Angel Being Love Interest On Buffy Wasn’t Joss Whedon’s Idea
Jul 16, 2020 2:11:43 GMT -5
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Post by Trinity on Jul 16, 2020 2:11:43 GMT -5
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Angel being a love interest on Buffy the Vampire Slayer was not Joss Whedon’s idea. In spite of the fact that the last episode of Buffy aired almost two decades ago, the series continues to spark conversation and attract new fans for the way it perfectly blended supernatural scares with the everyday struggles of moving through life.
Part of the way Buffy accomplished this blend, initially, was through the relationship that Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) had with Angel (David Boreanaz). A vampire with a soul, Angel complicated Buffy’s belief that all vampires were irredeemable monsters. The two characters would go on to have a star-crossed romance which defined the show’s early years. For many fans, helped by the strong chemistry between Gellar and Boreanaz, the pairing of Buffy and Angel was a significant draw to the world of Sunnydale. But according to James Marsters, who played Spike on the show, Angel being a love interest wasn’t the idea of series creator Joss Whedon. It wasn’t even Whedon’s preference, at first.
In a new interview on the Inside of You podcast, Marsters explained to host Michael Rosenbaum that Whedon had a very specific idea about how vampires should be depicted on his show. Whedon’s vision, unlike other examples of vampires in popular culture, didn’t place the brooding and bloodsucking creatures at the center of the narrative. Marsters acknowledges that Angel emerged as the exception to the rule, while also adding a caveat. Read Marsters' quote below:
“Joss felt that vampires should be ugly, they should be very quickly overcome. and they were not supposed to be sexy. He said, ‘I don’t like that Anne Rice crap.’ He got talked into one romantic interest vampire - that was Angel - it wasn’t his idea. That was the only one, that was the exception.”
Marsters goes on to explain that Whedon’s reluctance to shift away from his vision ultimately came down to his belief that vampires, as stand-ins for evil, should not be portrayed as cool or redeemable. This fits with Whedon’s frustration at how Spike was proving to be a popular antagonist, but it similarly matches up to how other vaunted villains have been written across Buffy’s seven seasons. Whether it’s the narcissistic and dimwitted Glory or the impotent Trio of season 6, truly villainous characters on Buffy usually had a few notable flaws which kept the audience from rooting for them. In Whedon’s assessment, the focus needed to remain on the heroes of the series.
Whedon did ultimately diverge from this mandate, allowing Angel to evolve enough over the course of Buffy’s first three seasons that he was eventually capable of headlining his own spinoff. The spinoff, as a whole, took a more nuanced approach to the idea of contrasting good with evil. Many fans and critics have argued that Angel is the stronger show precisely for its nuanced and gradually darker approach to storytelling. Still, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is undoubtedly the more influential show. Although love interests like Angel and Spike were given depth through memorable arcs, at its best the series remained faithful to its central conceit: taking the young woman that was so often an easy victim in many horror stories and allowing her to save the world.
Source: Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum
Part of the way Buffy accomplished this blend, initially, was through the relationship that Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) had with Angel (David Boreanaz). A vampire with a soul, Angel complicated Buffy’s belief that all vampires were irredeemable monsters. The two characters would go on to have a star-crossed romance which defined the show’s early years. For many fans, helped by the strong chemistry between Gellar and Boreanaz, the pairing of Buffy and Angel was a significant draw to the world of Sunnydale. But according to James Marsters, who played Spike on the show, Angel being a love interest wasn’t the idea of series creator Joss Whedon. It wasn’t even Whedon’s preference, at first.
In a new interview on the Inside of You podcast, Marsters explained to host Michael Rosenbaum that Whedon had a very specific idea about how vampires should be depicted on his show. Whedon’s vision, unlike other examples of vampires in popular culture, didn’t place the brooding and bloodsucking creatures at the center of the narrative. Marsters acknowledges that Angel emerged as the exception to the rule, while also adding a caveat. Read Marsters' quote below:
“Joss felt that vampires should be ugly, they should be very quickly overcome. and they were not supposed to be sexy. He said, ‘I don’t like that Anne Rice crap.’ He got talked into one romantic interest vampire - that was Angel - it wasn’t his idea. That was the only one, that was the exception.”
Marsters goes on to explain that Whedon’s reluctance to shift away from his vision ultimately came down to his belief that vampires, as stand-ins for evil, should not be portrayed as cool or redeemable. This fits with Whedon’s frustration at how Spike was proving to be a popular antagonist, but it similarly matches up to how other vaunted villains have been written across Buffy’s seven seasons. Whether it’s the narcissistic and dimwitted Glory or the impotent Trio of season 6, truly villainous characters on Buffy usually had a few notable flaws which kept the audience from rooting for them. In Whedon’s assessment, the focus needed to remain on the heroes of the series.
Whedon did ultimately diverge from this mandate, allowing Angel to evolve enough over the course of Buffy’s first three seasons that he was eventually capable of headlining his own spinoff. The spinoff, as a whole, took a more nuanced approach to the idea of contrasting good with evil. Many fans and critics have argued that Angel is the stronger show precisely for its nuanced and gradually darker approach to storytelling. Still, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is undoubtedly the more influential show. Although love interests like Angel and Spike were given depth through memorable arcs, at its best the series remained faithful to its central conceit: taking the young woman that was so often an easy victim in many horror stories and allowing her to save the world.
Source: Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum
