Angel

David and James it is great to see you both. How are you doing?

DAVID BOREANAZ: Good

JAMES MARSTERS: So Good

So Good

JAMES MARSTERS: Yeah.

Thanks for talking to us on Celebrity Extra. Ok we’re talking seven seasons of BUFFY five of ANGEL. Why do you reckon it has done so incredibly well?

DAVID BOREANAZ: It’s a lot of seasons.

It’s a lot of seasons.

JAMES MARSTERS: Yeah it is.

DAVID BOREANAZ: My god.

It’s in the sci-fi horror genre and it’s really lasted the distance what do you think was so special?

DAVID BOREANAZ: Well Joss Whedon was the genius behind this whole thing.

JAMES MARSTERS: It’s good writing.

DAVID BOREANAZ: And tapped into a market that appealed to everybody and the characters, our characters, took off and we just went with it and found ourselves on this crazy ride that was always changing from episode to episode and we just had a ball with it you know.

JAMES MARSTERS: Yeah. On both shows the art direction was fabulous, the cinematography was fabulous, the writing was fabulous, the direction was always good, sometimes very good.

DAVID BOREANAZ: Sometimes it was very bad [laughs].

The acting wasn’t so bad.

JAMES MARSTERS: The actors... We were pretty good.

JAMES MARSTERS: We tried, we did man. We tried. We would be in the set and I’d be like David how do you do this man? How do you do this? And what did you say?

DAVID BOREANAZ: I dunno.

JAMES MARSTERS: You went ‘horse racing’

DAVID BOREANAZ: Yeah, horse racing. Yeah straight away.

Huh?

DAVID BOREANAZ: You take the blinders off.

JAMES MARSTERS: And that’s all you said. You went horse racing and I was like ‘yeah man horse racing’. It took me about 30 seconds to go, ‘What are you talking about’.

DAVID BOREANAZ: Take the blinders off and look straight ahead.

So whenever you felt like collapsing in a heap you thought horse racing.

DAVID BOREANAZ: Horse racing. Straight ahead. Marty Jones man, Philly style. No, but its been great. The characters obviously appeal to a specific type of audience as well as a mass audience. I mean BUFFY and ANGEL were two different types of shows. What’s great about ANGEL, especially for DVD’s, is its wide screen format. You can really see the expansion and you can see the way they shot it. It’s great for that kind of format.

JAMES MARSTERS: It looks so much better than BUFFY ever did. BUFFY was filmed in 16mm for the first three years and you know ANGEL were they shooting digitally?

DAVID BOREANAZ: No. They thought about it one time and they decided not to do it.

JAMES MARSTERS: But I remember when I turned on ANGEL and it was in that wide screen format I was like ‘Aw man they get all the good toys over there man.

Proper entertainment. Now if vampires can’t see their own reflection how come you guys always looked so good?

JAMES MARSTERS: [Laughs]

Explain that to me please.

DAVID BOREANAZ: Good question. I haven’t thought of that before.

JAMES MARSTERS: Coz your dead and you don’t change.

DAVID BOREANAZ: Yeah.

JAMES MARSTERS: Your frozen.

But surely you go a little grey around the gills when your dead guys.

JAMES MARSTERS: No that’s the beauty of it. You’re immortal. You don’t have a sleepy day. But that’s what kind of sucks about playing a vampire. As a vampire you’re not supposed to look sleepy ever, but meanwhile, meanwhile they are working you 12,14 20 hours a day.

DAVID BOREANAZ: And you’re falling asleep.

You forgot to mention a really good makeup artist in your list of things that make this programme work.

JAMES MARSTERS: We don’t use makeup.

DAVID BOREANAZ: Its true the special effects are amazing.

JAMES MARSTERS: We’ve not never worn makeup that’s for wimps man.

DAVID BOREANAZ: Yeah but Dane who did the special effects did a great job for five seasons. He makes some amazing creations on the show.

Absolutely.

DAVID BOREANAZ: It was pretty cool.

JAMES MARSTERS: When he used to makeup you he’d be sleeping.

DAVID BOREANAZ: He was that good he could do makeup in his sleep.

