James Marsters says his ‘Buffy’ character Spike was ‘disposable’
October 16, 2017 | 2:25pm
James Marsters in "Buffy The Vampire Slayer"
20th Century Fox
James Marsters is reflecting on his iconic, bleached-blond super villain character Spike 20 years after “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” premiered.
“To Joss Whedon, evil is not cool and I really respect that — Spike was put up as cool and evil only because he was a disposable character,” Marsters, 55, told Page Six. “He was supposed to die.”
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The “Runaways” actor told us that Whedon had intended for Spike to get killed off by Angel, the show’s moral vampire, early on. Whedon, who created the show, was not happy when fans began to like Spike.
“It was not supposed to be romantic, but the audience was responding that way and Joss was freaking out,” he told us. “He backed me up against a wall one day and said, ‘I don’t care how popular you are, you are dead.'”
He continued, “Spike was the wrong boyfriend. Spike was not ready for Buffy during the run of the show. He was way below her and because the reaction was so strong … they had to do something dramatic to prove that wasn’t true.”
The move, which became one of the show’s biggest controversies, came in the sixth season of the series when Spike attempts to rape Buffy in the bathroom of her home before she fights him off.
“It was the hardest day of my professional career. It was a horrible day,” Marsters told us. “I personally don’t like to watch that stuff. I will not go to a movie if I know that’s in there. I will turn the TV off if it pops up. I will pass on auditions if thats what they want me to do, but I was contracted to do it.”
Marsters says the storyline came from one of the female writers who threw herself on an ex-boyfriend in college in hopes of him taking her back.
20th Century Fox
“She went to his apartment and was convinced if they made love one more time that everything would be fine,” he explained. “He had to physically push her off and that just crushed her and stuck with her all her life.”
The actor says he has no regrets about doing the scene and despite the mixed reviews, it set Spike up for his “journey toward redemption.”
Marsters will be back on TV Nov. 21 starring as a super villain (of course) in Marvel’s “Runaways” on Hulu.
As a #TeamSpike person, I'm not at all upset Joss kept @JamesMarstersOf around all those years https://t.co/TwLAKRJuie via @pagesix
— Lindsey Kupfer (@Lindseykupfer) October 16, 2017
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