Amber in Diva Magazine UK

[Catwalks]

I'm just reading an article in this months Diva all about "what Amber did next". It's to premote the BBC webcast animated series that Amber Co-wrote and directed, The Ghosts of Albion (to be shown from 27 march www.bbc.co.uk/cult/news/c...841.shtml.

In the article she talks about integrity ...



when I asked her whether Tara will be raised from the dead - as her former cohort Buffy was in the sixth series, she says that she was asked to return to play Tara bad, as in evil. She decided against it and faced up to director Joss Whedon.



"Too many people had too much invested in her and I didn't want to add insult to injury."

"Dude! like you're getting in the Boob light alright!" - AB Stuff photoshoot

Edited by: xita  at: 2/19/03 7:10:14 am

[urnofosiris]

Turns out there is a lot more to that interview besides Ghosts of Albion. In order to be free to discuss her wonderful comments without getting the Ghosts of Albion thread off topic I've reposted the interview here. Heh, I swear I've made up my mind now.

Thanks to Saule77 for the transcript.



If you want to talk about Ghosts of Albion please do so in the Amber and Chris Golden's new BBC project: Ghosts of Albion thread.

You can comment on the other things she talks about here, but be careful to not give into the temptation to discuss that season from that show which shall not be named.

-------------------------


Coffee, Food, Kisses and Gay Love........Get it while you are hot

Edited by: DrG at: 2/18/03 11:28:38 pm

[Repost Moderator]

Originally posted and transcribed by Saule77







No picture of Amber I'm afraid... Just 3 from Ghosts of Albion, which all look pretty good!



Personal note: God, I love this woman. And I think that the woman who interviewed her did fall under the spell too... And I've found my new sig...

Quote:

---

"It’s what you do and how you treat people that matters, not who you’re schtupping."

---

Warning: she talks about the reasons why she didn't come back in Season Severed...



*********************************************





WHAT AMBER DID NEXT



Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Tara Maclay may be gone from our screens but the actress who played her, Amber Benson, has been busy writing a new vampire series for the BBC. Jane Czyzselska caught up with her on a visit to London.



Most 25-year-old would be more than happy to sit back, relax and fully enjoy the pleasures that come with being a household name on a major network TV show. But, as her acting career shows, Amber Benson has more to her than most. Best known as the shy and loveable Tara of the cult hit TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Benson is and always has been deeply serious about her art.



Having finished a three-year stint in Buffy as one half of network TV’s longest running teenage lesbian couple, Benson has just embarked on her biggest challenge. In March, the multi-talented star makes her debut on British television with the animated online drama she has co-written and directed. The five part series, Ghosts Of Albion, is a cleverly crafted tale of demons, vampires and ghosts set in 19th-century London.



“I love acting, but writing and directing are really exciting too,” says Benson, who is in London for three weeks putting the final touches to the online drama. “When you act, you have to work hard to get inside a character’s head but, with directing, you’re using a whole different set of muscles.”



For those unfamiliar with Benson’s former cult TV series, here’s a brief introduction. Buffy, played by blond starlet Sarah Michelle Gellar, is the story of a blonde bimbo who fought back. Created seven years ago by the American director Joss Whedon, Buffy is a superhero with a difference. Think Xena with complex contemporary teenage trauma and you’re somewhere close. Add Gillian Anderson with street-fighting skills and you’re closer still. It may look like Beverly Hills 90210 but, as Brian Appleyard of The Sunday Times explains, Buffy is unique in the literal-minded morass of primetime television. “It’s an assertion of the redemptive power of metaphor,” he says. “This is not just another run-of-the-mill bloodsucking saga; these vampires are cleverly contrived images of every conceivable teen trauma. Set in high school in the town of Sunnydale, California, this school is located over the mouth of hell and is, therefore, subject to persistent invasions by a variety of demons. Buffy Summers, the heroine, has moved to Sunnydale from Los Angeles to discover that she is the slayer, the particular individual who, in each generation, is destined to fight for humanity against these demons. In every episode, she kills several, either by the traditional method of a wooden stake through the heart or by the non-traditional method of martial arts. The show has developed a hybrid pagan eschatology to explain this eccentric state of affairs.”



