Joss Whedon: That would be me. There's a little Billy Idol, a little Kiefer Sutherland in The Lost boys, and every guy in a black coat. I really thought the peroxide would define his face better, though James does curse my name for the burning scalp. (Source)

Bethany in Freeport, Illinois: Are you ever allowed to tan?
JM: No, no, no. I live three blocks from the beach, and I can't go there till twilight. I live like a real vampire. Although I am too white for my girlfriend, so I think I may tan this summer. (Source)

Q: How long does it take to put on the makeup for vampire face?

JM: About two hours, which is a good thing, ‘cause it means you can sleep in the morning. And Todd, the Emmy award-winning makeup artist responsible for it, slaps me when I drool. It's 4:30 in the morning, so I sleep while he's applying it. Most of the time is spent painting the appliance after they glue [it] onto my skull.

"I like makeup and everything," James laughed. "But that was pretty weird. (the full head casting process in order to create the vampire make-up) At first it was nice, just like sleeping with a warm pillow over my face. Then after twenty minutes when you're only breathing through your nose you're thinking if I get a stuffy nose I'm gonna die. Then it becomes a problem." "The makeup is wonderfully hideous. I love that I don't have to try to be scary. It's so light, I can raise my eyebrows and do what ever I want. The best thing I've found is to just forget that it's on." JM - 'An Undead Kind of Love' - May 1, 1998 by Cynthia Boris

"As far as the physical aspects of Spike, the makeup is fabulous. Todd McIntosh won and Emmy last year and he's absolutely the best there is. He takes his time with the makeup work. And they're comfortable. Spike looks the coolest he has ever looked. Of course, I can't get anyone to kiss me when I have the makeup on. The fights are just heaven. You can bash someone through a wall, but no one has to go to the hospital. My favorite days on set are fight days." - JM

Q: How does clothing or the lack of them affect how you act as a vampire?
JM: Clothing make a big difference. Shoes tend to make the biggest difference. Generally, I had one costume for Buffy. Black jeans, black shirts, black boots and sometimes the black coat. There was a whole lot of money that didn’t get spent on Spike. [Laughs] By the end of it, I was thinking I should go over to “Gilligan’s Island” because it had about come to that but they tried to give me some new clothes recently and it didn’t really work out. There’s something about Spike that needs a kind of a dirty authenticity that’s hard for television to really get so I’m glad we kept the black coat. (Text)

Q: Now that the filming is over, what did they do with Spike’s jacket?
JM: There were actually two jackets. One for Steve Tartalia, who plays Spike when he is getting thrown up against a wall or out a window and one for me. They both got so ratty and gross because of…how do I say this…we use KY a lot. They smear it all over the plastic applications to make them look slick and sweaty – more like real skin. There is KY smeared all over that thing, fake blood, dirt. To the point where, I used to give the coat to Sarah [Michelle Gellar – “Buffy”] if she got cold and she just refused me for the last two years saying “Get that thing away from me!” But yeah, there was somebody in the crew that was trying to talk me into taking it and they were saying on Ebay people were bidding $400,000 dollars for the jacket. I just couldn’t do that! I couldn’t steal. I used to produce theater and I hated actors who stole from me. It just drove me mad because I was working my fingers to the bone to keep the doors open and they are just taking costume pieces, which cost me thousands of dollars. I know that Joss doesn’t have that problem. [Chuckles] He probably has money for a new jacket but I just couldn’t do it. I was in my trailer staring at the thing and I’m like ‘I can’t live with myself stealing a half a million dollar piece of clothing.’ If they gave it to me, it would be a whole different thing – that would be nice but they’re not going to do that. (Text)

"I don't ever complain that I've only gotten one costume on this show because I don't want to lose that jacket! The T-shirt is mine. It's the one I wore to the audition. It says Barnard Movers on the back, but you never see that. I've had it about 15 years. I also wore the jeans and the boots at the audition." JM (TEXT)

"Spike wears only one costume: black jeans, black boots; black T-shirt, long sleeve shirt, and long black leather coat. I used to want a new costume until I got one: tan shorts, black boots, and Hawaiian shirt. Now, I like my good old costume just fine." JM (Source)

