DAVID FURY
(co–executive producer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Season seven was nice in that we got to get out of a little bit of the darkness of six, which was entirely about Buffy recovering from being dead. It was a little bit of a downer. And seven marked a chance for us to kind of lighten things a little bit. When we were talking about season seven, trying to figure it out, what I remember was we didn’t really have anything to begin with. We all kind of got together and Joss is looking for what the Big Bad should be and eventually we landed on the First and then tried to figure out what the First’s plan was. I believe I was the one that proposed this idea of, for better or worse, the Potentials.
The seventh season’s nefarious Big Bad is the First, the oldest form of evil in existence. It has no corporeal form, and instead it can take the shape of anyone who has died. Throughout the season, it takes the ghost-like visage of Buffy with the intention of destroying the entire slayer lineage, which includes Buffy and a reformed Faith as well as all Potential Slayers; ordinary girls next in line to be called to become the slayer. Once the First destroys the slayer line, the scales of good and malevolence will be definitively tipped toward evil, so that the First can become all-powerful once more and walk the earth.
DAVID FURY
In Joss’s construction of the mythology of the show, it was very clear—and we had to discuss this—there can be only one slayer, but obviously when we had Kendra come on and we had Faith come on, there had to be other girls who were aware of the fact that they may be called to be the slayer and were trained. A lot of the girls wouldn’t know. They’d go through life never knowing they were that. Then there were some who Watchers recognized as being a Potential and “I’m going to train her in case that day comes.” That was not part of the show’s mythology until that point.
Joss works from the point of whatever is serving the story; he wants to tell in the moment. Bringing Kendra in was more important than figuring out the logic of how could she suddenly come in and be a slayer with having to have a Watcher, since she talks about being trained for years. It didn’t quite line up, but he never really gave it much thought. But we had to address it in seven when I made the suggestion, What if we do a plot that’s kind of like a spy thriller, where all the spies are being murdered all over the world? The idea of Potentials, any girl that might become the slayer, being eliminated. That was what we landed on, and I got to write one of the early episodes; I got to introduce a lot of the Potentials who became regulars for the season. For better or worse, because some people didn’t love the idea. Some people felt it took the smallness away from the slayer to suddenly have all these girls in there. But Joss embraced it when he recognized there was a great statement to be made that all of you have the potential to be slayers. All girls, all women, have that potential. So the idea of bestowing that and Buffy sharing her powers for mystical reasons to the others, and them all being elevated to slayer status, was, I think, a very wonderful, empowering message, regardless of whether or not the sticklers for the mythology thought it was good. As a co–executive producer of the show to suddenly give this whole idea of an army of slayers was fun.
Among the First’s allies are Caleb, a sadistic “priest” played by Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Castle), and the murder of Potentials leads Giles and Willow to seek out the remaining Potentials to bring them to Sunnydale, where they will be trained by Buffy and Faith to battle the First.
JOSS WHEDON
Everybody was tired of being depressed, including us. It was the last season, and we wanted to get back to where we started. Let’s go back to the beginning. Not the word, not the bang, the real beginning—and the real beginning is girl power. The real beginning is, What does it mean to be a slayer? And not to feel guilty about the power, but, having seen the dark side of it, to find the light again. To explore the idea of the slayer fully and perhaps to see a very grown-up and romantic and confusing relationship that isn’t about power but is actually genuinely beautiful between two people, Buffy and Spike. We were very focused on that.
ELIZABETH CRAFT
(executive story editor, Angel)
At the end of Buffy, they won. They closed the Hellmouth. Angel ended with a loss—the apocalypse.
DAVID FURY
For a while we didn’t know it was the last season, so it was not one of those things where we immediately knew what the end would be, but I think it made for a great climax of the series to just eternally close up the Hellmouth and essentially Sunnydale being swallowed up. I thought it was great. And the whole question of Buffy, saying, “What’s next?” She now had choices that she didn’t have before. I thought it was a wonderful way to end the show.
SARAH LEMELMAN
(author, It’s About Power: Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Stab at Establishing the Strength of Girls on American Television)
Before the First Evil’s plan is even set in motion, Buffy realizes that it is important to share what she has learned over her years as a slayer. She first does this with her younger sister, Dawn, telling her, “It’s about power—who’s got it, who knows how to use it.” In this instance, she is finally training Dawn how to fight vampires, something that Dawn had been desperate to learn for so long, but Buffy believed it to be something that her baby sister should be guarded against.
Buffy guides both Dawn and the show’s viewers to one of the most important teachings of the show: “Power. He’s got it. He’s going to use it. It’s real. It’s the only lesson . . .” This interaction is more than the power of vampires—it is about the power divides in society, and even though power might be naturally gifted to men, Buffy demonstrates that women can wield it, too.
JAMES MARSTERS
(actor, Spike)
Plan B, in case Sarah could not be wooed into more episodes, they were searching for a replacement for her. They had the idea of the Potentials. I don’t know if there was five or seven wonderful young actresses that they were looking at to see if one of them could be the new Buffy.
