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"Joss
sometimes says to me, 'Could I have a little less Laurence Olivier
and a little more Tim Roth?' So I try to simplify and not act
so
much. Because I've done some stage work and I tend to go too big
sometimes. Basically, I have too much fun. One of the other sources
for Spike was an Emperor
of Rome called Caligula, who was a sick and twisted man. He
had an affair with his half sister - her
name was Drusilla. So who knows the history of Dru and Spike!" JM
"Yeah...
the touchstone that Joss gave me was Sid
Vicious, because he wanted the Sid
and Nancy of the vampire world, and after he cast me, he came
over and said "Less Olivier and a little more Tim Roth, if
you would . .." So I've been trying to give him that if I
can. Some people have said he got Billy
Idol and not Sid
Vicious (laughs)... well, I'm not Sid
Vicious, but I think the Billy
Idol part -- that's the hair." JM (TEXT)
"Joss
called me up out of the blue," the actor tells Cult Times. "I
had resigned myself that I would never be able to work with him
again. It was too painful to hope for. How many times does lightning
strike? How many times do you win the lotto? Do you know what
I mean? He is a marvellous writer. He is one of the best America
has right now in film, television or stage.
"Like a lot of things when you let go, it comes to you. He just called me
up and said, 'I would like to have you be a cast member'. I picked my tongue
up off the floor - I'm the luckiest actor in Hollywood!" JM (The
Realm) "The only real creative input is what shows out
of my eyes and what goes on between my own ears. Which can be
substantial, when
the camera goes close-up on you, that's all there is for that moment.
I have no input as far as story or character development with respect
to writing. For example, when Spike was in a wheelchair last season
and Dru was climbing all over Angel--sticking her tongue in his
ear and stuff--I could have played that a lot of ways, and I chose
to play it angry. I could have been sad..." JM (Source)
"What
I want for the character has absolutely no bearing on what's
gonna happen. And thank God, because it's much more interesting
that way. You know, I have given up my preferences. What I want
is usually less interesting than what happens. I learned this
like three years ago. I wanted what I later figured out every
actor wants, which is to beat up guys and kiss chicks. It always
devolves back to what [the actor] wants for next season. He'll
give you this great storyline, with all this sub-plotting, but
it will always come down to, he will be kissing girls and kicking
butt. And that's just not exciting. Marti is paid to come up
with stuff much more interesting than that. The characters get
whip-lashed. If you think of any character on our show, they
don't go through the same kind of experiences two seasons in
a row. They have radically different journeys every year. At
least for myself, it has been impossible to get bored. And so
like I told Joss- you may have heard this before- I feel like
I'm on a roller-coaster where the first hump is scary and you're
screaming, but by the middle of the ride, you're laughing, and
you don't care any more where you're headed. You're just having
fun." JM (TEXT)
"I
don't know," he says. "I don't know. When I came on
the show as a regular (beginning in Season Four after first appearing
on the show as a guest star in Season Two's School Hard) I really
assumed that the major arcs would be laid out to you at the start
of the season and that things would be talked about. What I learned
is that these guys are tap-dancing as fast as they can. It's
impossible to tell an actor what the upcoming arcs are because
they really might change. And I have stopped asking. I really
don't know what's going to happen for Spike. It might be possible
for me to find out, but, for me, Spike doesn't know what's going
to happen, so why should I? I found out that Meryl Streep reads
a script one time and that's it. When she goes into a film, she
doesn't even remember where this scene fits into the movie. That's
not her job. Her job is just to be real in the moment. And so,
as I told Joss two years ago, I have embraced sloth and ignorance.
I think I'm getting it. He almost went into a blind panic, of
course, because he didn't understand me. But, like the rest of
us, I wait to find out what the new adventure is every week,
except that I'm about four weeks ahead of the audience." JM
(The
Realm)
"It
was easy," notes the actor, who's spent the last four seasons
sinking his teeth into the role of the vampire Spike. "I've
never played a character for this long. I'm used to doing stage,
where you live with a character for a maximum of about four months.
After five years, there really is a space somewhere in my soul
where Spike and Buffy really do live. There really is a Sunnydale
inside me somewhere. So when Buffy really was dead and I really
was Spike it wasn't hard at all to break down. It was crushing.
That's the weird thing about acting, man. We're not insane, but
we're paid to use our imaginations as fully as we can. So somewhere
down inside my heart there is a Spike and a Buffy and he's very
much hoping that he'll get a little bit more time with Buffy." JM
(The
Realm)
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