J. August Richards was born one fateful August 28, in 1973, the year of the Oxen and element of water. He was born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Bladensburg. He took quickly to acting and enrolled in a performing arts high school before pooling his luck and applying solely to the University of Southern California; he and his sister had made a pact at the age of six to move to California and support one another in fulfilling their dreams. His gamble paid off, and he impressed the college enough to earn himself several scholarships. Aside of USC, he also studied acting under the tutelage of Eriq Lasalle.
His first 'professional' gig was a guest starring role on "The Cosby Show". This was followed by many guest spots on reputable shows such as "The Practice" and the now-defunct interracial drama, "Any Day Now", as well as film credits "Why Do Fools Fall In Love", "Good Burger", "The Temptations" and "Mutiny". The talented actor also garnered rave reviews for his performance of "Taj Mahal" in a Mark Taper Forum prouction entitled "Space"; Richards played a rapping bike messenger who believed he'd been abducted by aliens. J currently lives in L.A., and spends most of his spare time painting, creating music and romancing the divine Tangi Miller (from the now-defunct drama "Felicity"). He also regularly visits Panama, his parents' homeland.
Charless Gunn, on the other hand, is a whole different matter. He was introduced during the last three episodes of the first season of AtS, and Richards was told that his guest spot may turn into either a recurring role or a steady gig. He was picked up as a series regular upon the second season. Since then, he's undergone many changes from the street-wise orphan patrolling the streets of his neighborhood with fellow misfits. His sister was vamped, he had to kill her. Then his crew went all nuts and killed some harmless demon, and then they went all nuts again and blew up Lorne's club, Caritas. Then he and Fred got it on. Then she tried to kill someone. Then they had problems. Then he got it on with Gwen, electric girl. Now he's in the white room with a really beautiful Panther that he seems to have a connection with; it's a black panther. Oh, the symbolism I could draw from that.
In general, I have many gripes with the character Gunn, you can find them on the challenges page and just about anywhere else on this site. But one of the awesome things about Gunn, in my opinion, is his (now seemingly quashed) relationship with Fred. I like to say that JW and co. would need both hands to find their own ass in order write a character of colour for a white audience, and that JW and and co. couldn't find their own ass with both hands when it comes to writing a character of colour for an audience of colour.
But see, Fred? Fred makes sense. Why? Cause she's not just a mooch in puppy love, cough *savethelastdance* cough, who will be all too happy to prance headlong into a little freedom love snuggle with one of the few available black men and think it's as simple and anonymous as dating a guy of her own colour. I couldn't even WATCH the episode where Gunn and Cordy go into 'the 'hood', I found that everything funny was supposed to be funny for a white audience, which fine, but I'm not white. If you're going to write a whole episode about people of colour, you may want to include them as consideration for the audience.
In short, Fred was trapped in a hell dimension and worked to the bone. Discriminated against because of the colour of her skin and her inability to survive upon beheading. She and Gunn are two of the same world. Besides the fact that they're adorable together, it isn't simply a farce for a valley girl who's bored; nor is it (I hope) an exciting day out for a brother who just wants to taste the Master's pure flesh. It's much, much more than that.
Unfortunately, I think the character is a patsy. He seems to be present in order to provide 'street cred', assuage white guilt from time to time, and get the NAACP off the WB's back (J. August coincidentally allowed a magazine to follow his auditions goings on for a year as part of a report on the non-existent African Americans on the WB. At the end of the year, he was a regular. Sigh... I confess I don't care even if it was tokenism thatt got him the gig, since I think he is a talented actor that does a great job with the uncle Tom storylines he's given).
In short, I hope you have enjoyed this review of the talented J. August Richards and the lovely, wickedly intense character Charless Gunn (yeah, I still think he rocks). Please don't bomb me for my radical views. And if you have any information you would like to contribute, as with all my pages, you are most welcome to become a cast writer for this site, please email me!
J. August Richards Official Website- The cutie-panamanian-tutie's official site; has articles, a fanclub and all that good stuff.