DAVID FURY
Not true at all. I love James, but he has no idea what he’s talking about. Potentials was not a network decision. It was my idea that I pitched to Joss, and he wound up buying the idea. I will say there was always talk, I think, from the network of Dawn being somebody, initially in the inception, but I don’t think that ever became serious. It was just a thought in the beginning of, like, “Oh, maybe if Sarah doesn’t come back we can keep Dawn.” But Dawn never landed as strong as a character as we’d hoped. As great as Michelle was, she just didn’t seem to be the character to carry the show. If there was going to be a spin-off, I guarantee you it was always going to be Faith. There’s no reason at all to look elsewhere than Eliza, because Faith was an awesome character. So trust me, the Potentials was not a network plan to spin off the show.
JAMES MARSTERS
It was tough, though; every scene that had the Potentials in them, you had to do coverage on all those actors. So when you’re doing a scene with two people, you do the master shot and then you do the close-ups on each actor, and it takes a certain amount of time. If there’s three people in the scene, it takes a lot longer because you have to do coverage on the third person. If you do a scene with seven people, it takes a long time to finish that scene because you have to do close-ups on everybody. And so with the Potentials you have to do seven extra shots in addition to the regular cast. You’d have like twelve people, and those were long days. Those were back-breaking days. My memory is, “Oh no! A Potentials scene; we’re gonna be here all day.” They were all lovely people, they were all really nice, and they were excited to be doing the show, but it was a lot of shots.
FELICIA DAY
(actress, Vi)
I was a baby actress. I had moved to L.A. two years before. I was just learning what the acting world was like. I had done Bring It on Again and commercials and a few guest stars and was really green. I went in and had auditioned for Amy Acker’s role on Angel, the pilot season,
before. They had liked me for that, but clearly Amy Acker is amazing. But I got called back the next year for this guest star, and I went in and it was an Asian role. I don’t know if they couldn’t find the actress or I actually went in for the guest star of the girl who died in that episode. She was a blond girl who turned out to be a demon posing as a Potential. I read for that and they were, like, “OK, can you go out and read these other sides for this other part?” They didn’t even say what it was. It turned out it was supposed to be an Asian girl.
Fortunately, I’m a better cold reader than auditioner, because I get nervous. I’m kind of a bomb in audition rooms until I have to improv or cold read. So it was actually to my advantage. They gave me three monologues, this long audition piece. I came in and was flying by the seat of my pants and that’s what I do the best. I went out thinking I’m never going to get this, and then they called me the next day and booked me, and I was working the day after that. It was a real surprise. They renamed the part Vi, and then they ended up bringing in a girl who played the Asian Potential from Shanghai, Chao-Ahn, but she didn’t speak English. It was a really twisty, weird, windy way to get the role.
SARAH LEMELMAN
In the tenth episode of the season, entitled, “Bring on the Night,” Giles arrives to Sunnydale and introduces the first of many Potential Slayers. Along with this, he tells Buffy the First Evil’s master plot to eliminate the slayer line, and Giles, continuing to stick with what he knows—books—says to Buffy, “I’m afraid it falls to you . . . We’ll do what we can, but you’re the only one who has the strength to protect these girls and the world against what’s coming.”
Here, it is believed by Giles that Buffy must follow her preordained path and face what is to come, alone, once more. It is the arrival of Kennedy, a new Potential Slayer (who states, “That’s it? That’s the plan? I don’t see how one person—even a slayer—could protect us”) that prompts Buffy to change her approach in tackling and making decisions. These lines by Kennedy are the commencement of a togetherness and unity for each and every female on the show, despite the differences of being a slayer, Potential Slayer, witch, or even a human. Each has their own strength, even if it is not physical, and each can contribute in a positive way. No longer will Buffy stand for her life, or the other girls’ lives, as being the pawn of destiny and fate.
It is at this point where the viewers see that although women may have their backs against the wall in society, as Buffy and her army of girls are depicted as in this season, these roles do not have to define who they are as people. There is always a point of fighting, and being fearless, despite all the difficulties and limitations placed on women and girls. It is possible to break out of society’s clutches and create one’s own power. There may be barriers and men who have more power, but working as a single unit can begin a movement for change.
JOSS WHEDON
Seventh season, more than any other, has a lot of single episodes that I’m very proud of, but at the same time we were never more concentrated on putting everything in place to get to the last episode, to really feel as though we’ve wrapped things up. Without ending everything, we wanted to really get the sense of closure. This was always the message.
FELICIA DAY
I had heard about Buffy in college. I hadn’t really watched the show, although I love fantasy and sci-fi and I was obsessed with Star Trek as a kid. But I never got to watch any of these shows, so I didn’t know who Joss Whedon was. One day at lunch when a lot of the Potentials were there, this dude sits down at the table with us Potentials and starts talking. He didn’t introduce himself. I was like, Who is this guy sitting at our table? He starts talking to all the actors, and somehow he says, “Well, most actors just don’t have a college degree.” I, of course, took this as a personal insult. Because I’m very uppity and I was homeschooled, my social skills are low. I said, “Well, I have a music degree and a 4.0 GPA.” I really sounded like an ass. At the end of the meal, I asked one of the girls, Who is that guy? They told me he was the creator of the show. So I expected to get killed off. I honestly did, because we were dropping like flies throughout the season anyway and I really laid a poop on the table there. But I think it worked to my advantage, because he does like smart-mouth girls. Thank God he has good taste like that.
