http://www.slayernews.com/Articles/11111999.php

Vamping it up with James Marsters
November 11, 1999
From HoosierTimes.com

By: Ian Spelling

James Marsters likes vampires as much as the next guy -- he just never counted on making his living playing one.

But as the ferocious Spike on both "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel", the 28-year-old actor is doing precisely that.

"How could I imagine any of this?" Marsters says by telephone from his "Buffy" trailer during a lunch break. "Spike was supposed to die within three to five episodes. The original idea was that I was kind of an ornament for Dru (Juliet Landau), Angel (David Boreanaz) would go and kill me, presumably as one of his first acts of evil, then take Dru as his new paramour.

"So I was very surprised to be asked to come back after my fifth "Buffy" episode," he says, "I think (series creator/writer) Joss Whedon just said, "You don't suck so bad."

Actually, Marsters sucked so well that Whedon kept summoning the Slayer-slaying vamp, Spike -- whose penchant for torturing people with railroad spikes inspired his nickname -- wreaked havoc throughout much of Season Two, beginning with "School Hard."

He was eventually left burned to a crisp and wheelchair-bound, but recovered enough to raise some hell in Season Three's "Lovers Walk." Now that Angel has landed his own show, Whedon elected to spike "Buffy" with more Spike.

Starting on November 16, with the episode entitled "The Initiative," Marsters joins "Buffy" as a regular, co-starring with the title slayer Sarah Michelle Gellar. He'll also make his bite felt on "Angel," guest-starring on another one or two episodes during that series' freshman season.

So what's on tap on "Buffy" -- besides a new gal (Mercedes McNab as Harmony) and a likely visit from a sure-to-be-jealous Dru?

"I don't know," Marsters says. "I don't mean to be an asshole, but I really only get details script to script. Also, I'm shackled by Joss' need for secrecy, which I completely respect -- as a storyteller, he needs to be able to deal the cards as he wants to."

"Suffice it to say I was more evil and violent that ever in the 'Buffy'/'Angel' crossover, and we'll take it from there," he says. "Whatever happens with Spike, he'll be the same on both "Buffy" and "Angel." Everything will be the same -- the hair, the makeup, the attitude."

"I haven't been on Buffy's side so far, but I assume that something will have to change or they'll have to stake me," Marsters adds. "I've given up trying to second-guess what they're going to put on my plate, because everytime I thinkI know where they're going, they go in the exact opposite direction and, of course, mine much more gold than I ever would have found."

"If it were up to me," he concludes, "I'd only be killing a lot of people and quipping. And they're taking the character in a lot of different directions."

Though the California native counts among his credits episodes of "Northern Exposure" and the as-yet-unreleased indie feature _Winding Roads_, he's done his share of genre work: "Buffy" buffs remember his guest-star spot in a "Millennium" hour and know that he appears briefly in the horror flick _The House On Haunted Hill_.

Right now, though, Spike is Marster's calling card.

"People who meet me on the street want me to bite them," Marsters says. "I'll get girls who say 'Bite here, baby!' -- and then my girlfriend kicks their ass.

"In general, I get a lot of 'You look like Spike' comments," he says. "People think the character is British -- and I, of course, am not -- so they'll inch forward and listen to my accent, and sometimes they'll get a disappointed look in their eyes and leave."

"Sometimes they'll come up to me and say I look like Spike." Marsters adds. "I'll turn around and say, 'But, love, I *am* Spike."