Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Exclusive Interview: BUFFY’S CAMDEN TOY IS CERTAINLY A GENTLEMAN, BUT NOT ONE TO BE AFRAID OF- PART 1

Actor gives iF the willies and shares about creating some of the creepiest critters in BUFFY history.

While his face may not be recognizable to some fans, almost any fan of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER or ANGEL recognize the name Camden Toy. Toy has been behind (or under if you will) some of the most memorable critters in the Whedon Universe. Starting first on the show as one of the leaders of the greusoe Gentlemen in “Hush” and then returning to the series in season seven as Gnarl, and then again as the Ubervamp. Toy also guest spotlighted on ANGEL in season five as the vampire The Prince of Lies. Toy is one of the most affable and likeable BUFFY actors out there, and is a favorite at conventions because of his sense of humor and warmth towards the fans. iF caught up with Toy just before a BE Scared convention in Burbank last weekend, and grilled him about his ties to Whedon and all things BUFFY-ish.

iF MAGAZINE: So how did you get started on BUFFY?

CAMDEN TOY: I got called in for “Hush”, and I heard this from the grapevine, so I don’t know if it’s really true, but early when they conceiving these guys [the Gentlemen]. There were six of us; four of us actors, two stunt guys, and they thought they could hire extras to do this. I’m not sure, but that’s the rumor I heard. I think as Joss was still writing it, even the first day of shooting we didn’t have a full script we just had fragments, he was developing who these guys were going to be. When I got the call to audition, it was originally called the “laughing men” and not the Gentlemen, so the whole concept hadn’t completely evolved yet.

We got the call that afternoon and they wanted to see us that night. Even in television that’s quick. Usually it’s, “they want to see you tomorrow or the next day.” Also, it didn’t go out over the normal breakdowns. It went out over a Teletype thing. The commercial auditions weren’t going out over the Internet yet, it was still on a Teletype kind of thing, and it was constantly running all day long. It came over that machine, and so my agent immediately thought of me. She called me at four o’clock in the afternoon and said, “BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER wants to see you at seven o’clock tonight.”

So I said, “Seven o’clock tonight, great! What’s the script?” Well there was no script, it was an improv and I had to just go. They had been thinking about using extras because the entire thing was silent. As they developed they decided that they really needed someone to bring it to life. I don’t know if it was Joss [Whedon] or the casting people who decided they needed someone with a physical background like mime, clowning or whatever. So then it was, “Let’s get some mimes to do this!”

I’m an actor that happens to have some mime background, but what actor from the ’60s and ’70s doesn’t have a mime background? We all had mime training when we were growing up. This is a long-winded story. [Laughs]

So I went in and thought it would be the hooo hoo ahhh ahh “laughing men”, and the casting assistant comes out and tells us it’s a totally silent character with no laughing and they wanted us to float into a room, put our bag down, and cut out the heart of an imaginary person, then float back out. Float? They don’t walk anywhere they float. That’s what she tells the group of us. I went in and Joss got this funny look on his face and turned sideways and started waving saying, “Thank you. Oh, Christ that was frightening. Ohh. That was frightening.” [Laughs] I had come in with a huge smile and really enjoyed it. I think Doug [Jones] was similar, because on the commentary [on the “Hush” DVD] Joss says something like, “They came in broad daylight with no makeup and they scared me with their smiles, and I thought if they can scare me with their smiles they will be even more scary with the make-up.”

As Doug told someone on set when they asked how we got these roles, he said, “the normal channels, they called our agents, our agents called us, and we went in.” It was a very nutso kind of thing!

iF: And this was the beginning of your relationship with Joss?

TOY: What’s interesting is that I stayed in touch with him, but those characters were so, so strong that they had trouble seeing me in anything else, because they didn’t call me in again until season seven. It’s not for me to second-guess why the casting people didn’t call me for anything else; I certainly had my management submit me for other things.

iF: You and Doug Jones gave Amber Benson a warm welcome on her first episode of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER?

TOY: She was just sacred to death of us, and we thought she was kidding at first, and I think it was her mother who took us aside and said, “She’s not kidding, she’s really scared of you guys.” [Laughs] So then we’d talked to her and tell her we were nice guys and so she knew we were nice guys who were still really scary. That was her first episode and so she’s nervous from that, and then there are these really creepy guys talking to her. The cast wouldn’t look at us either. Alyson [Hannigan] later said, “I couldn’t even look at them.” No one would eat with us we had to eat with the crew. Can you imagine the Gentlemen eating, cutting into the bloody steak and making conversation? Doug and I have such rubber faces, and I can’t speak for him, but for years I would scare my friends and family by making scary faces. I didn’t have to do a lot but put on the make-up and smile.

iF: Then you returned for Gnarl and the Ubervamp?

TOY: For four episodes of season seven I was the Ubervamp. The original Ubervamp that shows up in episode nine, 10, and 11 gets killed in 11, which is “Showtime”, but then comes back in a flashback vision that Buffy has. They show the flash of me in frame roaring and pull back ala LORD OF THE RINGS showing thousands of Ubervamps for which they actually digitally reproduced me and my stunt double Ryan Watson as well. There was talk about bringing me back, but the other Ubervamps were so briefly shown they decided not to. Plus, it was mostly stunt work. While I certainly can do my own stunt work, I am not a stunt man specifically.