Angel

Heavenly Luck

One of the most heartbreaking losses of this season was the WB’s abrupt cancellation of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff, Angel. Completely original, frequently gothic in scope, Angel was one of the best-written shows on television. The show was enjoying its fifth year when the WB announced, in a rather cryptic memo, that it was ending the show despite calling Buffy and Angel "cornerstones of our network" and admitting: "The sum total of the work done on those shows has produced some of the proudest moments in our history." Despite rabid campaigns organized by fans of the show, Angel aired its final episode May 19.

On a sunny day in April, it’s the next to last day of shooting on the series, and Amy Acker still seems stunned by the news. The petite actor, who joined the show as brainy science geek Winifred "Fred" Burkle in Season Three, sits in a trailer on location in Hollywood and attempts to describe the melancholy mood of the set. "It’s strange; you sort of feel like this is your office," she notes. "You don’t really imagine not seeing these people every day. You realize this is how the business works and no show runs forever, but it’s still hard." Many tears had already been shed as she watched the people she worked alongside leave one by one. "Alexis [Denisof, who played her love interest Wesley] had his last day last week, and I was crying for two hours after I left work," she recalls. "All my friends are, like, ’It’s just a show.’ But it’s sad when you’ve been with these people for three years, 15 hours a day sometimes, five days a week. Even if you see people outside of work, it’s not exactly the same."

Acker’s tale of moving to Los Angeles and landing on a hit show is the stuff Hollywood fairy tales are made of. Born and raised in Texas, she had worked at a Shakespeare festival in Wisconsin and lived in New York before heading west. She had been in L.A. only one month when she won the role on Angel. "It was just an audition," she says simply of being cast. "I went on this audition where there were a lot of people, then went back the next day and there were only two people, and then I went back the day after and it was just me. So I thought that was a good sign." Even she seemed surprised by her luck, having heard so many stories about struggling actors. "Now is going to be the time where I’m going to have to suffer through all of the not working," she observes.

Word of the show’s cancellation came down in early February, not long after it aired its 100th episode and only a month after the WB spoke highly of the program at the annual Television Critics Association Tour. Acker was told in person by series creator Joss Whedon. "I’d gotten a bunch of cryptic messages on my answering machine from agents and managers, asking me if I had talked to Joss yet," she recalls. "I had just seen him the day before, and he had said he was going to dinner with [WB Co-CEO] Jordan Levin. I said, ’Call me if he cancels the show or something.’ He said, ’That won’t happen.’ Well, it did happen."

According to Acker, Whedon called her the next morning and wanted to meet up with her. "I said there was a Coffee Bean by our house, and he said, ’Do they serve alcohol? We need a bar,’" she recites with a laugh. "I said, ’I don’t think there are any bars open at 1 o’clock.’ He said, ’Do you have alcohol at your house?’ So we kind of drowned our sorrows at my place."

Ironically it was the second time in a year she thought her time on the show was coming to an end. Last year Whedon told her he would be killing off the character of Fred, but Acker would now be playing a bright blue demon goddess named Illyria that occupied Fred’s body. Reveals Acker, "He told me last October he was going to kill Fred. And then he told me I was still going to be on the show. I thought that was the end of me."

After Acker dodged the bullet the first time, it seems particularly cruel that the show would end up being pulled off the air just months later. Perhaps worst of all was the timing of the announcement. Asked if she had anything else lined up, she points out, "It’s been hard because we found out sort of halfway through pilot season. And it’s not really easy to run across the street to audition for a sitcom when you’ve got blue hair and a blue face." Still, she is trying to remain optimistic. "I’m hoping something good will come up," she says. "I think we’re all a little scared and nervous."

Which is not to say there isn’t any levity on the set, even if it is mixed with self-deprecation. As Acker sits in the makeup chair preparing to undergo her transformation into Illyria, a process that generally takes two hours, actor Gary Coleman appears in a commercial on TV. As the former child star speaks about how important it is to invest money lest you leave a hit program and end up bankrupt like him, her co-star Andy Hallet starts laughing. "Someone told me I’m going to be taping one of these commercials with him next week," he notes.

By Acker’s own admission, she’s playing things by ear. And she claims to look forward to auditioning and experiencing new roles. "It seems like there’s tons of good stuff out there," she said. "I’m excited to play a new character, and I’ll see what comes up. I’d like to use the auditions not only to get a job, but also as a chance to act." And though she has heard stories of some people who are actually relieved when their show ends, she’s not one of them. "People who are excited to move on," she says, "probably don’t have Joss Whedon as their boss."