James Marsters

Q. Welcome back to the UK, James.

A. Thank you. I’ve been here about three days stuck up in a hotel room having a lot of room service and having a lot of fun. I went to the Virgin Megastore and I bought like £600 worth of CD’s coz I knew that the Virgin store here is like the best record store in the world. So I put a whole list of stuff together that I always wanted that you can’t necessarily find. I went in and this guy started helping me coz I had like 30 CD’s so far and he saw my list and he was like, "Dude! Right on!" and he’s like "who’s Romeo Blue?" And I’m like, "oh, that’s Lenny Kravitz in his early career - he called himself Romeo Blue." And he’s like, "I did not know that!"

Q. Educating the British, that’s good.

A. But he wasn’t a Brit. No, he was an American. That explains it! (Laughs.)

Q. Ok, on to the question. I have a question about the two audition pieces that you use from Shakespeare, Macbeth and Caliban. I think we can all understand why you do Macbeth because you’re a big Macbeth nut. But why do you do Caliban?

A. I do Caliban because I just think it has language - the Caliban piece rivals any piece of language he ever wrote. I think that’s possibly the prettiest, most pleasing vowel combinations he ever did, for one, rhythms he ever did and just everything about it is just like a little piece of magic. There’s stuff in Winter’s Tale that rivals it when the queen wakes up from being the statue. There’s stuff in Midsummer Night’s Dream that sometimes gets there, but that one I just think is..he’s also a monster (bends over and makes growly noise) and he delivers it...you know...yeah.

Q. What is one thing you’ve never done but always wanted to do?

A. Sky-diving. And/or hang gliding. Yeah, yeah.. Coz that’s so...ohhhh, too many other things.

Q. Hi. You seem a very intelligent person. (James says “a very what? Stick it (the mic) right up to your mouth, baby, don’t be afraid. That way we can hear you, seriously.”) Some unintelligible physics question (she speaks too fast) .. plus a fraction of that wavelength, does the something collapse the infrastructure?

A. Darlin’, I’m really a stupid American and I can’t understand you. If you could just slow down and really put the mic up to your lips, I’m really serious.

Q. If the width of a wormhole cavity is a whole number of wave lengths does a fraction of that wavelength with the coinciding particle activity collapse the infrastructure?

A. It does NOT collapse the infrastructure!

Q. Audience laughs. Giggles. Are you very, very sure about that?

Q. Hi James. Welcome to the UK.

A. Thank you.

Q. Spike was used a lot as comic relief in Buffy and in Angel. Did you enjoy doing the comedy and have you done comedy before in your career and have you got any plans to do that, because your timing was great.

A. Thank you. Yeah, I’ve done a lot of comedy just in stage because in stage you do kind of everything, if they’ll hire you. I had just come off performing, oh, now what the devil is that dude’s name...I gotta get this right...who’s Toby Belch’s sidekick, man? Andrew Agueface, right? And the play is...well, I was doing...Twelfth Night. So, I was doing a double bill, I was doing Macbeth and Andrew Aguecheek. And I did Andrew Aguecheek like Andy Warhol with the big bright wig and face paled. And I just didn’t want anyone to know that it was me, that it was Macbeth that was doing it so we just did it stagename and I just prayed to God no one was gonna, you know, "that’s Macbeth??" But, yeah, but did I enjoy doing the comedy on Buffy? Not originally. Originally I was so happy with doing kind of scary stuff and manly stuff and sexy stuff and then when the wheelchair stuff came along and the drunken stuff, that was hard because I was just enjoying the other stuff more I guess. But then pretty quickly, in fact, kind of halfway through that one episode when I came in in Season Three and I was all drunk looking for Dru, you know? I kind of started to understand where Joss was going with it. And that he was, in fact, making me more human, you know. Because monsters really are only so interesting then they have to die. So yeah, ultimately, I think that’s what saved it. Really.

Q. It’s reported that you want to play Bluntschli in Arms and the Man; sure it’s a wonderfully witty, iconoclastic revivalist long overdue. Are there any other Shaw parts you fancy? I would have thought that Dick Dudgeon in The Devil’s Disciple, which has nothing to do with the supernatural, was tailor made for you.

