James Marsters

James Marsters Q&A — Saturday, July 3, 2004 — PART TWO

Q: Well, I think I’m not the only one who’d say it was a really great episode. [Audience applauds in agreement.]

[new questioner]

Q: We’ve got to be really quick because we’re at the last few questions. Do you think that "Buffy" as a show presented good morals because I’ve heard a lot people say Angel is too old to be her boyfriend and she is really violent [laughs from audience], but do you think it sent out good messages, especially for teenagers?

JM: Yeah. I think "Buffy" was a black and white morality tale. It was THE most unapologetically moral show that was on television at the time. It was about heroes trying to do good in the world and messing up, making mistakes, but getting back up and trying to do good again. And evil was not countenanced, evil was not made to look cool — except for my character— but [audience laughs] see, that’s why I feel bad. You know, I’m not really that proud of that. We caught so much stuff, man. There were so many critics saying we were an amoral show and that was very confusing to us because if anything, I felt it was overly simplified in a moral way. Joss is, Joss is like black and white, right and wrong, man, and it always freaked me out. Like we did that episode right after Columbine happened, we had an episode where we had a shooter up in the bell tower with a gun and a scope and you had Buffy saying, "Why are you doing this? Explain to me what brought you up here with a gun."

And you have the guy explaining himself about loneliness and isolation and they PULLED it. That would have been, that’s what America needed to be talking about. We needed artists, at that moment, to say let’s look at this in a slightly different way and let’s start talking about this, but they pulled it. It was a little too, close. That was an honorable attempt to examine what’s going on in my country. Yeah, I think that it is a black and white morality tale with no gray area at all.

[New questioner]

Q: What moral do you think it promoted above most others?

JM: That to attempt good in the world is a dicey thing. Usually, in the real world, if you meet someone who defines themselves like, "I’m a hero," you’ve met a jerk. Right? So it’s a, in order, it is very dicey to decide that I am going to stand up and try to make good happen in the world. And you can fail a million ways just by even contemplating it. Most people will tell you to "Just take care of yourself. Just try to be the best person you can be and that’s your gift to the world. Don’t try to make other people good. You don’t know enough to do that." But Buffy decided that she wasn’t going to do that and you saw her fail and make every mistake you could make doing that, and yet be still a hero. The point being that heroes are imperfect. They make mistakes. They’re still human, but what makes them heroes is that they decide to try. So, that was an important thing.

Also, how do you go from being a kid and thinking the world is just and cool, and waking up to the fact that the world is unjust and not that cool. How do you get from being a kid to an adult without giving up? Because a lot of people, when they’re faced with that disillusionment, will say, "You know, I don’t care anymore. It’s not worth it" and they stop really being proactive in life. And a lot of great, we were touching on this before, but "Hamlet" is about that. "Catcher in the Rye" is about that. And "Buffy" is about that. How do you bridge the gap from childhood to adulthood. How do you do that successfully and really honestly look at the world and admit it’s a screwed up place and still be active.

It’s the Care Bears. [Audience laughs]

The Care Bears, man, the Care Bears ROCK. [Audience claps and laughs]

They do. Because it’s, they all got to care. That’s my thing. I’m all about passion. When I used to run a theater company, like god help you, you come to my theater company and you don’t care, I’ll kick you out on your a**, man. So I’m all about you got to care. You’ve [got] to have passion and that’s what the Care Bears do. They’re like, (getting very animated) they come down from the clouds and they’re like, (in high voice) "Johnny doesn’t care anymore." And see that means Johnny is losing his soul [Audience laughs] and he’s becoming an evil man because he said, "I don’t care anymore." At that moment, he’s going down the dark side. By the time he gets to be 18 years old, he’s going to have a gun in his hand because he [doesn’t] care any more. Care Bears Rock!

[HUGE applause from audience] We’re drifting all over the cultural map now.

Q: [New person comes up, says hi and adjusts the microphone] I’m very short too.

JM: (motioning to microphone) This will make you feel powerful. (in deep voice) HI.

Q: First of all, I want to thank you on behalf of some people, uh, the rape scene, I know you don’t like to discuss it, however, it was raised back in another question. We’ve all heard everything against that scene, but what you may not realize is that scene has helped many of your fans that have been in that situation, that have been at a point in their lives where they couldn’t carry on anymore or they’ve got emotional and physical scars, and they have come to a point where they have watched your scene more than once and through the development of your character, I’m pretty certain that they feel it as well, and they have said that they wish they could come up and thank you for helping them carry on with their lives. To know that you were nothing like the person who had attacked them and that they can even find forgiveness for the person who had attacked them. So, [crowd interrupts with applause]...

JM: Thank you. I always thought, I always felt that the scene was worthy. I was always proud of it artistically. It’s just that it cost me so much as a human being to have to do that and, and, uh, but see it’s not really about how much it cost me to do that, it’s that I did it. And, thank you, and I do believe that. I think that, that scene was really one of the writers exposing themselves of a huge mistake that they’d made earlier in their life. One of the writers loved a person so much and the person broke up with them and this writer just thought if we just make love one more time you will see that we’re right, and almost raped somebody. And so that was the bravest script we ever did. And I, uh, I’m very proud of it, but at the (uncomfortable laugh) same time I just wish someone had come to me and warned me or something, you know, but see, that’s just a small, that’s just, that shouldn’t, that breaks, but what stays is the scene. Thank you. [Audience applauds]

Q: And I just have a quick question. You sort of touched on it from the very first question. Particularly as a mother, this is, the influence of celebrities on kids, like you mentioned Britney Spears, I’ve got a step-daughter who likes to, like she’s 11 and she likes to dress like she’s 26 and her mother encourages this sort of thing. And so, as a celebrity, do you feel like you actually have a responsibility to be a role model both in your personal life and in your professional life?

JM: No.

Q: No?

JM: Um, I (sighs), I’m raising a seven-year-old girl, so I know exactly what you’re saying. But what I tell her is don’t do anything you’re ashamed of. Do what you’re proud of. Do what you don’t mind standing up on a mountain and saying what you’ve just done. Don’t do anything that you have to lie about and be ashamed of. So, I think I probably am a good role model, frankly. If you were to put me up as a role model, I think I’d probably do really well that way, but that’s not why, that’s, I’m an actor and an artist. I am here to try to make you folks uncomfortable and entertained and itchy and weird and to get you thinking, you know, but not as a role model. I’m like the instigator. I’m not a role model. I’m like the jester who you know, "Let’s make this party more interesting." [Audience laughs] But having said that, I don’t do things that I’m ashamed of. I’m perfectly happy for everyone to know everything I’ve done because it’s all good. [Audience claps.] Yeah. (laughing) Recently. [Audience continues clapping]

But yeah, that’s something I, that’s something they put on you. They’ll drape that right over you. "You’re now a role model." I don’t need to be a role model. I’m an artist. So, I (sighs) but Britney (laughing) Spears. [Audience laughs, applauds.]

[Moderator comes out and says that’s the end.]

JM: See you guys in the line.

[HUGE cheers and applause.]