So, Phina Oruche. She's extremely beautiful and extremely difficult to find out anything about. The most I can tell about her is that she was born in - oh, wait, couldn't even garner that bit of info. Well, I'll assume she's under thirty. Otherwise, her stint as a vampire in "The Forsaken" may not have been all work and no play.
Phina has had a bunch of bit parts in movies and television, most notably "The Forsaken". It is the only movie I have seen with her in it, but she has several other credits under her belt, including her gig as Olivia, Giles' girlfriend/love-buddy on BtVS.
Olivia appeared in Season 4 of Buffy, in three episodes: "The Freshman", in which she is introduced, was the season premiere. There was also "Hush", a rather brilliantly written and directed (ok, I admit it, that time Joss really hit the nail on the head... French expression. Don't ask...) episode of BtVS in which the town is silenced by voice-stealing demons for half an episode. Her last appearance on BtVS was in the fourth season finale, "Restless". Her character, Olivia, appears in Giles' dream pushing a baby carriage with him while they take Buffy to the carnival.
My opinion? Sometimes I get annoyed at the pincushioned roles that black women are assigned. I wonder if Phina realizes that she was really portraying a character in an oddly sexual manner. She only appeared in three episodes, and in each one her relationship was primarily to Giles, who is twice her age (but then again I'm dating a fifty year old so who am I to talk). The point is, no other 'non-evil' character has ever had such a swinging non-committed sexuality. While I'm all for the separation of sexuality and one's philosophical status in the Buffyverse, I find that Phina is just one in a long (ok, maybe not so long) line of glaringly bizarrely cast roles for women of colour; black women in particular. I also have a theory that, whether it was a conscious or subconscious decision on the part of the director, her role in "The Forsaken" (in which she's incredibly hot, btw) as the white vampire leader's girlfriend was a sort of showcase of the old mixed race/bad race cliche.
Hopefully, she will get more notoriety and I will get to see more of her work. For now, content yourself with this collection of stuff... fine links mostly. Look, it's the best I could do, ok?
IMDB Phina Oruche
-
An extensive listing of Phina's film and television credits, not to mention a few nifty pics.
BuffyGuide
-
A place that houses the basics of how each episode of BtVS went down. Good to check if you want to know more about Phina's character, "Olivia".
Phina Interview
-
An interview with Phina Oruche and co-star Kerr Smith on "The Forsaken".
"Forsaken" Cast Interview -
Another interview with Phina and the rest of the "Forsaken" cast...swearing in this one!
Phina Photos
-
Yeah. Photos of Phina.
Phina Oruche, on "The Foresaken":
"I can relate to Cym. Some fine m----------, you know, some fine guy just taking you, and you lose your mind." Adding, "Johnathan Schaech is a hottie. Let's not beat around the bush girls."
Anthony Steward Head (Giles), on "Olivia":
" I understand the writer's plight", Head says sympathetically, "and their plight was that Olivia was normal. All the dramatic writing is about conflict, and within the confines of the series, they had adealt with her as a normal girl in terms of the scenario of 'What do you make of this?' 'I don't know.' That's about as far as I could go. They could have possibly played her becoming rather annoying, and Giles getting rid of her, because she really didn't understand what was at stsake, but in the grand scheme of things it wasn't really an imprtant throughline. There is so much gone in this season that it wasn't about that. What Joss wanted was the Slayer/Watcher thing re-established. He wanted us to go into the deeper spiritual connection between us, and the whole thing wwith families and everything else he's investigated. There wasn't room for it really. You couldn't kill Olivia off, because that would have been too cruel. I am constantly asked when Giles is going to get a girlfriend. But at the same time, part of Giles' plight is that he's a bit of a turtured one. He's doomed to be alone as the Watcher- Watcher's are lonely men. His whole focus has always been Buffy- training her and getting her to scratch. H'es severely tested this season..." (For more of the interview with ASH, click here)