JAMES MARSTERS: Yeah well Dane could do it in his sleep after seven years.

Well regardless of whether there was makeup, lack of sleep, too much sleep, whatever you guys looked very good. So well in fact they you have got a legion of fans and you’ve both been on the sexiest man ever list ever, ever. Does that kind of stuff go to your head?

DAVID BOREANAZ: I don’t really think, I mean I’ve always enjoyed doing a work out.

Oh come on! Be honest.

DAVID BOREANAZ: Its part of what comes of being part of this business. You know it’s a humbling thing. It comes with the territory. I thank my parents for having me.

Nice attitude.

DAVID BOREANAZ: And this is what they produced, but no I’m not obsessing about it everyday.

Is it a little bit surreal to see yourself on, you know... you’ve been on a vampire sexiest male vampire list, you’ve been in the people top 50 most beautiful men. You open a magazine and you see that and you kind of go...

JAMES MARSTERS: No. What you do is you go, good publicist! You say thank you Jenny we did it! Coz they know there is a lot of work behind everyone one of those hits. There’s a whole campaign behind every single one of those.

So it’s not just the fans voting for you.

DAVID BOREANAZ: And then you put your glass down and it makes a ring after a while so there’s a ring of water on the bottom of the paper or whatever, their good coasters.

It’s all transient... is that what you are trying to tell me?

JAMES MARSTER: Yeah it is. Television is a weird thing and it gets you famous like that [clicks fingers] and you really can’t take it too seriously. Like in a ‘HARD DAYS NIGHT’ with the Beatles, you can see the look on their faces when they are just starting to experience it and they are not taking it seriously but they are having fun with it.

Sure.

JAMES MARSTERS: You kind of try and maintain that kind of attitude.

Doesn’t it always eventually get to your head as an actor? I’m not saying you particularly, but I so can relate to what you are saying about people starting out they’ve got a different attitude to 10 years down the line where they are beginning to inevitably believe the hype in some way, shape or form. Do you sense the danger of ever heading into that sort of territory?

DAVID BOREANAZ: Well there’s always the temptation of crossing the line or borders that are uncharted.

JAMES MARSTERS: Celebrity is toxic to the soul.

That’s deep.

JAMES MARSTERS: It just simply is, and the longer someone is famous the worst it gets.

Well how do you find yourself in this? Are you prepared to go the distance or are you kind of going ‘that’s enough for me?’

JAMES MARSTERS: Well you have to build a life that is separated from the whole Hollywood thing and surround yourself with people who are willing to tell you when you are being a jerk.

Do you both have that in your lives hopefully?

DAVID BOREANAZ: I have a beautiful family; I have a wife and a two year-old.

Does your two year-old go, “Dad you’re being a jerk!”

DAVID BOREANAZ: No. The simplicity of being blessed with a child and seeing that is enough to remind you everyday about what life is really about. You know you have your work and your family and those two are definitely separated but as you work you maintain your sanity through your work but your family keeps you afloat.

Sure.

DAVID BOREANAZ: And that’s what is really important. It keeps you alive.

JAMES MARSTERS: Certainly whether you got the sexiest man thing. It’s nice and didn’t mean to denigrate the fact that the fans vote and that makes you feel good. Coz we work hard for them. I mean Joss just has to write it and man he goes on and then he goes to bed and we are down in the trenches fifteen hours a day making it happen. Basically we are the grunts and we are well paid and they make us look really good, but day to day for real we are working in a non heated, no air conditioned space with no places to sit really except boxes on the floor and it’s dirty and it’s a factory.

You poor pet.

JAMES MARSTERS: Come on down sometime honey I swear to god!

Sorry I didn’t mean to be...

JAMES MARSTERS: There is no glamour. Glamour is a highly constructed artificial thing that takes a lot of work to create.

Listen I know I’m a television presenter it’s completely non-glamorous.

JAMES MARSTERS: It’s not real

Talk to me about the fact that I’ve read up on a couple of things about you guys that a lot of the lines in ANGEL were adlibbed. They started with you in BUFFY and that it kind of continued. Is that true or is it very much scripted?

