Angel

I hope I’m different from Wesley in lots of ways’ Alexis Denisof goes in depth about Wesley stepping up to the plate, living overseas, and his Star Trek fanaticism.

The WB : Last season, Wesley really stepped up to the plate. What would you like to see happen to your character as it develops more into this season and potentially into next season as well ?

Alexis : It was always my feeling that the character should evolve into someone who is able to step up and have the moments of heroism, but also still be the funny, quirky person that brings that particular light to the show. There’s already a wonderful, complicated, brooding, tortured central character in the figure of Angel, and so the fun for me is to find other storylines, colors, and other parts of a personality to explore in order to contrast that and to feed off each other in that way. I think the way they are developing is really good and it’s taking a slowed time for him to find his inner strength and find his courage and ability to stand up and do the job right and not annoy everybody around him. And then sometimes he’ll slip on a banana skin and that will be funny. I think that’s how we are as human beings. We have moments where we do a really great job, and moments when we really screw up. That to me is very real.

The WB : Obviously people identify you with your character. What could you tell us about yourself that your fans don’t know ?

Alexis : I hope I’m different from Wesley in lots of ways, but I would have to admit if you’re able to play a character, it means that somewhere that character exists inside you. So, obviously, there’s is a little too much overlap for my liking. I think I probably dress differently from Wesley, and I’m a little more relaxed than he is, definitely, and I probably appear more confident than he does. It’s debatable whether I am, but I would say I appear more confident.

The WB : What about your hobbies ?

Alexis : I love scuba diving, horse riding, skiing... I’ve skiied all my life. I think I had a much more adventurous childhood than Wesley did. I moved around a lot. My childhood was spent in America and going between the Pacific Northwest and New England. So I had a lot of different experiences. I lived in England when I was a teenager and I came over here a few years ago.

The WB : What do you miss about England most ?

Alexis : The newspapers, the tea, the sense of a city... you know, a city center, which LA lacks. I miss the culture of theater, art galleries, music, and every conceivable art form, industry and business all going on in the same place. I love that about London. LA is a little more of a one-business town in the sense that the engine of Hollywood is driving the city, and London is this extremely complicated, cosmopolitan mix of so many influences.

The WB : Do you ever take advantage of being next to the Star Trek : Voyager set ?

Alexis : They walk by occasionally and I’m like "Ooh !" There was an auction or something and one of my friends on the crew brought me a little pin and I was so psyched ! It’s great how they kept that legacy alive and it’s metamorphosed the way it has. I liked some of the old, before I was even alive, re-runs like Lost in Space. I think it’s what I like about our show. You take an extraordinary world and you people it with characters that are strong and that you care about. That’s what I think we share with the shows that I loved growing up. You grow to love and really care about the characters, plus they’re in this awesome universe that stimulates your imagination.

The WB : So what you’re saying is that you love how the characters react to these extraordinary situations ?

Alexis : Yeah because the situations in the world are not enough, just to have the starship in Star Trek or to have the robot in Lost in Space. That is not enough to keep me interested. In the long run it’s the fact that I really care about the characters and I’m interested in them and moreover, they’re in this amazing place. That’s what I love. I think we have a really good balance on Angel. You know, people in relationships that you’re really interested in watching grow, and they fight monsters, demons and vampires, and all this other cool stuff happens. That’s what makes it work.