Angel

Written by by Ian Spelling and Abbie Bernstein.

We keep hearing that Season Five will be entirely different in tone to previous seasons. Can you shed some light on just how it will be different?

We’ve set it all up with the fourth-season finale. We can make a lighter show. The humour will be lighter. We’ll be running the law offices of Wolfram & Hart. Every character that is still around is in a great place and we can expand on their personalities and their quirks and on how they interact with each other.

I think that standalone shows will be more prominent than the long arcs we’ve been doing the last couple of seasons. Just the fact that we’re going to be running the office sets up for all of that. We’re out of the hotel. We won’t be travelling through sewers as much. I think we’ll be focusing more on what everyone does now that we’re running Wolfram & Hart. But I think we had to go through all the stuff we’ve gone through to get where we are now, because if we didn’t then we wouldn’t be here. We wouldn’t have earned making things lighter if things hadn’t been dark. And we wouldn’t be standing here talking, you and I, right now, talking about a fifth season, if we hadn’t earned it. The long arcs and the characters going through so many arduous moments are what got us here. A show has to go through those ups and downs. It takes a while for a show to get going. We’re going through a fifth season.

Do you think the emphasis on more stand-alone episodes will affect Angel’s character?

I think if anything, it’ll enhance his humour and his sarcasm with other characters, his changeability.

Any chance of David Greenwalt coming back full-time to Angel?

No. He’s go another new show that he’ll be doing. But he’ll still be there and he’ll still consult. The thing with him is that he’ll always be there, checking in with me. He’s great with that. Not only is he a talented writer, but he’s a genuine person. He checks in with me, and I like that. But even with him gone, I think that we have the best writers, the best writers on television, across the board. I’m not looking for props or respect in that area. I don’t need to. These guys are fantastic. We had a great season. Tim Minear and Stephen De Knight did a great job. Our female writers did a great job. Jeff Bell, running the show, was fantastic. Going into the fourth season, we had a lot of concerns. We thought, ’Greenwalt’s going to be gone.’ That was sad. He was like my brother, my other half, because we started it together. But it worked out fine.

James Marsters, what will he add to the show?

I’m sure there’s some sort of spell or demonology that will bring him back into the mix. What I see in having him around is that you’ll have two characters who are cursed and driven and have a huge past history. They’re kind of like two fighting brothers, the Odd Couple, in a sense. These guys are very, very much in tune with their senses and their personality quirks and traits. There’s going to be a lot of conflict, but I don’t know yet if Spike is going to be a good guy or a bad guy. He could be my nemesis or my ally. Look at the whole set-up. We’re running the evil offices of Wolfram & Hart. How does that fit into the equation? Where does Spike fit into that? It’s going to be fun.

Your son, Jaden, just turned one - How is fatherhood?

Fatherhood is great. It’s a whole other ballgame.

Do you think that Season Five will be the last for Angel?

Every episode I look at as the last episode. Every season I look at as the last season. I don’t think in terms of the way most people probably do. If I did I’d probably go a little stir-crazy and be really stressed. To put it bluntly, I foresaw us coming back for another season and I was optimistic about it. The decision really didn’t sit in our hands. It was in the network’s hands.

What’s great about the show is that it’s never pushed. It’s always been presented [with] obstacles, it’s always gotten up and said, ’Look, we’re a stand-alone show, we can survive every challenge that you give us, you can switch [when it airs] three nights in a row if you want, but we’ll remain truthful and honest to our audience.’ What’s great about our stories is we fulfil what the writers are giving us, and what they’re giving us is great material. I couldn’t be happier with the formation of everything that’s come together and the way it’s unfolded. I’m confident that this is a big set-up for a new, fresh, exciting start, for another revamping of the show.

What specifically are you referring to? What will be revamped for Season Five?

This year was really thick on exposition and it was very heavy with the plots and storylines. The storylines could get really confusing. I think that next season will simplify the stories and move us in a direction where we’ll be focusing on individual cases and doing stand-alone shows. That’s pretty much where I think we’ll be heading. Now, I don’t know that for sure. It’s actually more of a question for Joss than for me.