DAVID BOREANAZ: Its pretty much, very much scripted. I don’t know where that came from. Joss is very particular, always was very particular on specific lines which really have motivated specific story points.

JAMES MARSTERS: Wrong conjunction. Take two.

DAVID BOREANAZ: You know you look back and you go this is why it was happening and this is why you had to say that for that specific reason and I think because he was so specific it kind of pin pointed the show for what it was, and is.

Yeah.

DAVID BOREANAZ: I think ANGEL will have a strong life in the future and they were saying that whilst they were shooting because it is different. It was more complex and I mean BUFFY was an extremely different show it was geared towards a different level.

JAMES MARSTERS: But the point of it was BUFFY was not about vampires, BUFFY was about the human characters and the vampires on BUFFY were just kind of a sideshow.

Whereas ANGEL was all about...

DAVID BOREANAZ: Freaks.

JAMES MARSTERS: Yeah so it had a scope.

Absolutely.

JAMES MARSTERS: And it had a need for special effects and stunts that BUFFY never had.

Sure.

JAMES MARSTERS: So to get that one in the can... Dude, I don’t know how you did that for five years. Smoked me. Smoked me, one year on that show smoked my ass.

Both Angelus...

DAVID BOREANAZ: I guess.

Angelus and Spike were both in love with Buffy. Who should ultimately have gotten the girl?

DAVID BOREANAZ: Ah you know I think that...

It has to be Angel doesn’t it?

DAVID BOREANAZ: Well you know Angel’s forte of going on and taking off and leaving her crying by the ambulance.

You did! Heartless.

DAVID BOREANAZ: I just think that over those years, though his radar was subject to picking up something a bit different maybe. I don’t know, but ultimately it’s really still up in the cards I think.

JAMES MARSTERS: I don’t know man. There was an episode in the end of the season on BUFFY. They kind of sowed that one up. You came back over and filmed a scene. You remember that shit?

DAVID BOREANAZ: All I did was give her a ring or something.

JAMES MARSTERS: I know but it was pretty clear that was true love whereas I was just really good sex.

You were just a blow in.

JAMES MARSTERS: She used me like a tramp.

She did, didn’t she. Heartless... Beep! Talk to me about the conventions - the sci-fi vampire. You must have met some strange people. Now I know they are your fans so you don’t want to dis them but come on.

DAVID BOREANAZ: I don’t really think of it as a multitude level of insanity like that. You can have a specific group of people that are fascinated with a certain subject matter. I think with us it has always been a group of fans that have always enjoyed the show and the genre rather than the specific quote unquote vampire kind of a thing. I mean you do have the occasional person that dresses up and comes and sees you.

JAMES MARSTERS: That’s beautiful.

DAVID BOREANAZ: Which is great

JAMES MARSTERS: I love that. Let the freak flag fly.

DAVID BOREANAZ: If we can give them their respect. If they can do that it’s great but it really enables us to go and see the fans and give back to them for what they have given us for five seasons.

JAMES MARSTERS: And Angel and Buffy fans, there fans of good writing and ultimately that’s what really draws people to the show. So my interaction with fans of the show has always been surprising. I have a lot of interesting conversations and a lot of people are very cool and I guess I play a character that they expect is going to hit them if they offend me, so they are always like I don’t want to disturb you or anything.

Any ones that actually believe they are vampires or that you guys are vampires that they exist.

JAMES MARSTERS: Very, very few.

But they do... Come on tell me about one.

DAVID BOREANAZ: I never really got that I never got the whole you’re a vampire thing.

JAMES MARSTERS: Yeah man those guys watch ‘underworld’. It’s a whole different thing.

With you guys having played those sort of roles for so long and having researched the whole ‘where is the vampires motivation’, do you ever find yourself asking actually you know, they could exist.

DAVID BOREANAZ: No

JAMES MARSTERS: No

Do you believe in the supernatural at all?

DAVID BOREANAZ: No

JAMES MARSTERS: No. We’re nothing if not honest you know.