A. I would have loved to have done The Devil’s Disciple only I don’t know it as well as Arms and the Man and that’s the only reason. I LOVE doing Shaw. In fact, I did Bently Summerhays and that was in a magical production of, oh my God what’s the name of the play!! It’s a single word, a Shaw play...I’m gonna get it in the middle of another question and I’m gonna shout it out. Yeah, I love Shaw. The thing I love about Shaw is they were actually rioting in the streets because of his plays. His plays made people so... MISALLIANCE! Thank you!... the one that has the woman parachuting in through the glass at the end of Act I. It’s like "hi, how ya doin? You mind that I’m in pants? Anybody?" Yeah. That scene had them actually burning things outside the theater when they were performing that one, yeah. I love Shaw.

Q. Hi James. How much do you love or loathe the internet, because although it’s been great for spreading the word about you, how far are you aware that everything, EVERYTHING you’ve ever said in public is analyzed and cross analyzed in a way that can horrifying and intrusive?

A. It’s not intrusive I guess because I’m choosing to be public right now. And I guess if I really do my job all right, I’ll be ok if it’s analyzed. No, the internet is a double-edged sword. It has absolutely benefited me hugely - and also as I’m starting to try to do more music it’s benefiting me because on the internet I can both advertise and distribute without a label, which means I get 95% of profits. But I made a friend recently (questioner turns to leave) Don’t go away yet! This is the INTERNET we’re talking about! (Laughs.) I met this dude traveling back from London last time I was here and he helped to invent the MP3, which is the digital music thing. He’s like all up with computers, he’s on all the big...the government calls him in to do stuff. And he told me the internet is, "dude, I helped invent it and it’s very, very, very, VERY dangerous. He said you have to have two computers. If you’re on the internet, everyone, you have to have two computers - one to be on and surf the internet and one to store your information because no matter what they tell you. the information on your computer if it is connected to the internet, is not in any means safe at all. And it also helps the government keep a lot better tabs on us, which I don’t think is always good.

Q. I’d just be happy if you could lay off politics and your private life because that’s NONE of our business.

Q. Hi James. The organizers were inviting outrageous questions so here goes. Have you ever kissed a man and if so, under what circumstances and did you enjoy it?

A. (thinks and paces a second) I had a dream when I was thirteen. THAT worried me for a long time! (Laughs.) Then I did a play - I’m trying to remember the name of it, it was at the Bailywick Theater. It was a beautiful play about... it’s called Just Friends and it took place in Brighton, England during World War II when people used to go sun themselves and watch the bombers go and have picnics. There’s an artist who’s laid down in the sun that I played, and he’s gay and totally cool with it and there’s another guy who’s gay and not yet cool with himself about it and they sit and talk and the guy kind of comes out to himself, the guy that doesn’t really understand that he’s gay. And then the artist takes off his clothes. And then, I think I had to kiss the guy for it, but I can’t remember when the kiss came, man, and then the clothes come off. And I think they just lay down and sun themselves, because it’s not about sex - they’re just friends. But I think I had to kiss a guy named Andy for that, yeah, no I didn’t enjoy it.

Q. I’m told that I should say that everyone’s seen a picture of you kissing Nick Brendon, although I haven’t seen it myself.

A. Oh, wait a minute! I’ve kissed tons of guys! I totally forgot! Not Nick Brandon, no wait a minute, (chuckles) no, this is a good one! By the time I was a senior in high school, I’d already been working out a while and I used to like to tangle, starting to enjoy that. Another friend of mine, especially another friend of mine who knew kung fu, we used to pretend to kiss in high school because we came from a REALLY homophobic place, man, like, we’re gonna kick the shit outta that.. and we would bait ’em, you know, to do that and oh, you know, sorry. (mimics a fight) So, yeah I did that a little bit. But I don’t know, did I kiss Nick? (audience mumurs yes) Maybe I did! He does have a sweet mouth. (laughs)

Q. Hi. The next question actually isn’t mine, but is from the little girl behind me, hiding. She just wants to know if you can remember the first role you ever played on stage as Eeyore and Winnie the Pooh and which lines you had to say and which costume you had to wear and if you could do us and her a favor and perform the donkey again like when you were back in school.

