Charisma Carpenter

For seven years, Charisma Carpenter played the brutally honest and ultimately heroic Cordelia Chase, first introduced on Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where she was a regular for three seasons. Carpenter then made the move to the spinoff series Angel, where she had an even more integral role, as a lead character for four years. Carpenter made a final appearance as Cordelia during Angel’s fifth and final season, and this past year she played an important recurring role as the manipulative Kendall Casablancas on the acclaimed series Veronica Mars. Kendall in fact figured into Veronica Mars’s cliffhanger, begging the question of what’s next on the show and what was so important that her character brought to Keith Mars (Enrico Colantoni) in a briefcase.

Carpenter’s latest project is Relative Chaos, an ABC Family comedic telefilm in which she plays Katherine, a woman who accompanies her boyfriend Dil Gilbert (Christopher Gorham) on a trip to see his family. Soon Katherine gets caught up in the excitement surrounding a unique tradition in Dil’s family of having the kids compete against each other in an annual competition called The Gilbert Cup, which is the subject of great enthusiasm from Dil’s parents, played by Terry Bradshaw and Fiona Reid. Also notable among the cast is Nicholas Brendon, as Gorham’s brother - On Buffy, Brendon’s character Xander Harris was a love interest of Cordelia’s, and Relative Chaos marks the first onscreen reunion for the two actors since Carpenter left Buffy.

Recently I spoke to Carpenter to discuss Relative Chaos and what it was like to work with Brendon again, along with her experience on Veronica Mars and the enduring popularity of Buffy and Angel.

IGN TV: There’s been a lot of humor in some of your earlier projects, but this is still one of the more overall lighthearted things you’ve been involved in. Was that fun for you?

Charisma Carpenter: Yeah, it was very fun.

IGN TV: How would you describe Katherine?

Carpenter: Clear. Very clear. A go getter. She knows what she wants. IGN TV: I was surprised when I realized it’s been seven years since you last worked with Nicholas Brendon. What was it like reuniting with him?

Carpenter: What? Seven years? Nuh-uh! Was it really?

IGN TV: Yeah, since the end of Buffy season 3.

Carpenter: Wow, it really doesn’t feel like that. Not at all. I mean it’s like riding a bike. You just get back on. Smooth sailing. You know each other, you know each other’s work. It was really hard to work with him in the sense that he’s probably the most organic, funny person I’ve ever met. He’s just so gifted. And it’s really hard to keep it together when you’re around someone like that. It’s really hard to not blow it. And when you have a scene with like seven people in it, and you’re going around the table shooting it, and then it’s his turn to shoot, you’re doing the off-camera and you’re trying not to laugh. You can not break up, because there’s just too much work that needs to be done. And you’re just dying, you know? I mean it was difficult for everyone, not only me, but like crew members would just have to snicker and would look away, or not look, or walk out. Whatever it took to just not ruin the takes.

IGN TV: Are you a little better at it because you’re more practiced at it with him? Could you hold it together a little better than some of the people?

Carpenter: No. None of us could really do it. But you know, Terry Bradshaw too is just another natural I think.

IGN TV: I was going to ask about him, because he seems like such a character. What was he like to work with?

Carpenter: He’s incredibly hard working. It’s funny, because people know him as a personality or, "He’s an athlete, and he’s not an actor," and it’s like, I’m sorry, I don’t agree with that. The minute you get a paycheck to be in a movie, you’re an actor. He’s a paid actor. He is a member of SAG; he’s an actor now. And I think he excels at whatever he puts his mind to. I think it’s amazing how whatever he’s done... He’s won Emmys, he’s been MVP of the Super Bowl, he’s a Hall of Famer, he’s a motivational speaker for corporations. He’s a really, really fascinating person, and he’s got so much going on all of the time. It’s amazing that he can even sit down and focus long enough. And so we worked together pretty closely, and I think that he channels his energy really, really well, and when it comes time to do work, he’s not afraid to dig in and do it. And he did it and he did it really well. And for me, I don’t know if I was in his position, that I’d be so adaptable. I know when I first started out, I couldn’t adapt like that. The director’s going, "Say that speech, that’s like five minutes long, faster." He just takes a deep breath, and he goes for it and he does it and it’s word perfect, and it’s like, "How did you do that?" He’s really a remarkable human being.

IGN TV: In the movie there are all these fun tasks and games that the characters play. Your character gets involved near the end, but in the earlier scenes is more of an observer. I’m curious if in-between takes, especially with those big bouncing balls used in one scene, if people were having fun with that?