SARAH LEMELMAN
The final season of Buffy steps away from the idea that Buffy must grapple with the weight of the world on her shoulders, completely alone. A larger picture is shown, where the First Evil is introduced, with the master plan of killing the entire Slayer line—including all Potential Slayers, who have not yet been called upon. For once, Buffy sees that she is no longer alone and that there are girls across the world who are scared like her, as each of them may one day face the burden of being the slayer, a life that, as it is written, means death. This bond that Buffy begins to recognize in the final season draws many parallels from the Riot Grrrls of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Returning to don prosthetics again in seventh season was Camden Toy, who had last been seen as one of the Gentlemen in fourth season’s “Hush.” This time he would play Gnarl in “Same Time, Same Place.”
CAMDEN TOY
(actor, Gnarl)
They were so excited by the Gentlemen that they kept saying we’re definitely going to have you back, but as time went on they realized if we bring the Gentlemen back, what do we do with them? It was such a complete standalone episode, so that never happened, but I stayed in touch with casting. I constantly was going, “Hey, I heard you’re casting this ‘blah bitty blah’ role. Can I come in and read for it?” and they’d go, “Nah.” They weren’t having me in, and I was wondering what was going on. It wasn’t until seventh season when my acting career had really slowed down and I had gone back to editing that I got a call from casting. They told me they had a role they were having trouble with and she said, “You’re really thin; that’s our memory.” And I said I was, and then she asked how tall I was, since they were looking for short people, which I’m not. She goes, “OK, hmmm. Well, we’ve got this role and we’re really having trouble casting it and we were looking at really short people and nobody is getting it. Would you mind coming in and reading for it?” And I said, “I don’t mind.” And it was Gnarl, the skin-eating demon. He’s literally the Hannibal Lecter of the demon world.
For whatever reason, people would come in and audition as though this was for a normal role. He’s a demon from another realm, so you kind of have to use your imagination in a way that you don’t have to do with a lot of television acting. I don’t think they fully understood what they wanted until I brought what I did and all these different layers kept happening. When I finally got the role, they rushed me into makeup and they had to take a mold of my head, my feet, my teeth, and my hands. They eventually gave me finger extensions to play with as well. I got the teeth ahead of time, which usually doesn’t happen; so often with roles that involve teeth, they would have to postdub the lines, because you put the teeth in and you can’t really understand what they’re saying. I had so much time ahead of shooting with the teeth that I was able to practice and actually able to say all that dialogue with those teeth in. They were shocked. The producers couldn’t believe it. That never happens.
I was very lucky. Rob Hall’s company, Almost Human, were very generous. They made an extra pair for me to take home and they made me an extra pair of the finger extensions, so I was able to really wrap my lips around the dialogue in a way that I would not have been able to if I couldn’t rehearse with the teeth.
At this point, makeup maestro Robert Hall and his company Almost Human had replaced Optic Nerve as the vendor for the show’s many prosthetics as well as for Angel, where Hall and his team, which included Jason Collins and Elvis Jones (now the owner of their own makeup and effects shop, Autonomous FX) created some of the show’s most memorable creatures.
CAMDEN TOY
Up until about the middle of season six it was John Vulich’s company, and Todd McInt
osh was the key on the show. Rob [Hall] was already working on Angel, and they really liked what he was doing on Angel, so they decided to say, “Hey, would you mind doing one character?” So he did Sweet, Hinton Battle’s character from “Once More, with Feeling,” and they really liked what he did, because he didn’t do a typical demon. It was different than usual. And, of course, Rob is unusual in that he has a shop, but he’s also in the makeup guild. He can come on set and apply the makeup. I don’t think that that sat well with Todd, since he was the key in makeup and he wanted to control that. He eventually left the show, and Rob took over the entire thing. Rob was actually applying that makeup, but with his shop designing and building it as well, which is unusual.
RAYMOND STELLA
(director of photography, Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
We had our problems lighting makeup prosthetics so more is left to the imagination and keeping it from looking like rubber. It was a big show, so they had good people working. They had a lot of good prosthetics and a lot of different characters on that show. Once it started taking off, they started putting more and more money into it. That’s the problem when you become a hit show: it becomes harder and harder, because you have to be a lot more innovative than you were in the start. It’s like being number one; it’s harder to stay there than to get there.
DAVID BOREANAZ
(actor, Angel)
The difficult part is taking it off. You can’t just rip it off, because you’ll rip all your skin off. And that hurts. So it’s difficult. But we had a great crew who did a wonderful job. It’s exciting to see them create stuff. I’ll look to my left and there’s a Frankenstein monster. In one episode I was turned into a demon, so I had to wear a full prosthetic. It’s tedious depending on what you’re in.
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