DAVID BOREANAZ: I believe in the supernatural yeah of course. Spirits and what not and energy but I don’t believe that there are creatures of the night walking around. I’m sure there are late in the evening hours somewhere Soho or down in New York.

JAMES MARSTERS: Yeah and at that point there are people who do believe it, people who get their canines sharpened and extended and if they really believe they are vampires they really might bite someone so what’s the difference.

Fair enough. But for the real bona fide vampires you’re not going there you don’t believe that they could actually exist?

JAMES MARSTERS: No man I think we are profoundly ignorant of our situation here in the universe and I think we are in the middle of something far more complex and beautiful than we realise but we really don’t know exactly what that is.

DAVID BOREANAZ: That was deep.

JAMES MARSTERS: Thanks man.

That was so deep I don’t know what to say to it.

JAMES MARSTERS: Coffee’s working.

Good man. Obviously ANGEL was left on the mother of all cliff hangers which means for all the fans they’re begging to hear there will be some kind of Angel reappearance whether its in a movie or a couple more series. What’s going on? Can you give us any tip bit of hope?

DAVID BOREANAZ: There won’t be a series. If anything it would have to be a big screen feature as far as getting me back involved into playing this character again for raising the bar and the level to where it has to be. I think going back and doing an extended series on it or something to further it maybe a little bit longer would most probably jeopardise it or maybe even taint it in a way that may hurt it. And I won’t want to do that.

Really.

DAVID BOREANAZ: I mean unfortunately for the fans at the same time the door was so left wide open the way they ended this season and this show I think was a great way.

And you’re happy with that. You’re happy they didn’t kind of conclude to any other kind of...

DAVID BOREANAZ: Very happy.

OK. Well if we are not going to see you on Angel again, final question is what are you guys up to? Where can we see you James first of all?

JAMES MARSTERS: I’ve been frustrating my team and turning down a lot of roles frankly.

That’s good. It’s good to be selective.

JAMES MARSTERS: Frankly yeah. A lot of people want me to play demons or bad guys and drug addicts and that stuff

DAVID BOREANAZ: Drug addicts [laughs].

JAMES MARSTERS: But I played a human being recently and that was very refreshing. That was good. I liked doing that a lot. I’m working on music actually which is going really well.

Because you’ve got a band?

JAMES MARSTERS: No I’ve split up my band and that’s a hard thing but I’m continuing doing my material with a new producer and I’m really happy about how it is coming out and I think it is going to be really good.

And David?

DAVID BOREANAZ: I just did, I’ve done 3 movies so far. I’ve done a romantic comedy with Alana and Paul Sorvino. It’s called MR FIX IT. Then I did a film called THE HARD EASY with Bruce Dern and Vera Farmiga.

JAMES MARSTERS: You worked with Bruce Dern?

DAVID BOREANAZ: Yeah

JAMES MARSTERS: Fucking A!

Beep!

JAMES MARSTERS: Sorry.

DAVID BOREANAZ: Peter Weller was in it. I play a neurotic stockbroker who is out 4 million dollars and is selling bonds to diamond heists. And I’m working on a film called THESE GIRLS with Caroline Dhavernas. I don’t know if you know her. She’s a very talented actress. I play a stoner kind of guy. It a black comedy.

So nice and varied roles after...

DAVID BOREANAZ: Yeah I’ve done some very interesting roles and I think that it’s been really interesting to see the take on that and we’ve just sold the show to ABC so I’m excited.

Busy man. Busy man. Glad to here it. It’s been great chatting to you and good luck with the DVD. I don’t need to tell you that it’s going to do brilliantly.

DAVID BOREANAZ: It’s going to be fun. Yeah these DVDs are great for fans

Absolutely.

DAVID BOREANAZ: Because they can go and can pause it.

JAMES MARSTERS: I know they can pause on our naked scenes.

Freeze frame on you guys!

DAVID BOREANAZ: There’s specials and there’s extras and there’s a lot of the behind the scenes stuff that we did while we were shooting it and I think it’s a gift to you guys, a gift to the fans.

Well thank you very much. We accept it with open arms. Lovely chatting to you. Thank you.