A. Yes, it was fourth grade, (to little girl) hi darlin’. It was in fourth grade - I played Eeyore - it was in the chorus room of the school so it was kind of on these little steps which were problems for all of us actors because we kept tripping on the stage coz the stage had layers like that. I had a blue costume and there was a little cutout of my face, with the ears coming out and I remember feeling like I did really well. I didn’t act again for two years, but I really had liked that experience, then that led me to audition for the stuff that got me started - but I don’t really remember...uhm, let me try. (thinks - then in a wonderful Eeyore voice) "Oh, Pooh..I supppose...I’ll just sit under here - that’s fine with me. "

Q. Hello. You’ ve talked about method acting before and how the camera wants to capture something happening for the first time. My follow up question to that is how do you make it happen for the first time even in the fifth take?

A. You can’t. Ultimately, you can do different things and if your partner is really with you and present, and not just giving you another pre-programmed line reading, then you can surprise each other. You can intentionally do little things differently. Or better yet, just hang in with them and just see what happens. But you can’t recreate the first time. I remember Penny Marshall talking about working with Robert DeNiro. I was always reading Hollywood Magazine, just trying to glean any piece of information and this one stuck with me. She said that he’ll give you great takes every time but no two are the same. And it struck me that it’s like he’s like a jazz musician - he knows what the chord structure is, he knows what the melody is, he knows where all the things are, but he’s just rippin’. So he’s not trying to recreate anything, he’s just trying to create again, I guess. But the first three times are pretty fresh. The first one is always the best but it almost never gets printed because there’s some problem either with the technical end of it, and frankly that’s 90% of it. That’s the weird thing, man. The camera men? They can mess up seven takes in a row and no one says anything. Actors mess up two and everyone’s like, (mimics big sigh and frustrated shrug). Right on. (Laughs.)

Q. Hi. How much of what we see of you onstage is the real you, how much is the one you think we want to see, and how much the one you want us to believe you are?

A. Good question, baby. Damn. Uh, ok. I don’t know what you want to see in me. Well, I can make assumptions but those are assumptions.

Q. I think you assume what the crowd wants from you.

A. That’s not it. (vigorously shakes his head) I can’t do that. That’s second guessing the audience. That’s trying to give them what you think they want and that’ll never get you anything. What you have to decide is how much you are willing to share, how far you’re willing to go and how open you’re willing to be in front of an audience to be honest. It’s a courageous thing to do, frankly, coz, you know, I’m nervous right now. I’m up in front of a bunch of people and you know, you’re starin’ at me. The thing is, what you think I am has a lot to do with Spike. (crowd murmurs no) Well, it flavors it. Come on, man. The whole Spike thing I’ll say is the intersection between the words that were written and that really, believe me guys, that the character of Spike was very clear on the page. You guys - I’m sure some of you have been reading scripts. How many have actually read a Buffy script? Am I wrong? How many people think I’m wrong, that Spike doesn’t really come across with just the words? Yeah, exactly. So....then you have me who is actually giving those words an immediacy and a life and I’m being honest when I’m saying them. And that’s really a good thing to be able to do. But I’m not defining the character, I’m not really building the character. That work is done in the language. I am being present and sometimes that’s hard - you know, hour twenty (makes a "wake up now" sort of motion) Action! Yeah, that’s why I slap myself - you probably saw me do that earlier this morning. Um, such a good question. But what I want you to believe I am...uh, Honest I guess is all I can uh, but yeah. Good acting is not putting on a mask. That’s not good acting. It’s hiding yourself behind a technical kind of thing. Good acting is revealing yourself. So, hopefully what you’ve seen is me, but that’s not building the character.

