years of a series made them very real to me, more real than movie characters. TV characters become friends in a way that other characters do not. Which leads us to the answer to question number...

2.) What did you want to do with your life when you were a kid?
As you might expect, I really did always want to write for TV. I remember reading an interview with a M*A*S*H writer when I was perhaps 13, and the writer made some comment about the kind of scripts that prospective writers submitted to the show. It was like a lightning bolt -- I suddenly realized that TV writing was a real job, with real procedures for getting such a job. But, as time passed, it seemed pretty impractical and I settled on other options... I was interested in being an experimental psychologist for a while (because I wanted to make rats run through mazes), and I toyed with being a trial lawyer (because I wanted to pace and rant in front of a jury) -- but TV writing was always the dream job. And thus we arrive at question number...

3.) Do you feel you have satisfied your dreams?
Have I satisfied my dreams? Damn right! I'm doing exactly what I want to do, where I want to do it, with people I love and respect. I was a fan of Buffy before I got the job, and working there has been a wonderful, transforming experience.

David Fury

1.) Who was your greatest influence?
Bob Newhart. His early monologues taught me a lot about "reactive comedy," both as an actor and a writer.

2.) What did you want to do with your life when you were a kid?
Everything. And have fun doing it.

3.) Do you feel you have satisfied your dreams?
I sure as hell hope not. Nothing more stagnating than realized dreams. Where do you go from there?

Tim Minear

1.) Who was your greatest influence?
My parents.

2.) What did you want to do with your life when you were a kid?
Write and direct movies.

3.) Do you feel you have satisfied your dreams?
Gettin' there.