Buffy The Vampire Slayer

BOGALUSA n Die hard Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans, while reviewing old episodes, may spot a familiar face. Kevin Hughes of Bogalusa has played a Sunnydale High School teacher and a resident vampire in the series, which will wrap up tomorrow at 7 p.m. on the UPN Network after a seven-year run.

Hughes said he owes his roles in the series to Dolly Parton, whom he met when he and his family appeared in Dolly, Down in New Orleans, shot by ABC Television in March of 1988 and airing in April of that year. This part made Hughes and his family Screen Actors Guild eligible.

"We filmed aboard the Steamship Natchez," said Hughes. "We just stayed in touch and things started falling into play."

Parton, part owner of Sandollar Productions, which produces Buffy, made a few phone calls for Hughes and helped him get a foot in the door at the Santa Monica 20th Century Fox Studios where the series is filmed.

"The rest was up to me," Hughes said.

In the spring of 1997, Hughes was selected as one of hundreds of extras in the series. "Working with hundreds of extras doesn’t allow much camera time, but just the opportunity to be on a hit series was more than I could ever hope for," Hughes said.

But Hughes admitted that filming was no cakewalk. "When you shoot episodic television, it takes about five days to shoot one production. Films have a bigger budget, so the shoot will take about three to four months," Hughes explained. "One thing remains the same for both television and film: an average work day on the set is about 16 hours a day."

Hair and makeup is done at 6 a.m., according to Hughes, and actors arrive on the set by 8 a.m. for a daytime shoot. For a nigh shoot, Hughes said, makeup and hair is done at 5 p.m. and actors arrive on the set at 8 p.m.

Although Hughes had no lines in the episode, he said he did make some great memories "I have great memories of the Buffy shoot because the cast and crew have really big hearts," he said. "It’s just a shame that some of those ’hearts’ get staked in the line of ’Buffy duty.’"

Hughes majored in communications at UNO and worked more as a feature extra, stand-in, and production assistant for productions that were shot on location in Louisiana. Working on Buffy, he said, was a paid vacation any actor would jump for. "I got to meet Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nick Brendon, Tony Head, David Boreanaz, Alyson Hannigan, and Kris Sutherland," he said.

"They are as nice of a bunch of people you would ever want to meet."

Hughes said that the cast and crew were even nice enough to give him a director’s chair and copy of the final script to bring home as a keepsake. Hughes wouldn’t give out any details of the final show, which he said he plans to watch in his "Buffy chair."

"All I can tell you is that any die hard Buffy fan will be glad they watched," he said.

Hughes has also been in JFK, Hard Target, The Big Easy, and Ann Rice’s Rag and Bone.

"I’ve always been a struggling actor," he said. "If I never do another show again, I’ll always be happy that have these memories."