Q. Hi. When you came to Chicago, what did you do to survive until you got cast at the Goodman?

A. Uh, waited tables at Monday’s restaurant in the lobby of a hotel something, man I forget. 4:30 in the morning, which meant you had to be out in the cold at 3:30 in the morning waiting for the el on the el track..everybody’s fighting over these little heat lamps and most of them don’t work, so you’re just going "hope I don’t die, hope I don’t die." I’d come from New York so I had a taste of cold, but I didn’t KNOW what cold was til I came to Chicago. But to tell you the truth, the Goodman happened fairly quickly. I took an acting class in a local... I was making tentative steps back into theater because I really got burned in school so I just said I’m just gonna go to a little cornerstone place and they cast me in this pretty good role, this really cool Lysistrata, 2411 AD. So they cast it in the future but they did it with the cothurni and with the phalluses. And if you do Greek comedy with the cothurni and the phalluses, it is HILARIOUS because everyone’s trying to be so serious. "These women! What is wrong with them? (sniff!) I don’t know, I can’t think!" You know what I mean? It’s just too good. So, a director directed that play and he happened to know more directors in town and he heard at a party that they were looking for an actor to play Ferdinand in The Tempest and he said my name. And then I went in and didn’t get the role. But I almost got the role. A different dude, Don something, who ended up on Seaquest 2484 or whatever, uh Don Franklin, cool guy, got the role but they moved him to Puck. The director made a different decision and they moved him to Puck and they put me into Ferdinand. That was my first professional true role and it was a nude role. And I didn’t even know it! I didn’t even know it was nude until I had the first day of rehearsal and Bob Falls, who is about "this" tall, (raises arm way over his head) and I’m this unemployed, you know, little 22 year old actor and Bob Falls is already a legend. "Kid, we’re gonna have you nude in this one. We’re gonna strap you to this big, iron hoop and you’re gonna be chained in there and we’re gonna roll ya out, or the sprites are gonna roll you out and we’re gonna untie you and you can continue with your speech. And I was still so excited that I DID get the role, having had the exilaration that "I’m gonna go to the Goodman!...no I’m not I’m falling...I’m GOING to the Goodman! with my DICK hanging in the AIR! (covers his face with his hands) And, when we went into text, which is about a week and a half before the opening for the critics, the lighting designer broke his leg in Denver and was stuck in Denver, so his assistant lit the show - like a VEGAS show. It was supposed to be all about tasteful shadows, and sidelight, and it was just like (makes hand gesture of wow! direct lights) And the production stills of that show to this day are like, "what were they doing at the Goodman?" Bob did a lot of nudity that year and I asked him about it. He said he was trying to change his audience, actually trying to get the old people to stop coming. And I was like, "you are insane! That’s the backbone of theater!" and he said, "nope. Young people are the backbone of theater. Let’s shake it up." He’s still there kicking ass too, man, I wanna go back.

Q. Are you ok with the flash cameras or not?

A. Oh yeah.. Makes me feel pretty!

Q. With Buffy and Angel having come to an end, and with your acting past, believe it or not another Eeyore question, if you were approached to reenact your first role of Eeyore in a feature film, would you sign up immediately or would you hold out for the role of Tigger?

A. (laughs) Well, with this performance capture stuff, you know? I’ll do both! Have you heard about this? Performance capture? This new film coming out with Tom Hanks and he’s played like six roles? They put fifty different sensors on his face and measured everything? I find that, actually, kind of helpful. That’s actor-driven special effects and I’ll be hired doing that! But no, depending on who was directing, I’d sign up in a second. Yeah.

Q. Hi James. I’m sitting down for this one.

A. You have the power, use it.

Q. I know, I know. So have you honey. What would you write or say in your own obiturary? And what would you most want to be remembered for?

A. Produced theatre, did a TV show, tried hard. Yeah, yeah...did some music, did some music.

Q. Hi James. Can you tell us a bit about your appearance in The Mountain?

A. It was actually very good! The producers and the WB was really pressuring me to do a lot of press about it, which they never talked about going in and my publicist said that it was very bad for me to do press for any guest star role for a one week appearance. It looks HORRIBLE if you run out and start talking about a Big New Role for me that lasts 30 minutes, ya know...(laughs) But I took it because the role was of a flawed man and I like flawed characters because I think that gives you meat that you can really dig into. I play an alcoholic father of a kid who ruins his chances to go to college, but loves his son a LOT, infinitely anyway. The guy playing my son is a guy named Penn who is a really good actor. He’s one of those actors where you can just look at him and he hangs with you and we can just improvise and jazz it together. And he loves jazz, like I do. So on that level it was really great. They filmed me for four days instead of the agreed upon two, but that’s television. Television happens. Plus, Vancouver rocks! I had half the day in Vancouver to walk around, which was really good.