Not only that but the show is one of the firsts to posit the idea of alternative families, a theme that Benson particularly appreciates. “Like most gay relationships, it presents the possibility of living outside the traditional family, which I think is kind of groundbreaking. And what’s more, Willow and I were the most stable, long-term relationship on the whole show, which was important to me and to the producers, as well the other gay cast members.”





SHOT



Benson herself is not gay but she feels passionately about the portrayal of her on-screen character, Tara. It’s an open secret among Buffy fans that Tara dies in the sixth series – those who watch the series on Sky will have already seen the episode in which she is tragically shot by a stray bullet when she is reunited with her on-off long-term partner. How does she feel about the brutal ending that befalls her character, as so often blights gay characterisations?



“I was really sad; it was so dumb, but I understand it as a necessity from a story point of view. I personally wish Tara hadn’t died in the way she did; it was so traumatic for a lot of fans who had so much invested in her,” she explains, clearly aware of her lesbian fanbase.



“But,” she adds as a caveat, “the storyline was about Willow’s addiction to magic and you can’t walk away from obsession with alcohol or sex or anything until you hit bottom. Then you have to come up slowly. The only way that Willow could hit bottom was to lose the one thing that meant something to her and that, unfortunately, meant that Tara had to die.”



Amber hasn’t watched the episode yet and she says she may never do so. She told me that a producer friend who worked on the show died of cancer in the same week, which made her and her co-star Sarah Michelle Gellar feel as though they’d hit bottom. “It felt as though we had played out almost the same scene,” says Amber. “It was a crappy day for everyone.”





INTEGRITY



For all her 25 years, Benson has the self-belief, insight and integrity of someone considerably older. When I ask her whether Tara will be raised from the dead – as her former cohort Buffy was in the sixth series, she says that she was asked to return and play Tara bad, as in evil. She decided against it and faced up to director Joss Whedon. “Too many people had too much invested in her and I didn’t want to add insult to injury.”



She’s a pro, too. When Chris Golden, co-writer of Ghosts Of Albion and LA Times best-selling author of teen thrillers, was asked recently if he would work with Benson, he told the press he’d work with her on any future projects. Coming from the guy who’s also a Buffy scriptwriter and novelist, that’s praise indeed.





ONLINE



Benson and Golden were approached by the BCC earlier this year to create an online drama reminiscent of Buffy but for a wider audience – something with the trademark Buffy self-referential humour to make the audience feel as though they’re in on the gags. “What we’ve written is a send-up of Jane Austen crossed with mystical ghosts and demons,” Benson explains.



Accessible to all, the new web drama will be available to web users regardless of broadband or dial-up capability. Actors who have been approached to be the voices on the animated drama include Leslie Phillips, who played the quintessential loveable rogue doctor on the comedy classic Carry on Doctor and Anthony Daniels, who played legendary Star Wars’ original robot C3PO.



Prior to writing Ghosts Of Albion, Amber wrote, directed, and starred in a screwball comedy called Chance that recently won the audience award at the Sidewalk festival in her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. Typically modest about her part in the indie movie she says, “It’s not brain surgery but I needed to do something where I felt like I was using every part of my brain.”



Not one to keep still for long, Benson will soon be appearing as tough-talking New York waitress in an independent movie, Latter Days, a gay teenage Mormon love story. Based on the true story of a gay Mormon kid who killed himself on the steps of a Mormon church, Benson hopes that it will make a dent in the wall of prejudice that forbids same-sex love in some parts of America. “I hope it does well. It’s so awful what they do to you if you’re gay and Mormon – they try to deprogramme you and it’s, ugh, awful – it shouldn’t matter who you sleep with. It’s what you do and how you treat people that matters, not who you’re schtupping.”



The four part series of Ghosts Of Albion is available to view on www.bbc.co.uk/ghosts from 27 March. There is a new episode each week.

[indigogirlie]

okay-yay Amber and boo Joss ! Are you trying to make us hate you buddy? If Tara was evil that would be just terrible i'm so glad Amber stood up for us-thanks sweetie!



Still in shock from this, sorry

Reyes to Scully: I try to stay open, maybe you can try to stay open too.

Subtext police are on their way!

