Angel

From Buffy/Angel Magazine

Back On The Box

You can’t keep a good cast down and many of the Buffy and Angelstars will be back on our TV screens later this year with new shows. David Boreanaz, Alyson Hannigan, Nicholas Brendon, Christian Kane, Alexa Davalos and Seth Green all have new shows for us to look forward to!

Has Buffy Season Eight Arrived?

Besides a few surprising tidbits revealed on Angel, the fate of Buffy and the Scoobies has been left to the fans’ imaginations... until now! The first novel to explore the Buffyverse after the events of "Chosen", Queen of the Slayers is the closest thing Buffy fans will have to an eighth season of Slayer adventures (for now, at least!).

News about the show in every issue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Magazine.

Pop princess, perceptive teen, ice-skating goddess... actress Michelle Trachtenberg has transformed into all of these roles and more in the two years since Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended. Her three seasons on the show playing the Slayer’s kid sister, Dawn Summers, gave Michelle the opportunity to grow with the role and evolve her character from an awkward teen to a self-possessed young woman, that bravely battled evil to help save the world.

Turning 20 this year, Michelle actually hasn’t had time to look back on her Buffy years. Instead, the actress is busy adhering to her philosophy of forward momentum by constantly seeking acting opportunities that meet her challenging standards. Finally taking some time to relax for our interview, she assesses her projects this past year with a smile, “Yeah, not too bad. I’m still always trying to reach the next level. I’ll try to do that and then as soon as I do, I ask, ‘What’s the next step?’”

Driven. It’s an accurate word when describing Michelle. Acting from the age of six in commercials, she successfully segued into steady roles in soap operas (working for the first time alongside Sarah Michelle Gellar), TV series, and films, without any gaps in between. After the drain of the intense Buffy production schedule, the actress says her focus returned to film. She shot EuroTrip immediately after the Buffy finale and then worked on the independent film, Mysterious Skin. Surprisingly, she allowed herself to be wooed back to television with a recurring role in the fourth season of the hit HBO show, Six Feet Under. She played Celeste, a young pop diva with a trashy mouth living the extreme Hollywood lifestyle. “When I finished Buffy, I thought I’d really stay away from TV, because I came from movies and I was always much more interested in movies,” she explains.

Talk eventually turns to her legacy in the Buffy universe, of which she is still very proud to be associated. Her own personal highlight working on the show is “The Body.” “It’s very difficult to watch my own work, as I’m always trying to improve and get better,” she reflects. “But I think as an overall effort, in the episode ‘The Body,’ I think everyone put forth such an amazing performance. Joss did a really great job writing and directing it. It was a monumental show and was very important to the Buffy universe and the storyline. I think that episode, to me, sticks out in all of Buffy history as one of the most moving moments of the Buffy timeline. It was really special to me.”

She also confirms the rumors that were abound last year about her possibly appearing in the Angel episode, “The Girl in Question.” “Joss had actually called me to go on Angel and unfortunately, I was under contract and in the middle of training for Ice Princess, so it was just a scheduling issue,” she details. “I was so sad to hear Angel went off the air, because I thought maybe it could be the lasting part of the Buffy legacy.”

Read more interviews and exclusive behind-the-scenes features about the show in every issue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Magazine.