Q. Hi gorgeous.

A. Hi sexy.

Q. If you could produce and perform in a theater or filmed version of Macbeth, who would be on your wish list to work alongside you?.

A. If I could choose any one from past and present? For Macbeth? (takes a second) Young Richard Harris

Q. Is he still alive?

A. YOUNG Richard Harris... he’s a warrior, you have to believe when he pulls out a sword "Is there ANYONE who can take me?" He can’t be defeated.. So you gotta be young enough. Uh, Malcolm McDowell? No, too (can’t make out what he says) uh....Richard Burton...Olivier, of course, because his is the only one that everyone agrees on was good, so obviously Olivier.

Q. Anybody sort of, newer? More modern?

A. Sorry, baby, I’m old. These are my contemporaries...(laughs) A current actor to play the role I’m not aware of. I’m sure they exist, but they are in theater that I haven’t seen. You’d have to have a theater background. To do Shakespeare, you have to have the flight hours of trying and failing enough until you finally get it.

Q. Hi James. Do you know what effulgent means and can you use it in a sentence?

A. The light upon her hair was gleaming, twas effulgent.

Q. But what’s the definition of it in the dictionary?

A. Radiating.

Q. That’s the one, well done.

A. By the way I have to admit to being nervous to do Shakespeare in front of English people because you invented it and I’m and American; so I am always straining to do it fast enough and get the rhythms correctly and I suspect that if I did it, some of your ears would go," innng" (makes an ouch face). But there would be a passion to it and an immediacy and you would be able to understand it. It would be clear, if not completely musical. That would be the fault of it. But I fear that. I fear coming over here and "he’s doing Macbeth! On the London stage! And he’s SMASHING the meter!

Q. Hi. We’re getting a little less serious.

A. Good!

Q. This will probably tell me more about your character than any other question I’ve asked you. I would like to know who your favorite Star Trek character is and why?

A. Spock Spock Spock Spike Spock Spike Spock Spock! (applause) Spock was a character that they didn’t expect to break out, but they found out that through that character they could re-examine their theme or they could do a variation on it. The theme of the show seemed to be this very hopeful theme actually - that humankind would get over where we are now and come to a time where we could be spreading the best of ourselves. And how can we get to that place? And that was a character who could interestingly, we could ask what is it to be human in the first place? And that really gave it ground underneath, and it kept it from being too Pollyanna. It was just one of those things where you cook up a bunch of characters and one of them really, you say "hey!" you know I could really get my writing, I could really get my teeth into that guy over there and it worked. In the hands of a very good actor, Leonard Nimoy, who turned into a very good director, very good. And yeah, I think Spike was a little bit the same way. He was able to take the theme and kind of expand it in a certain vein.

Q. I suddenly feel like breaking into “Danke Schoen” but I won’t.

A. Oh please do.

Q. If you could play any character of the opposite sex from books, movies, plays, tv, or cartoons, who would it be and why?

A. I SO like being a guy, that’s just something I haven’t given any thought to....nothing against being a girl! I appreciate that YOU are doin’ it!

Q. Thanks, and I appreciate your doing the guy thing...

A. Thank YOU. As it should be, honey. Right? But I’m...uhm... wow...(in elderly English Lady voice) "Lady Bracknell? That would be fabulous wouldn’t it! I think I would choose Lady Bracknell and I don’t think I’ll wait til I’m a woman!"