IMDB's J. August Richards Page - A giant site with a whole lotta info, including our dear J's filmography.
One Actor's Odyssey - The infamous L.A. Times article following a Black actor in Hollywood.
The Necessity of Gunn and Fred - A essay on the need for romance in the Buffyverse today.
Gunn-Wesley Shipper Mailing List - A place for the homeboy and the nancy boy.
A Gunn-Fred Yahoo Group - A group for their blooming love.
Lien's Fanfiction - A Gunn Shipper site.
Chocolate Dream - UK fanbase for J.
Couplet - Gunn-Fred fanlisting.
Gunn Shots - What it says.
"Back in the sixth grade, I had a huuuuuge crush on this boy in my class. But that crush came to a crashing halt one day when he told me that he was going to be a big time actor when he grew up, and that my husband and I would be working at a gas station." - Niki Turner, discussing her classmate J. August Richards
"Alexis is so ghetto, y'all. He dresses like Gunn in real life. I mean, he kind of does. I mean, he wears like a lot of sweats and stuff, low-riding and baseball caps."
- J. on his co-star Alexis Denisoff who plays Wesley on AtS."Well, amazingly enough, J is white and I'm black...on set I'm constantly getting J to coach me on giving me some street -- so he's my guru on getting me out on the street so I don't make a total fool of myself."
- Alexis Denisoff on J. August; same interview."I watch E! and I see all the [Hollywood] breakups, and that's just so sad to me...I don't want to get married and then get divorced. I only want to do it one time, so I'd rather move really slow and be sure."
- Tangi Miller, on why she wants to wait before tying the knot with J."Joss has a way of always doing the thing that you ask him not to do with the character. So me and J went to Joss and asked him to break up our characters, thinking that would mean they would stay together for sure. Of course the one time Joss listened to the actors is the one time we didn't want him to."
- Amy Acker (Fred on AtS)J-Quo...tes
"Alyson Hannigan told me that for the first year, it was going to be, "Hey, aren't you that guy on that show?" The second year is, "you're that guy from Angel!" And the third year is, "You're J. August Richards!"
"I was at the newsstand recently, and this lady came up to me and said, 'Are you in one of those magazines?" I'm in one of these magazines, too!" And I was like, 'Oh, really? Ebony? Essence? What?' And she said, 'No, Big Black Asses.'"
"We used to always play Star Wars when we were kids, and I'd always play Lando Calrissian because I was the only black kid in the neighborhood. So as a result I'm hoping that Lando will be in the next Star Wars movie, and I can play him. 'Cause I have a lifetime of experience."
"I['ll] go to Napster.com to hear live performances that I would never hear any other way. I'll catch Tracy Chapman covering Marilyn Manson. I mean, where else are you gonna hear that?"
"As an artist I look up to Toni Morrison a lot...Sean Penn as an actor...Martin Luther King, which I know, it seems a bit cliché. But the more I understand about Martin Luther King and his life and his vision I'm more and more impressed. The more I grow as a man, the more I respect and admire him so much. Muhammad Ali . . . "
- J., going on and on about his heroes before the interviewer interrupts him and says at least he's not picking the lightweights."You know what? I'm saving my damn money. I'm saving every penny. You're going to see me driving my same car. Make fun of me all you want, but I'll be eating later on in life." - Upon being asked if he's splurged since he began working on AtS.
"We are allies. We both want vampires dead. But Angel being a vampire creates conflict because my character despises vampires; hates them on every level. So, I'll kill Angel last. Whoops, I shouldn't say that...but it's true. That's just how it is."
- On why his character Gunn and Angel get along so well."I've heard that a couple of times, and I think that is such a lazy comparison. The only thing that Blade and my character have in common is that we're black."
- Upon being asked about the common comparisons between Gunn and Blade."I just kind of riff sometimes and they'll pull me back or they'll just let it go. When they have a problem with it, they tell me. I'm glad they don't dumb [Gunn] down and make him say stupid things. he still speaks English and understand English." -
On Gunn's slang being written by a predominantly white cast.