Buffy The Vampire Slayer

There was a small Buffy and Angel conference in Chief O’Neill’s Hotel in Dublin, Ireland, on Friday, 31st October and Saturday, 1st November, the guests being Elizabeth Anne Allen (Amy Madison) and D.B. Woodside (Principal Robin Wood). I found it to be a very good convention; because, though there were fewer people than expected (about 80), things were nice and intimate, people getting a lot of opportunity to chat to the stars, and about things other than their roles in ’Buffy’. Both were nice, and seemed to have had a good time, which was particularly good for D.B. Woodside, this being his first convention.

On Saturday, they were available for an hour each for a question and answer session. These are some of the things they said. While some aren’t new, I’ve given them to give people a flavour of what went on.

1. Elizabeth Anne Allen:

In terms of the character of Amy, and what she did for research, she met many Wiccans, then ‘had a lot of fun’.

In answer to a question about the change in Amy’s character after she changed back in season 6, she thought it was ‘fun’. She was amused ‘at what the character was going to be’, although she admitted that some of the changes were ‘a little hard for me’, and that things had to make sense. Later, she said that she did research on rats and found that they were pack animals and that it’s not good to keep them solitary. This, she felt, explained Amy’s change after season 6.

When they were filming Amy being burnt at the stake in ‘Gingerbread’, it was her birthday and ‘Happy Birthday’ was sung when the wood was lit!

Her favourite episode was ‘B, B, and B’, as it contains her favourite scene, where Xander walks down the school corridor to the tune of ‘Got the Love’!

Tony Head was the biggest prankster on the set.

This convention is her third, and, so far, people have been very respectful and very nice.

She said that originally she auditioned for the role of Buffy and SMG for Cordelia.

She knew Alison Hannigan before Buffy, and in terms of who she keeps in touch with, it’s her, SMG, and NB.

SMG she called ‘very funny’ and ‘A real girl’s girl’. She liked working with her, saying that she was like a friend from high school.

She’s played a lot of good characters so far, so liked playing evil ones for a change.

She did cheerlead, but was the ‘weak one’ of the squad, so she was the one who got hoisted up, being the least co-ordinated of the group. The pyramid scene in ‘The Witch’ was, therefore, appropriate.

The Amy appearance in ‘Something Blue’ in season 4 was due to people writing in looking for her character to reappear.

She was still waitressing when she got the script for Amy’s role in ‘The Witch’. It came to her because more established actors didn’t want the part, because of the film and because the show sounded goofy.

She got married this year, and therefore took a year off work.

In terms of the highlight of her career so far, it was when she played a pregnant wife in Bull, which necessitated wearing a pregnant belly.

Yes, she would like to go on Angel if offered the part, for the fun.

In answer to whether there were any roles she turned down, she said that she had ‘no regrets’ about turning down flat a role in ’Showgirls’!

In terms of famous people she’s met met, she particularly recalls meeting Tom Hanks and his family in the restaurant where she was still waitressing after her first appearance as Amy. He asked for her autograph for his children.

2. D.B. Woodside:

a. In response to a question about his role in season 3 of ’24’:

He explained that it is set 3 years after season 2. The President has survived but is ‘distrustful’. He is playing the President’s new Chief of Staff, who is also his little brother, with a sort of JFK and RFK relationship between the two.

b. About the people he worked with on Buffy:

He loved working with Eliza Dushku, whom he called a ‘very tough, straightforward, direct woman’. Nicholas Brendon he called ‘one of the funniest people alive’.

c. Other things he had done:

In response to a question what it was like playing with Alyiah in ’Romeo Must Die’, he spoke in very glowing terms about her.

d. His favourite episode:

‘LMPTM’. It took 3 12-hour days to shoot the Wood v Spike fight scene.

e. His views of Buffy before he joined:

He had never seen the show, so he wasn’t prejudiced about it one way or the other. When he began to get involved, he then watched some of the past episodes, and thought that the show was great.

f. About the original plan for Robin Wood:

The character was scheduled to be in the first ten episodes, and was supposed to be a love interest for Buffy, who was to die and contribute to the character’s depression. But SMG liked the character and asked that he be kept on. There is a chunk of 4 episodes in the middle where Wood didn’t make an appearance. According to DB, it was then that the arc was rethought, so the idea was thought up that he was Nikki Wood’s son.

g. About SMG wanting to leave Buffy:

He attributed it to her recent marriage to Freddie, wanting more time with him and thinking about having a family.

h. The most difficult part he played in Buffy:

He said that it was playing the straight Principal Wood, because he sympathised with the students he was admonishing.

i. About the proposed spinoff:

He said that halfway through the filming of season 7, the idea of a spinoff involving Wood, Faith, and Spike was brought up, but ‘didn’t come out’.

Amber Benson will be coming to Dublin Saturday, 13th December; so anyone interested should contact the organisers, DMZ Events, at www.dmzevents.net.