'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' star James Marsters says New York and Chicago 'wish' they were like Toronto

Yahoo

16-03-2025

While the Buffy the Vampire Slayer legacy is haunted by the cloud of its creator, Joss Whedon, who has faced several allegations of misconduct since 2021, fans are still incredibly supportive of the show's stars. The Toronto Comicon main stage was packed with people excited to hear from James Marsters, who played Spike on Buffy, and then Angel.
Marsters started the discussion by putting the crowd in a great mood, where he shared his love for Toronto. It's the city where he filmed the 2005 movie Cool Money.
"I think that Toronto is kind of like what New York or Chicago wishes it was like," the 62-year-old actor said on Saturday at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. "Whenever they use Toronto for New York, I'm just like, 'New York doesn't look that good.'"
But one of the first questions of the discussion had Marsters confirm that his beloved Buffy character, Spike, was only supposed to have a small arc in the show's second season before quickly being killed off. As Marsters revealed, when he started working on the show, things changed after an act of rebellion on the actor's part.
"Joss backed me up against a wall one time and he goes, 'I don't care how popular you are, you are dead.' ... Like, dude, it's your football, whatever," Marsters said. "I was told that ... vampires for Buffy were just metaphors for the challenges that one has to overcome in adolescence, and they were designed to be overcome." While Marsters initially said he would oblige, he had other ideas.
Specifically, Marsters remembers Season 2, Episode 14, titled "Innocence." In that episode, Drusilla said she's naming all the stars and Spike responded by saying, "You can't see the stars, love. That's the ceiling." Marsters highlighted that in the script it was a rather rude line. However, he decided to play it in a way that was more endearing on the day, which the actor still can't believe he got away with while filming that episode.
Marsters also shared that becoming a father gave him the confidence to go against the script. As he explained to the crowd in Toronto, he moved to Los Angeles because he had become a dad. While he had a "blast" as a performing artist, he was also "poor" and had to think about financially providing for his child.
"When you're a father and you can't provide health coverage to your baby, that's not a good place to be in," Marsters said. "So almost anything becomes justified."
Later in the Comicon discussion in Toronto, Marsters confirmed a few interesting tidbits about filming Buffy and Angel.
Firstly, Angel was "easy" in terms of the schedule because the Buffy spinoff filmed for about 12 hours a day. On the other hand, Buffy was minimum 16-hour days, but oftentimes 20-hour days. Additionally, instead of reading the lines for Spike in his first audition, he decided to perform lines from Macbeth.
"I had just come from Seattle, where I had done a really successful Macbeth, and I was so arrogant, which worked for Spike," Marsters said. "I felt like I was the only real actor, ... the rest of these people wanted to be stars, and that was a very different thing."
The actor also has a particular affinity for Spike, saying that he had "the best role on the show" and that "I still pinch myself that I got to do that."
A significant element of Buffy is that it has been able to establish and sustain this intense fandom for decades. Even after Whedon's scandal, the show and these character are particularly important to people worldwide.
When asked about the impact Buffy has made, Marsters highlighted that the show is truthful about one of the most universal, timeless messages: "it's hard to be a human being."
"To just admit that, it's very powerful," Marsters said. "What Buffy did was ask the writers ... to come up with their worst day, the day that they don't like to talk about, the one that keeps them up at night, ... the day they almost gave up, and then slap fangs, metaphorically speaking, on that painful memory of theirs, and tell the whole world about it.
"It was a sustained act of courage and vulnerability from some very talented writers. ... And then it says the kicker, which is, but life is worth it. Keep going. Don't give up. And a lot of projects have the 'don't give up' part, ... but it lands so much harder with Buffy because ... of giving space to the truth, which is hard, for all of us."