Carpenter: Oh yeah. There was fun to be had. This was a really functioning set and it was very fun all the time and wise cracks all the time. It was just a really... You know, we enjoyed being together and we would sing in-between — we would stay on set, because base camp was kind of far away — so we had sort of like a green room that we would all go to and it was so hard for them to pull us out of the green room to go back to work, like when they had a lighting sequence. We’d be in the room and Terry would start singing and then Fiona would start singing. All the actresses... Everyone can sing but me, and it was just so fun, just to be with a group of people that just enjoyed being together. But then it was also so interesting to see everyone’s other talents. Acting is just not what some people are best at; you think they’re a really good actor and then you’re surprised at, "Wow, you are an amazing singer!" Or, "You’re really well read," or recite poetry, and you know, I just shrink in awe. I’m like, "Wow... Um... I can act!"

IGN TV: You must have had something else too!

Carpenter: I can dance. It’s fun. But Terry, it was great, he would throw the football with us, and it was just a real strong camaraderie and we were all in this small town in Canada, in Nova Scotia, and the weather was not agreeable to the schedule that we needed. We needed to do a lot of outdoor stuff and it would be really raining, or it would be really, really hot and bugs everywhere. It was just really, super unpredictable. Or the fog would roll in and it was chilly to the bone. But we were just all in it together and it was just fun.

IGN TV: There’s a scene involving you and a bear...

Carpenter: Oh yeah!

IGN TV: I’m curious if you had any actual interaction with it, or was it all movie magic?

Carpenter: I think it’s really important to know that is all movie magic. I was actually really bummed out that I didn’t get to work with the bear. I didn’t get to meet the bear! I mean I could have, if I wanted to drive like two and a half hours outside of town on a day off and go be there when they shot it, but I didn’t want to do that - My hours are long enough. But I really thought that we were going to be with the bear. You know, a la Legends of the Fall or something.

IGN TV: Will you be returning to Veronica Mars this fall?

Carpenter: I do return to Veronica Mars this fall.

IGN TV: Can you talk at all about what role your character might be playing this season?

Carpenter: A little more of the same, with a really, really interesting twist. And it starts the first episode; you’ve got to watch it. You miss the first episode, you’re out of the loop. Gotta tune in right away.

IGN TV: When you had that scene at the end of last season when you give Keith the case, did you have any idea what was in it at the time?

Carpenter: No. I was really annoyed at that, and I think the writers didn’t know what was in the case either.

IGN TV: I talked to Enrico this summer and he told me how he had no idea, but was coming up with all these crazy theories.

Carpenter: Yeah, yeah. And I just kept pushing to have Enrico be my love interest. You know, I just thought, "Can we start... Can she...?" Because on Angel, the person that’s literally the bad person, that’s the bitch or hard to get along with or superficial or just makes your life miserable type person, always ends up being a redeeming person in the end. They get remolded somehow or they have some life experience that they realize, "Oh, you’re not so bad!" And I just thought it would be really funny if Enrico’s character and myself got together and then I was Veronica’s stepmom. I really, really wanted to do that, but, yeah...

IGN TV: That would be a very interesting dynamic with Veronica!

Carpenter: I pitched it, but it’s not going that way.

IGN TV: They gave you quite an entrance last year at the pool...

Carpenter: Yeah!

IGN TV: What was your reaction when you read the script and learned that’s how you’d first be seen on the show?

Carpenter: My reaction: Into action. Immediately in the gym. [Carpenter makes breathing/work out noises] Just working out!

IGN TV: Many of your scenes were with Jason Dohring last season. How was it working with him?

Carpenter: Oh yeah, he’s a brilliant actor. I’m telling you, these guys... Kristen [Bell] and Jason and all these people are profusely talented and extremely together for such a young age. Sometimes when you get a lead actor, like Sarah [Michelle Gellar] on Buffy, [she] was just so acutely intelligent. You know, it makes sense; you’re somewhat of a prodigy. But on this show, everyone is a prodigy. Everyone is super together on every level. At that age, it’s really remarkable. It’s like wow, if I had my head halfway that well screwed on when I was that age I’d probably be in a lot different place. It’s really impressive to be in their company. And they’re spiritual and they’re solid and they’re in committed relationships, and they’re committed to their work, and they’re prepared and they’re on time and there’s no drama. And it’s just like, "Wow... You guys are way beyond your years!"

IGN TV: Last year, did you ever think Kendall might be the one behind the bus crash?

Carpenter: ...Was I?! ...Just kidding. No, I had no idea.