James Marsters

Me and My SHADOW PUPPETS

SHADOW PUPPETS stars James Marsters and Tony Todd have a few things in common: diverse careers spanning all genres in film, TV and stage, being best-known for horror roles—and being unafraid of getting pigeonholed in fright fare. “I understand genre, as opposed to an actor who’s just showing up but doesn’t really respect it,” says Todd, star of the CANDYMAN franchise and the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD remake, on SHADOW PUPPETS’ set. “Maybe that’s why I get hired.”

“My concern is playing too many British guys, or playing too many guys with extra-human powers,” Marsters says, referring to his seven years as Spike on BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and ANGEL. “The role on SMALLVILLE [as artificial intelligence being Brainiac] was more worrisome for me than SHADOW PUPPETS. If I were to say I can’t do anything that’s science-fiction-oriented or thriller-oriented or monster-oriented, I’m going to cut out about 45 percent of the films that are made these days. So I don’t think [doing them is] such a bad thing,” he laughs.

In SHADOW PUPPETS, written and directed by Michael Winnick, Todd and Marsters play Steve and Jack, mortal men with total amnesia, who find themselves trapped in a strange building with a small group of others (including Jolene Blalock of STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE), where they are stalked by a malevolent supernatural force. The film is playing in an exclusive theatrical run June 22-29 at the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills, CA; there will be a Q&A session with Winnick following the June 22 7 p.m. showing. Starz/Anchor Bay will release SHADOWN PUPPETS on DVD July 24.

“The characters wake up not knowing who they are,” Marsters explains, “not knowing where they are or how they got there, and they’re trying to figure out those questions and to survive. We are instinctually afraid of not knowing things, so I loved the script. This is an interesting role, someone who is afraid and vulnerable and very human. [Because director Winnick] wrote it, he knows what he wants it to be, and that’s all I’m about as an actor: just to find a good script and serve it. I’d like to work with him again. I haven’t had many directors like him. I’ve had apathetic directors who don’t really know or care what’s going on and let me do whatever I want, and I love that; I’ve had directors who know exactly what they want, but I feel like a puppet and I don’t like that, although most of the time, those are the better projects. To have both is a rare combination.”

Todd says that both his manager Jeff Goldberg and his 16-year-old son advised him to do SHADOW PUPPETS. “My son is the final barometer. He liked this [script] particularly,” says the actor, who adds that Winnick turned out to be another plus. “He’s a smart guy. He graduated number one from USC in ’92, which isn’t bad. I met him for the first time at a wardrobe fitting. I was in a snarly mood that morning, kind of like Steve, so [Winnick] loved it. Steve is afraid of showing his fear, but he may be the most afraid of everybody, deep down. It was very important for me that we were on the same page about him. On first look, you think Steve has violent tendencies…”

Production designer Kristen Ridgway chimes in about Todd from the makeup trailer doorway, “He’s a sweetheart, we all love him.”

“Aww,” says Todd, touched. “For a guy who plays such tough guys, that’s pretty good to hear.”

Ridgway isn’t done. “He’s not a tough guy—he’s a teddy bear.”

Todd feigns alarm at this threat to his image. “Don’t tell them that!”

For the scene where we first see Steve, real shackles were employed to attach Todd to the wall. Makeup FX supervisor/prop master Mark “Red Dog” Fenlason, whose friendship with Todd goes back to their days on CANDYMAN, had to apply the restraints, and says he felt uncomfortable chaining the actor up. Todd notes that he understands why. “Any time you’ve got a black man in chains, this is America, it brings back historical connotations. I knew he would let me out, but of course [he was uncomfortable]. Anybody who’s not affected by that, there’s something wrong with their humanity. The image itself is a powerful one.”

Marsters and Todd had never worked together before, though Todd guest-starred on ANGEL a few years before Marsters’ tenure and both have appeared at different times on SMALLVILLE. On SHADOW PUPPETS, Todd reveals, “James and I hit it off right away, because we both are gamers, so we’d pull out our portable PlayStations and there we’d be battling at each other.”

Playing with Todd—both on the PSP and in scenes—has been great, Marsters reports. “Damn, that guy can act. He’s from stage, like I am. He does not want to spoil [a scene], he does not want to go rehearse it too much, he wants to keep it on the day, but he just owns his character. It’s frightening, and it’s very, very good to play off of. He’s a totally cool guy, professional, laid-back, but when he turns that shit on [for the camera],” Marsters snaps his fingers for emphasis, “he’s got a real anger, and it’s very scary.”

If Steve is not the single most primal character Todd has ever played, the actor maintains, “He’s right up there. You’re going to like Steve because, for example, we go to a room where there’s a two-way mirror, and they start f**king around about, ‘How are we going to get through the mirror?’ and I just say, ‘Like this,’ and take a gun and shoot it.”

Dealing with the mirror was easier for the fictional Steve than it was for the SHADOW PUPPETScrew, Todd adds. “The first time we shot it, it didn’t shatter. We did this shot of me firing the blank, so that was covered. But then Red Dog shot it and it just blew a hole in it. So they set it up again. The gun misfired before action was called. The third one, half the mirror was still there. I said, ‘Well, I’ll just kick it out.’ They [padded] my leg. But then the producers were concerned about a shard of glass dropping down on me. I wasn’t worried about it, but we had to make an adjustment in the script where I picked up a nightstand that had already been established as being bolted down. So with my adrenaline fully pumped, I ripped the nightstand out and threw it through the glass. And even then it didn’t break completely, but it broke enough.”

The actors handled much of their own fighting work in SHADOW PUPPETS. “There’s not a lot of pads you can use when you’re only wearing underwear,” Marsters laughs. “The stunt choreographer is able to keep it safe, but it’s fighting on concrete and I’m just going to have to live with that.” In this area, he praises co-star Blalock: “She’s a trouper. She doesn’t care if she’s bleeding. I’ll be trying to hammer away at a lock and I’ll start bleeding, so she’s like, ‘Wait! Wait!’ and I’m like, ‘No, no, let’s keep going.’ We’re exactly alike. She’ll only try to hold the [camera] roll if I’m hurt, and I’ll only try to hold the roll if she’s hurt.” “Because we like each other, it’s all very cool,” Todd concludes. “I enjoy working with people I like and respect. Most sets that you’re on, everybody’s going to say they like what they’re doing. But here it’s going good.”