Q. Hi James. In theater, what do you as an actor look for in a director?

A. In theater? It’s a long list, man. That is a very long list. First and foremost, just basic leadership capability, leadership being the ability to create a safe environment for the work to be done and to order the work to....to inspire people to work harder than they were planning to, as opposed to trying to force them or shame them into working harder - coz creatively that doesn’t work. So you need someone who understands that level of leadership. Someone who has a personality that is interesting enough to inspire you as he’s talking to you and to get you excited by his ideas, that’s a bit of a performer, that’s very important. The ability to encapsulate what he’s talking about in a very few amount of words so that he can get out of your way, so that he can tell you what he wants and then can get the hell out so that you can get back to the actual doing of the thing. You don’t want one of those wonderful directors who is so charming but can’t get off the stage. That’s a problem. You want a director who can cast well because if you cast the play well, 85% of your job’s done. Any good director understands that and I remember once I came close to working with the artistic director of the Market Theater and I forget the man’s name, but he’s one of the people who helped Athol Fugard become Athol Fugard and that’s where Athol did all of his work and he brought a play to the Northlight Theater in Evanston, just north of Chicago, and he almost cast me in the lead. He auditioned me for three months until finally the artistic director Russell Vandenbrook came in and said, (shouting) "JUST CAST IT!" and so the director cast the guy who originated the role in Johannesburg, not me. But he took three months, ya know? So, that’s another thing. I guess those are the main things. Yeah.

Q. Hi. In an older biography painting was listed as one of your hobbies. Do you still paint and what kinds of things did you paint?

A. Yes, I do still life, which is the easy one! But exterior still life, and not anything I’d arrange. I painted plants but more specifically I liked to paint the shadows cast by plants. That’s what I was into, which sounds weird.

Q. Did painting accomplish the same thing as playing the guitar does for you or did it serve a different function as a creative outlet?

A. Totally different. The main thing that painting gave me was an appreciation of how beautiful the world is. Because I had gotten to a point where I started asking myself at all times, "well, how would I paint this? How many colors would I need?” And it started dawning on me how many different colors were all around me at all times and things got more intense. I just started noticing how beautiful the world was. And that just took staring at one thing - the first one was a sunflower against the brick chimney thing and I did that all summer, you know, for two hours because the shadow was only there for two hours coz it was a late afternoon kind of deal. Guitar and music are really a distinct, a "tune me up" and makes me feel more mature, basically. (laughs)

Q. Hi James. You know that Alyson Hannigan has been on the London stage this year. If you found something that you liked, would you consider coming to London to do a stage play?

A. I would LOVE to come to London and do a stage play. But right now I have family commitments that would preclude that for 10 years at least. But after that period I will try if you’ll have me.

Q. Which one would you like to do, apart from Macbeth?

A. Oh, God.. Oh! I’d like to do a Steven Berkoff. I’d like to do Kvetch if no one has struck gold with it recently because it strikes gold everytime it’s produced. It was gold for me. It’s this GREAT play - Steven Berkoff, by the way, is all about sweating and misery and nervousness and "oh my God, I’m dying inside!" Oh, it’s so funny. But he has this power and this passion and I would love to do one of those. I might like to do a George Walker play. He’s a Canadian playwright that not a lot of people know about. He’s absolutely fabulous. He writes about the underclass in Toronto.(thinks) Oh, you know Life is a Dream - I’ve done the role and then I’ve directed the play and it’s the spanish Hamlet, so I feel like maybe my third whack at it would be the successful one. That would be good. It kind of goes on and on. I had to close my theater, not because I....we were selling so well, right, that I got lazy and I didn’t save money because all the shows were selling out so I didn’t save any money. But I had two plays that didn’t sell so well, I mean they weren’t flops, but they didn’t sell so well and we went under. And so we had all these plays that we wanted to do.

Q. Hi James. Now that the band has disbanded are there any plans to tour as a solo performer?

A. Not immediate plans, but definitely yes. Guys, mentally, I’m on tour right now. I’m singing for you tonight. That’s the first time I’ve sung solo since, what, 14Below? Anyone here from 14Below? (to someone who yelled) Ahhh! Baby! Right On. We’ll see how it goes. Right now I’m putting my energy into making the album. I’ve got the songs, I know what I want to do with them, and right now we gotta get them done, and pressed, and then you start touring with that. So yeah. You gotta have CD’s to sell on the tour! (makes "cash" motion with fingers) I get this now, Steve! Steve! I’m on board now!

