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Our very own Paula Prescott was able to sit down with Joss Whedon on the eve of the December 19th airing of 'Into The Woods'. Read on and find out what Joss thinks of his writing staff, Buffy's future, and why he torments Buffy so much.
It was rainy when I met with Joss Whedon. He arrived wearing a t-shirt, a windbreaker, and baggy jeans. *So* not what you would picture the creator of the cult phenom Buffy the Vampire Slayer to be wearing, but there he was, complete with boyish smile and a warning. "I'm not here to talk about Buffy. I'm just here to eat food so don't bother me."
Luckily, I've never had a problem being annoying so I quickly began blasting questions and praises at him. He charmingly blushed in all the right places, agreed in all the right places, and gave credit to his cast and writing crew the rest of the time. "I think that the writing staff that I have is very representative of the fanbase. We all support the ideas and storylines that each of us come up with, but at the core, there's a very staunch Buffy and Angel as a couple fan. A very staunch Willow and Oz fan. And one of us, not me, is still holding out for a Buffy and Giles sexcapade. But that's not me."
Does this mean they don't like Riley, Anya and Tara? "No, not at all. Don't get me wrong, we enjoy our cast now, but we're all over the place. We all have our favorites though, and while we don't play favorites, we sometimes throw out wild ideas. Hey, let's do one where Buffy and Angel get groiny and he doesn't lose his soul and they make up! Hey, let's do one where Oz comes back and bites Tara in a testosterony show of lycanthropic lo-ove. We're wacky that way."
Oh to be a fly on the wall of these meetings. And speaking of those meetings, what's the big scoop on 'Into The Woods'? "You wouldn't believe the things I've read about this episode!" he says with a laugh. "All I'll say is that Marti outdid herself and there will be a lot of happy people, a lot of upset people, and a lot of people who will just go 'huh'."
Geez, that narrows it down. I move the topic along and mention the character of Buffy and how she's taken a lot of flak online for her actions. Joss takes a few minutes to formulate a reply, but then he gives me a wonderfully long answer. "When we sit down to write every episode we're like where is Buffy emotionally? What can we do to rock her world? What demon or monster can manifest itself and torment her this week. Last season there was the 'Saint Whore' syndrome. After the Parker fiasco, everyone had the opinion that she was a world saving whore. This season, a lot of people have called her self centered and self involved and that's true to an extent. Things have been changing for her since Restless. What I will say is that Buffy is about to unlock something very powerful from within her and all the out of character moments that people take offense to are actually giving us a glimpse of what could be coming. She's always toed the line in terms of good behavior and bad. We've seen her do illegal things for a greater good, whether it be breaking and entering, to assaulting a police officer, well, what happens if the proverbial line vanishes?"
Gee, I wonder. Care to elaborate? "The carpet will be yanked out from under her very soon. She's already found out that she has a sister who isn't real and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Spike hinted about her ties to the world in 'Fool For Love', and we're gonna pull out all the stops this season and one by one, she's going to metaphorically lose her friends. Not to death, but because of some of her actions. She's been isolating Riley, she kept the truth about Dawn from her friends, and little by little, it's all going to catch up to her and 'Restless' will begin to make more sense. It's all there, all in 'Restless'."
I bet Sarah fears reading scripts. "Oh, definitely. She's come into the office before and informed me that all the crying couldn't be good for her. I do it as a personal attack on Sarah, yeah, all the pain and angst. Actually, and this is to be truthful, I do it because Sarah *can* give me exactly what I want and I know it. She's made me cry before and she didn't even kick me first. She's that good."
What's up with Tara and Willow? "Aren't they just the cutest? What's up with them? Lots of smoochies that we don't see and probably other things that we also don't see. Some things are better in the imagination, right?"
And Xander and Anya? "Xander's going to come to a realization about his relationship with Anya soon and it's going to not only change his life, but it's going to make him admit things that he may not have been willing to admit. Then I'll probably make them cry too."
What about Giles? "Giles is enjoying the fact that he owns the magic store. We've got a pretty big Giles-centric episode coming up soon. I realize that we haven't really been giving a lot of screen time to the ensemble, but all that will change soon. Like I said, we're gonna toss a sledehammer into the gears of the Scooby Gang and spin all their heads a little."
Want to dish about Glory? "Glory, that's a holy name, isn't it? All I'll say is she's a blast to write for because anything goes and there are no limits. She's got such a purpose that I won't tell you about, but she does. I'm holding that over your head. Watch me dangle it."
Such a tease.
What about Dawn? "Michelle (Trachtenburg, who plays Dawn) continues to give me show ideas. She's such a fan girl. She's always letting me know in no uncertain terms where her heart lies in terms of couples. She's amazing. As for Dawn, she may or may not have special powers. I'm waiting for Michelle to tell me."
Is Joyce going to die? "We're all going to die one day. I'm sure she will one day too."
Obviously the interview is coming to an end. One more topic though: Spike. "Spike, Spike, Spike! What is it about that guy? You know, he was originally only supposed to hang around for about three episodes, but I just fell in love with Spike. In a het way. He's so much fun to write for and James is so capable, he just blows my mind. Spike's going to figure prominently into the arc of this season. His love for Buffy is very genuine, though a bit scary, and he's gonna be around her whether she likes it or not. We've had so much fun with his emotions this season. And James has given it his all. He and Sarah have a wonderful working relationship. They're really good friends and really play well together. Did I say play? I meant work! They work well together."
Joss is evasive, but he thinks he said more in this interview than ever before. "Wow, I talked a lot. Do me a favor, put a disclaimer at the end of this and say I wasn't really myself because of holiday stress."
Will do, Mr. Whedon, and we certainly hope that stress clears soon and the Buffy gears start turning in your head.
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Well, I'm certainly looking forward to the next half of the season. I do hope that Tara get's to have a bigger part in the main arc. I miss her already!
[This message has been edited by xita (edited December 25, 2000).]