What worked for you about Season Four?

I think that what’s worked for us is the fact that we got to a fourth season and got to crest as a show because of the chemistry between the characters. Not only is it happening within the confines of a scene, but also it’s happening before and after we do the scenes. We’re really a close group of people. We really believe in the show and have weathered a lot of storms with it. So I think that what’s really working for us is that we’ve got this chemistry, we’re having a good time and not taking anything too seriously.

Were you surprised that Buffy was brought to an end?

I wasn’t surprised. I kind of saw it coming. The time was right. I’m sure that Sarah [Michelle Gellar] came to a very peaceful feeling inside that, ’Yeah, this is the time.’ Of course everyone is going to bash her because they’ve got nothing better to do. She’s going through a very strange period with that, but she’s a strong girl and a really good actress, and I’m sure she’ll get through it. It’s a transition time for her, but she’ll do fine.

You ended up guesting in the last two episodes of Buffy. What was that like and why did you decide to do it?

It’s something that, for me, was really for the story and for Sarah. Buffy is how it all started for me. I’d do anything for Sarah. Doing the show is how I got my start, as far as the character was concerned. In terms of the story, getting the two characters back together was important for the fans. They were waiting for it. I think there was another story to be told. Hopefully, Buffy will come and see Angel next season on our show. You never know where these things will lead. It would be nice to have her on Angel, so I’m just putting that idea out there.

Were you pleased with the Angel-Cordy relationship?

I really believe that Angel’s heart is with Buffy. I’ve always found the Angel-Cordelia relationship a bit strange, but it worked. There was chemistry there, but not the way it was between Angel and Buffy. I think the Angel-Cordy relationship was just a mirror to what the Angel-Buffy relationship was to him.

You’re about to star in The Crow 4: Wicked Prayer. What can you say about the story and your character?

I [started] shooting that in June. I play Luc Crash, who is the main antagonist in the film. I’ll be paired up with Tara Reid and Dennis Hopper, and we take on the Crow, who’s played by Eddie Furlong. I’m a really bad guy - an ex-con, the leader of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. He’s out wreaking havoc and he wants to become Satan, so there you go. It’s going to be bitching. It’s going to be fun.

Luc sounds a bit like Angelus!

[My Crow character] is totally new for me. Whether or not people see a little bit of Angelus - I’m sure they will in every evil character I’m playing. But Angel is a very old character with a lot of personalities. He’s vulnerable, he’s sarcastic, he’s an action hero, he’s a romantic lead. Every character I play, there’s going to be a sense of him in there. That’s just the way it is. And what I like about Angel is that he’s got every character to play at his disposal. It’s just setting me up for more roles to play.

I think every character that everybody does gives a sense of who they are. Look at Robert De Niro. There’s Travis Bickle [De Niro’s Taxi Driver character] in Cape Fear. It’s just an older Travis Bickle.

There’s Travis Bickle in a lot of things that he does - it’s just a sense of, as an actor, you portray who you are, and you put energy into the focus of your character. If I end up playing a mentally disturbed person in a mental ward, Angel was mentally disturbed in a ward at some point. So if that [similarity between characters] comes across, it comes across.

You did Valentine during one hiatus and now The Crow. Do you worry about doing too much genre work and thus being typecast?

In film, it’s different, because [actors] go from film to film, they don’t continue on a television series. The difference between a series and a film, is [television is] a series of films that you do.

I love this specific type of [role]. It’s deep, it’s dark and it’s passionate. I like to get dirty with my work. If you want to call it genre, fine, I dig it. To me, it’s heavy drama. I’m open to comedies. I did one with I’m With Lucy. It didn’t get released in the States, but I’m very proud of it. I worked with great people and I want to do more of it in the future. But now I’m focusing on The Crow.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I’m going straight to Hell, baby, with a sword in my side