Q. Hi James. Was it fun to go back in time and portray Spike as William with different costumes and hairstyles?

A. When I got different costumes - the one time that I liked my different costume was in Tabula Rasa. That was the one I enjoyed because I got the point. The hawaiian shirt - I didn’t get that at all because I had just come on the show and I was feeling like my....I was told that I was supposed to be the new Charisma, uh, not Charisma obviously but Cordelia. The person who would stand in the corner and go, "Buffy, you’re stupid. You’re gonna die" That’s one of the things that the scenes need and I was told that that was my function and I tried to do that, except they kept bringing me in in this smoking blanket, you know? And you can only do a smoking blanket so many times. So that was failing and I was starting to think that my position on the show, my future on the show was probably not that good. And then they started putting me in like this clown suit and I was like, "that’s it! Why don’t we just chop the character up and flush him down the toilet!" Okay. I made three jokes in the make-up trailer - THREE jokes. They had a little bite to them - one of my jokes was, that I remember was, "you know usually when they ask you to play Urkel, you would go to an audition and there would be sides, and you would do an Urkel kind of thing. And you would know that the role was Urkel - on the contract it’ll say Urkel and you would know that you are playing sort of a nerdish kind of character. It’s been surprising to me that I thought I had signed up for Spike and I seem to be Urkel today! I later found out Joss almost fired me over that. Like, whoa...three jokes in the makeup trailer. I’m going to be SO good.

Q. Hi James, how you doing? What was it like doing the scene with Buffy when she was invisible and did you have to improvise? (big audience reaction)

A. There was a lot of talk about how I should be doing the (air quotes) "push-ups." Because the way I did them they were not looking like push-ups at ALL. They were looking like what they were, QUITE obviously and they thought that was way too much. Like in the first rehearsal they were like, "whoa! WHOA!" and I’m like, "what? that’s what he’s doing, and I’m just doing...what...!" So we changed that. I dunno...See, that one was with Nick, so that one was not so bad. That was just another guy so it wasn’t a big deal to be naked.

Q. Hi James. This question was kind of asked by a few people in front of me so I’m gonna change it a little bit. It’s about your music, about your solo album? Can you tell us a little bit more detail, perhaps, if there’s gonna be any of your older songs that you’ve written on the new album or if it’s all brand new?

A. There’s one old song that I’m gonna record called "Smile." It is mostly material that was to be on the band’s second album. So if you guys have been going to the shows, you’ve heard these songs before. They’re reinterpreted and I like what I’m hearing actually, I really do. I heard a softer sound....yep,

Q. A lot were wondering if you were going to have Over Now, Katie,

A. Yep, yep all those are all going on the album. You guys liked those, they were all going on the album. Yeah, definitely. Katie was the first song we had decided would go on the next album.

Q. This Town too?

A. Yep, yep, yep. And a new one by the producer of the album, Andy Rosenthal, called "Every Man." It’s a really good song, because every man thinks that God is on his side. Ain’t that true?

Q. Hello love. What do you like to use in your bath water?

A. In British accent) What do I like to do in my bathroom?

Q. Do you like bubble bath, cologne, bath oil, or nothing at all?

A. Oil. I don’t always do that because the clean up is a pain in the butt...but oil’s good. I don’t like all the bubbles because it’s like this detergent in your nose. But yeah, oil’s ALWAYS good, I mean come ON!

Q. I wondered how much input you had about the look and content of your official website and if you actually write some of the shout-outs?

A. No, I don’t, I don’t. I really don’t. I trust that that’s done.. Because the thing, the real communication that needs to happen, you guys are doing and all the website is, is a conduit, at best, for that. It may develop into more. I had a friend who really wanted me to up the content and find ways to market and, not necessarily charge for visiting the site, but put certain ads in certain ways ..he was very smart by the way, I might do it. Uh, targeted marketing. Actually, actually giving commericals to the people that they DO want to see. But, I don’t really go on the net. No disrespect to the people who do - it’s just that I want to keep my ego as SMALL as possible through all this.

Q. Hi James. If you could choose in the beginning of your life to live as a human just once, or to be a vampire forever to survive many generations to see a lot of things, what would you choose and why?

