Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Have you ever gotten a major second chance at something?

Buffy was a huge second chance. They had narrowed it down to five or six guys and we all went in to read with Sarah. The night before, I was playing basketball and I got undercut. I landed on my back, so I got hurt. That had never happened before. I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t put on my socks and shoes. I was really messed up. And I went in to read with Sarah in a pair of shorts, a T-shirt and flip flops. The whole scene I did leaning up against a bookcase. I just couldn’t physically move. And at that point, I had already read for Joss and the other producers, and it was my first time reading with Sarah. It was a very intimate scene. They wanted to see the guy who wasn’t intimidated by her. They wanted to obviously try to see some chemistry between the actors, but someone that could go up and physically approach her and hold their own against Sarah as a presence, as an entity.

You know, she holds the screen. She’s a star. And I didn’t have an opportunity to do that. I walked out saying, “Sorry for wasting your time, thanks for having me. Good luck.” Because I was horrible. The acting was bad, everything that the scene was intended to do, I couldn’t do. And so the next day, Joss called me at home. He said, “I’ve seen you do this. I know you’re my guy. When are you going to be ready.” And I said, “Joss, this has never happened to me before. I don’t know. I might need two weeks. I can’t put on my socks right now.” And he said, “All right, well, I think Sarah’s going out of town for about two weeks, and so when she comes back...” he more or less bought me time. And I went in two weeks later when I was fine and read with her and he said, “That’s it.” Then I got the job that way. Second chances don’t come a lot in this town because there’s just too much money at stake. They usually just don’t happen. So I will be forever grateful to Joss Whedon for giving me the second chance. Now that it’s been off the air, do you look back with a different perspective on Buffy? I think any time something comes full circle and has run its course, you have an opportunity to look in hindsight when it’s no longer a living, breathing entity and it’s historical in a way. That was a groundbreaking show. It’s something that I will always be proud to be a part of. I consider myself one of the luckiest actors in town to get that gig, so I think it will always carry that kind of iconic prestige to it because Joss Whedon just so had his finger on the pulse of what was happening. We were in a make believe fantasy world that gave you license to do the ridiculous, to do absolutely anything. But at the heart of that show, it was grounded in real issues and what real people that age were going through. And that takes a huge talent to pull that off.

There’s talk of revisiting it with TV movies. Do you think there’s any more story to tell with Riley?

Probably not. I felt like the character kind of closed out. I think that the fans, if they’re going to go back to that, need to be satisfied in the Angel and Buffy of it all, and that usually means not much room for the Riley of it all. Of course, if Joss came calling, I would obviously answer. I’m a fan.

How much do you think the show did for your career?

I think it did a lot. Coming into an established hit show, being seen how you want to be seen... that first season, it took me a while to give into the role and what they wanted from me, and it took them a while to learn me and write me and what I bring to the table in a different way. They tried so hard to position it right to make Riley accepted, because I don’t know, maybe Brad Pitt could have pulled that out. Those are big shoes to film when you’ve set up a relationship that the fans so love and so crave and so want, and then you break that up and try to introduce someone else, it’s not going to be a very accepting position. So they did everything they could for that first half a season I was on to set me up in the right way where I could possibly be accepted, but during that time, it was very much being directed as, “We want you to just be a fly on the wall. Be wallpaper.” So that’s tough to pull off. That’s a harder thing to do than having the conflict and having a lot going on. So when it got deeper and deeper of Riley trying to understand Buffy and letting himself get bit and started to drink and he started to go down that dark road, as an actor, that’s the fun stuff to do.

Do you ever do the conventions?

No, I haven’t done the conventions. I’m fortunate to say that I’ve been working, so it’s good that I guess I haven’t been available to do them.

So when you meet fans, people just approach you?

Yeah, that’s usually... I don’t approach them and say, “Hey, have you seen me on Buffy?”