Nicholas Brendon

CreationCon Chicago: Nicholas Brendon

Note: Quotes are exact quotes, the rest is paraphrased. I was typing fast.

In between Mark and Frederic’s appearances there was an hour’s break with an auction going on, so we ducked out to get a late lunch. The con hotel seemed nice, and was in an excellent location. Right across from it was a mall and there was shopping all around as well as numerous restaurants. They plan to hold another con here next year. It was also mentioned that they’d tried to get James Marsters and Jim Beaver but neither was able to do be scheduled.

I wasn’t clear that the auction was for charity since we came in partway. They had some nice wall hangings of the various guests and they went for $100-400 each. The final sale was a large wall hanging with all the guests and to be autographed by them all. This ended up going for $1000. It seemed excessive to me, but apparently there was such demand for Jensen’s autograph that there was a flyer given out with the schedule offering people $100 gift certificate for the dealer’s room if they’d sell their ticket back. Apparently they weren’t getting any takers. By comparison they gave away a handful of Jared tickets together with his wall hangings.

Nick was wearing a suit jacket and a BRIGHT satin fuscia tie with a baseball cap and glasses. His time onstage was often rather stream of consciousness and very hard to keep up with. He said he was from SPN and was very sexy fighting supernatural things with his rapier wit and his scythe. He might want to name his first child Scythe, and change his last name to Weinstein. Come here “Scythe Weinstein.” I’ll start crying and tell you I quit acting and have become a mother. Are there kids in the room? She’s 3? She’s like a sponge, I shouldn’t be talking at all.

He asked if everyone had seen the original Buffy half-hour pilot presentation, as he’d never seen it. He talked about all the episodes he’d done, and then getting the script for Conversations With Dead People, looking through the whole thing and noticing there was no Xander. He said they must have changed Xander’s name and he was actually playing all the guest characters. It’s been 3 years now and we have a comic book, I’m a bad ass in those things. I’m better in a cartoon. That’s a bitch. One eye acting, try it. After tonight get one of those eyepatches and walk around for 5-6 hours while drinking. Yeah there were a lot of libations and sins on that set. Lot of naked, one-eyed...

So, Chicago. He did his first con in Chicago – and perhaps also now his last. “I think when I first started doing these cons the Internet wasn’t as up and going as it is now.” When I was in Australia 3 weeks ago, they had taped me singing at the karaoke thing. What they should have done was have the monitor out there. He did a funny rendition of a very bad attempt at Tainted Love. I probably got 4 hits.

In the interim I did a comedy that Fox decided they hated. I still haven’t seen all those episodes (of Kitchen Confidential). I’m doing Criminal Minds right now, but it airs on Nov 21st and now we’re on strike. I’m a love interest, so if it’s not Nick Brendon getting screwed by producers it’s by something else.

If you have any questions for Nick, you’re asking the wrong guy cause I’m Kelly. Nick had a fever, he’s hot blooded.

He was asked to do the Snoopy Dance which he did. He said he was asked to do 2 dances on the show and that was by far the easiest one to do.

Asked who was his favorite love interest he thought for a while and said Anya, because it went on the longest. “I had more time to work my magic.” We actually had a party in my house, all 3 of us together.

Asked about The Replacement he said he played both parts, and they would slick his hair back and then shoot over Kelly’s shoulder. Did you ask for that storyline since you have a twin? I thought it was a good doppleganger situation but they gave that to Aly. Kelly was doing my stunts every day so it’s not like they’re not seeing him every day. I’m actually still split in half, it starts about here (points to his butt).

What was your favorite episode. “I’ll never tell” And Hush. And the Body, any one that Josh did, they were all pretty phenomenal.

Asked about working with Nathan Fillion he said he’d known Nathan for years, “he took way too much pleasure in gouging my eye out.” Which was actually pretty unpleasant because of the fake blood. All that blood was shooting into my eye so that scream was half true. Took me to the next level.

What was the craziest thing that ever happened to him on set? Getting pantsed and not wearing underwear while they were rolling. It was laundry day and he only had one pair of underwear back then. Now he has 2.

What was your favorite season? First because things smelled differently, my first acting job. I can tell you every episode of that season — then afterwards it was like one big long episode.

What can he say about the role on Criminal Minds? He’s a potential love interest for Garcia. On a soap opera he would have a tumor.

What was your favorite role? I didn’t like my character at the end, and I didn’t like myself at the end. Xander got to play a lot of different parts. I wanted to stick my talents into Seth on KC a little more. I liked my little monologue at the end of Psycho Beach Party. In S7 they were bringing in a lot of funny people, so my funny …I was hammering a lot.

What is your favorite Xander moment? Someone shouted “The speedo!” It was cold that day, it was cold, we were at USC, it was freezing. In the Pack, someone else’s favorite, “it was my first slow motion walk,” and I was walking slow. Nick we’re speeding the film up, you don’t need to walk slow! I got a little DeNiro in there. I was still learning to act then. I’ve peaked now “Where did I go wrong?” he crouched down and pretended to cry on stage.

I liked playing Renfield a lot (in Buffy Meets Dracula), I was very happy with that scene where I first became him. He was watching the rollback and said “There’s my Emmy right then.” I just like that because he had to talk so quickly. He’s more like me, pretty much down to the bug eating.