A. Human, definitely.

Q. Why?

A. I remember, God this is so powerful, I’m gonna cry. It’s like one of those...here’s the actor’s secret. What Spike wanted to do with Buffy when he was in love with her? He wanted to give her a garden, a rose garden. (pauses and paces a min. to collect himself, takes a drink of water) (voice shaking) because that was alive.. ( applause)

Q. Hi James. My friends and I were discussing who we wanted to look like. For me it was always Jane Seymour. You’ve become really famous for your looks, or become really famous for Spike’s looks. Did you ever want to look like someone else and who?

A. I’ve always like my looks but I always wanted straight hair, that’s about it. Yeah. I wanted to look older all my life. I always look at actors NOW and I’m trying to make sure this little line (points to face) keeps under control. I’m like "oh my God." But when I was younger I remember looking at actors goin’, "man, I wish I had that LINE, man, that’s so cool." Yeah, the grass is greener, isn’t it..

Q. Hi James. What was the inspiration behind the song “This Town?”

A. “This Town” is me trying not to write a personal song anymore but write a song that is a story. It’s about longing, I guess. It’s trying to instill that, it’s about longing. It’s about situations where people choose people that they can’t have. And both of them are doing it. The woman does it and the man’s doing it too and for both reasons they are in constant longing and I was trying to get at that.

Q. Hi. If you had to go backpacking for a year, and you were gonna take one person with you, it could be anyone from history, from the present..or

A. Gordon Hart. You don’t know him, he’s a friend. He works for the Sierra Club in Sacramento and the California legislature. He’s a lobbyist for the Sierra Club, which is a little more center of The Green Party, it’s been around a lot longer and it doesn’t have the same kind of political skew on it. It started so long ago that people think of it as a neutral thing, so he decided to go with that. I’ve been backpacking with him - in fact, one time Gordon and I, we were just like walking around, we didn’t intend to really go hiking, but as the case with Gordon and I we always end up walking and talking and we just started climbing. I had on Chinese exercise slippers, which is a BAD idea for hiking, when we decided to go chimneying. This is what an idiot I used to be. Chimneying is when you put your back up against one side of the fissure and your feet up the other and you just wiggle up and down, and if your feet go up above your head, you’re dead. So, I got down there and Gordon says, "I’m pulling up, I think that’s enough, I think I’m not going any further" and I’m like, "man, I’m gonna check that thing down there!" and I go down, my feet slip, and I really get in a jam. Gordon decides to just come on down and help me and then HE slips. And we’re just sitting there, I’ve told this story before, but we’re just sitting there and we’re looking down and we both just started to chuckle. And we just look at each other and we don’t say anything, but then I’m just basically like, "brother, I hope we really live." And he went, "yeah." and then we’re just like, ok we’re gonna do it real slow, we’re gonna just breathe here and we’re not gonna panic.” And we very slowly and very carefully, and we kept each other calm, got our feet back and we inched our way back up and we climbed back down the hill and we looked up back where we were..(tape distorts here)

Q. When you ran your own theater company, what made you choose the plays that you did?

A. I was at such a low operating cost that I could choose plays solely on how entertaining and thought-provoking they were. So what we did was just read about what everyone’s doing and read the scripts that were all around the country and chose the ones that were the fire-iest and excited us the most, without any regard whatsoever to sales. Zero. We were a 60 seat house and if we sold 35 a night, we could cover our operating costs. We ended covering about 75% of our operating costs over the 2 1/2 years we were in Seattle, which is really good. Most theaters do 50% and that feels really good. Unfortunately, the 25% that was made up came from me. (laughs) A lot of artistic directors could come up to me, we’d go to parties and stuff, and they would say, "you just did that Christopher Fry one act, man? You did “Phoenix Too Frequent?” Man, I’ve been wanting to do that - for 20 years I’ve been trying to talk my board into that one act. Damn! You’re doing George Walker? Oh MAN! I wanna do George Walker." And I’m like, (does neener neener singsong) na na na NA na. But I mean, they were doing Shakespeare and Shaw - the old standards sometimes are really wonderful too, but yeah...at least you guys have a chance of commercial success. In America, it’s even dicier, a lot dicier. A lot of people are closing theaters and stuff...boy, I’m a real upper to talk to!