James Marsters

Who do you feel survived the final battle on Angel and why?

Illyria. Because she had the best costume and therefore the best chance for a spinoff!

Finish this sentence: I used to pretend…

Huh…I don’t really pose. That’s part of my problem.

Of the time you spent doing theatre in Chicago, what do you remember most about it?

I remember opening night for “Life is a Dream” at the Bailiwick. We had all the major critics in the house, which for a semi-professional company was a big deal. And all of our lighting cues dumped out – our primitive computer, this was back in, man, the turn of the century (laughs) – this was late 80’s, so it was a very primitive computer and it dumped every cue. So we did this three hour, Spanish verse play with no lighting. And it created a situation where the audience had to use their imagination a little more and everyone realized we had to come together a little more – and it was magical. And we got GREAT reviews.

The older I get, the more I realize how little I know. Do you feel that way? And if so, what are you currently trying to educate yourself on?

Every day. Right now, I’m trying to educate myself on hydrogen technology. I have an idea to combine solar power with hydrogen. Solar power is a free energy source, but you have to collect in massive solar arrays out in the desert and in transporting it back to the cities, you lose 50 – 75% of the energy. Hydrogen is very easy to transport and to store, and it’s also very easy to make. It’s almost medieval how simple it is. The problem is it takes more electricity to create the hydrogen than you can get in hydrogen going out. But if you can combine these two technologies, you’d solve everything. I’m talking to civil engineers and scientists about my idea of how to combine them, and no one yet has told me it’s a bad idea. But I’m also learning some drawbacks and one of them is if every car is expelling water vapor, there’s no pollution, just water vapor, but if everyone is doing it it might create rain-like conditions on the road. So that’s a problem. I can’t believe someone else hasn’t thought of this, so I have to believe there’s some problem here, something that doesn’t work. So I want to find the problem and fix it!

What is the worst nickname you’ve ever had?

Monkey. It came from a jacket I had. My mom had bought a second-hand jacket that had a hood that made me look like Curious George. And then I finally got my mom to buy me a ski jacket like all the cool kids had, but she bought it on sale and it was like fifty sizes too big, I looked like the Michelin Man. It was not cool at all! (Laughs)

Favorites:

Musical – “Jesus Christ Superstar” Because it rocks!