Most memorable moment? Being pantsed most definitely, that’s never leaving my cerebral cortex. He then took off his hat and hung his head upside down on stage. “I swam and I have knots in my hair, I have a dred right back here. It’s time for a trim.” One of my heroes as an actor, I have 3 and one of them was Cary Grant. I loved doing that pillow talk musical, that dancing was great, and that part when I pop up and say “Or it could be witches.” I got it in 1 take, which was really difficult because we had to lip synch. If I hadn’t gotten it we could have been there for hours. And around that time I got married, then I got divorced, things happen. What was the best, worst, and most embarrassing memories? That I remember? I’ve been told some things. I think I’ve committed some felonies and no one’s ever known. Joking. The Zeppo was a neat time. I just met Eliza then too and we did it, and we really did it. It was fun to play that guy. I’m good at playing a nerd because I’m a nerd. I like being that oafish guy who it doesn’t matter if he trips when he walks because I trip.

What was the name he preferred for the group? Scooby Gang has been used before. Slayerettes, was that one of them? Woopsies. Who would he be in the Scooby Gang? I would be a combination of Shaggy and Scooby. (He does a great impression of both, one of my favorite moments of his talk.)

Asked to talk about the comics he says he can’t. Here’s the funny thing, I’ve never read one of the comics before. I don’t get this stuff, I wish I did, by the time I’m told that there’s a comic book out they’re all sold out, they should send me a first edition.

Does he think Xander was ever written out of character? I never should have become a carpenter, I was so bummed. Do you know how horrible hard hats are, why did you bother doing my hair? I had to work at the strip club, give me my Uncle Rory’s car and I can be a private eye. He sings a bit of “Private Eyes” — they were big back in the day. John Oates, he wasn’t in the band was he?

How did you end up getting cast in Buffy? I played baseball and I had a stutter so I decided t get into acting to get over my fear of talking, which I’m still trying to get over. I wanted to be a doctor but I have a fear of blood. I got fired from my jobs as an assistant, I was friends with this girl and her Mom was a manager and then my girlfriend left me for my best friend. I’m living in a condemned building after the 94 earthquake so I gave it a try.

What did he like the most about the Zeppo, it was great to see Xander get the A story. Nick said it was because Sarah had to do SNL, that’s why the Zeppo came about. It definitely made me want to do my own show.

Is there anything you can’t live without. You? Oxygen? My material thing – what girl doesn’t like diamonds – I can’t pass a Vans store without buying a pair of slip ons, I’m a shoe whore. And coats. So I live in L.A. wearing only Vans and a coat. I like noodles too.

What’s it like working with your brother. It was hard because Kelly wasn’t an actor, and it was my workspace, I kind of felt sorry for him but he was learning too, and I was so comfortable doing that in front of a camera and he wasn’t so comfortable. Even when he was doing my stunts he shared my trailer. First day Kelly does my stunts, it’s 6 and I’m taking a nap in my trailer. Someone pops in and says “Nick, Kelly’s ok!” “Huh?””He’s going to the hospital and his briefcase is in the trailer” He separated his shoulder his arm is over his head, and on the way it slipped back in. The producer, Gareth fired him. You’re kidding! They rehired him and it was fine. He went through a lot on that show, and he still gets residuals.

Someone said she was writing her thesis on the show. Was he aware of the impact the show was having? There was a lot of attention paid to the writing, I wouldn’t be standing here right now if the writing wasn’t good. We knew the impact when there were classes in universities. How long is the thesis? 40? I would do one word per page. I… love… Joss,. I’m cramping! Thesis are hard, thesi?

Do you hang out with anyone from Buffy? I owe Alyson a phone call. I’m bad, it’s something to work on. I see James at auditions from time to time. I did a play last summer with Noah and Noah and James had done this play and I was so used to him being (and he did some imitations of Spike).. It was so strange to see him with dark hair. Sarah’s living in NY and I’m in Venice. I saw her walking on Main Street and we had a 45 minute talk after I was restrained by police. Yeah, Alyson, really the only one. What about Seth? Would he ever do Robot Chicken? We all say hi to each other, so no. Now he feels bad about himself.

“Blood on the Highway” is a vampire film, I came in for a day to play this douchebag vampire. I had the hair all slicked back, this badass, wondering why all these things aren’t getting done. We did a little Harmony slapfight. Nice not to have the cumbersome teeth, I think they’re looking to do a festival in Jan or Feb.

Don’t swim with your eyes open, I’m in pain right now. I loved Australia, my best friend was there on his 15th honeymoon, we went and surfed, and it was a beautiful summer out there minus the fires. Hey everyone, “welcome in the summer!” And the beaches are topless out there, the ones I went to anyway. And I went topless.

Some question about who he prefers, Jared or Jensen. The one who moisturizes twice a day, that’s who drew me in. Then apparently something else was asked and he said “I’ve never been asked that question before”, the thought that went into it.

Who was your favorite character in the Buffyverse? Spike would have been cool but then it goes into that thing, it would affect my everyday life because I take it home with me. Standing in Starbucks, levitating, cameras following me around everywhere. He had some action stuff, and drama stuff and comedy stuff and he got kissyface with people.

What was it like working on KC? I didn’t have a lot of dialogue, I loved that show and Darren was great, it was really bittersweet, I had to take a self-imposed 8 month break after that, I was very disenchanted with Hollywood but I took that personally.

“Fire Serpent”, something about Charisma and Mercedes. “Joss and I both had a morbid desire” to see (something?) It’s like seeing an accident where a friend died. So I chose not to drive by that, though I will check out Mercedes. (Maybe it was about the Playboy layouts?)

Was there ever anything about bringing Xander on to Angel? Joss was going to kill him in the last episode but he was talked out of it by other writers. Xander and Angel never got along, if Spike had his own show Xander could go there, because he and Spike got along in that they didn’t. But with DB and I never — he was brooding over there and I was watching him brood. That doesn’t make for good TV.

And that wrapped up the guest Q&As for Saturday.