"It's the same boots, the same T-shirt the same jeans, socks and coat as the very first episode. I've only ever had one [costume]. I wish I could have more. I don't know why, but I haven't got them," he sighs. "You know, you pigeonhole a character if you don't change their physical look and telegraph to the audience that he only goes so deep. I think we very much need to see Spike in some other stuff... but that's up to the costumier." JM (The Realm)

"I haven't gotten leather pants. I'm waiting for them. I was in the same jeans and T-shirt for two years. I got a new costume now. They bought me new jeans and a black shirt. I'd like to wear leather pants, though." JM (Source)

"And he's just got the best coat in all of Hollywood. I haven't seen a better one, except for maybe Rutger Hauer's in Bladerunner." JM (TEXT)

"I think I have the best jacket on TV. I would love to have a coat like it, but I can't. Wearing it off the set would be like standing under a streetlight to see if anyone recognized me." - JM (TEXT)

"There's so much KY [lubricant jelly] on that jacket," he laughs. "They use it for demons-they rub KY on all the prosthetic stuff to make them shiny and I'm always whacking away at demons, so it's like, ' Oh my God, this jacket is so gross.' Yes, I would love a new costume." JM (TEXT)

"Yeah, from the back of a dead Slayer. (where he got his signature black leather coat) On one of my first entrances on the show, I wanted to rob the body of the guy I had just tagged. But the director saw Spike as an immortal prince and said he wasn't like that. I thought, 'no, Spike's a Sid Vicious - she's got a nice coat, just take it man!' So I was glad about him taking the coat. I always wanted to show Spike picking up off the bones of a dead body - the carrion", he smiles. "I always wanted to show him putting on his eyeliner and his makeup too", he laughs, "but I don't think we'll ever do that now. The time for that has come and gone." JM (TEXT)

"Also, the coat works and the hair works. If the coat had been shorter or the hair had been black, I would have been dead.'' JM (TEXT)

"Five hundred people are trying to make one guy look cool. Whoever they decide that they want to make look cool, they'll do it, and I'm very lucky that they decided to make me that guy. 'Cause why didn't Spike get killed, you know? His hair worked and his coat worked. Whatever the heck that it was. The accent and the coat or whatever. If they would have costumed me a different way, they might've just killed me, really. They had like a see-through plastic shirt and stuff like it because it was supposed to be punk, it was like glam-punk. If they would have done that, people would have hated me, and I would have died. I got so lucky." - JM

"I have no idea why Spike is sexy. He's sexy because Joss tells me to play him as if he is. To me, Spike is a magic trick that I'm in on. I'm pulling some of the strings on that puppet, but there are a lot of other people manipulating that character, not just me. I like my part of it, and I'm proud of it. I love the character, but in a way when I'm looking at the TV show, he's not me. The character is defined by what he says, not how he says it. Spike is defined on the page - when you read a script, you can see that. However it is good to see that he's still sexy." JM (TEXT)

Q:Spike went from being the epitome of cool to losing his will to kill when government scientists put a microchip in his head. Do you miss the good ol' bloodsucking days?
JM: At first I wanted Joss to put all the engines of his imagination towards making me look cool. It was just ridiculous on my part. Ask any actor what he wants for his character, and he'll tell you bagging babes and punching guys. But I'm finally waking up to the fact that something much more interesting is happening. I got exactly the opposite of what I wanted, but it's exactly what I needed.

"In the words of Sid Vicious" — he adopted a slurred British accent — " `Girls love me 'cause I've got a nice face and a good figure.' " Turning serious, he added: "Women enjoy the potency of Spike. But if a man is bad, he will be bad to you." JM (Text1 and Text2)

Q:Why do you think fans love Spike so much?
JM: I think Spike's appeal is that he can take whatever, or whoever he wants, whenever he wants. Instant Gratification. That, and the fact that he has bleached blond hair without roots.

Q:What is it about Spike that makes him so irresistible?
JM: He's a total contradiction. Going into it, Spike was really sweet to his girl, Drusilla. He really loved her and treated her like a queen. But, he's also a complete psychopathic demon from hell. He's the kind of guy who's inexplicable and interesting at the same time.