[Repost Moderator]

Originally posted by VampNo12



As for Amber's comments about Buffy she indeed has a great amount of "integrity", and I'm so glad she is being open in more interviews over her reasons in why she isn't returning to the show. Amber shows once again what a remarkable woman she is... truly a class act , while showing Joss's "true colors" (where the blame truly lays, with him )

[Diebrock]

Can you admire and respect that woman any more?

Quote:

---

while showing Joss's "true colors" (where the blame truly lays, with him

---

And that's the thing. She doesn't show that by pointing to him (like other people I could name ) or eluding to things. She just gives her opinion and reasons. The rest JW did all by himself.

_________________
The cliche lives ... on Buffy
"MURDERERS! Remember Orca!!! Free Willy!!!" Yun-kyung bellowed. "The shark in Jaws was just misunderstood!" - Castaway
"Nope, they're married, man." - Lucy Lawless

[xita]

I so want to see this gay mormon movie. I think it's great that Amber doesn't shy away from gay movies. Also notice that this being a true story, the tragicness of it all does serve a purpose for these 2 gay boys and isn't trying to add insult to injury.

-----------------
Baby you make my love come down

Oh you make my love come down

Make it come all the way down -
Evelyn Champagne King

[serenity]

can i get that magazine in germany. yes i know, i always ask, but there are so many things that i cant get here and i am a really big fan of amber. it´s very sad that i live in germany. she is not so popular here.

[justastraightdog]

I think that to understand what Ms. Benson said in the "Integrity" part of her interview, Kittens should know at least one of the two scripts she refused to play.



WARNING



DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ ANY SPOILERS FOR SEASON SEVEN.



DON'T READ IF IT STILL HURTS A LOT. I'm a born '65 straight guy and reading this script made me vomit. So decide for yourself.



DON'T DISCUSS ANY DETAILS HERE. That's what the S7 board is for.



Again: If you love Willow and Tara - truly, madly, deeply - go the the Pens and stay away from the link below. It's only there for those who'd like or need to now exactly what Amber is talking about in her interview. But keep in mind that it's a script written for Buffy at UPN. Therefore it's not funny. It's not entertaining. It's not thought-provoking. It's not worth reading by any means (except as an noxious example of bad writing and social harmful messages).



But still I think it's only fair to provide the direct link to this script for all Kittens. So here it is:



studiesinwords.de/shootin...tions.html

_______________________________
Though here at journey's end I lie in darkness buried deep, beyond all towers strong and high, beyond all mountains steep,
above all shadows rides the Sun and Stars for ever dwell: I will not say the Day is done, nor bid the Stars farewell.

[Kendahl897]

This is why Amber is a goddess and we worship her..and why I can honestly say I will always support her in whatever creative endeavors she embarks upon..she always put others first..Here's hoping within 10 years she's on stage accepting her Academy award for best actress/ or best director, or best screenplay..Hell, the possibilities are endless....

[Iamyouknowyours]

I followed the link to the script. Amber is a saint. She forever has my devotion and support and she knows that. Funny how one decision ended my loyalty to one person and strengthened my loyalty to another tenfold.

[WebWarlock]

To to belabor this point again and again (but I will), Amber is a saint. Joss is an asshole.



She has class and integrity beyond that of what Hollywood deserves.

Certainly beyond that of what a failing production company (ME) on a failing network (the soon to be Nielsen reclassified UPN) should ever hope to wish for.



I will celebrate with a new sig.



Warlock

-----

Web Warlock

The Other Side,
home of Liber Mysterium: The Netbook of Witches and Warlocks

"It was so dumb." - Amber Benson on the death of Tara.

[SJ]

Thanks for the transcript

[Big Dummy]

I never gave any credence to the rumor that Amber wasn't coming back for S7 due to financial troubles between Fox and her management. I knew that it wasn't about that, and had a terrible feeling that wanted to do something ugly with her character.



I've read the transcript for what was to originally air, but the actual script, with the stage directions, just brings the horror home. You gotta admire a woman with principles, who doesn't just give in to the Hollywood machine. It's possible that turning that script down could have damaged her relationship with , and many have pointed out that in this business you don't want to alienate people. So I think her decision was brave, and just so true to herself.



This is a woman who knows how the play the game but not sell herself or her fans out. This is a woman who actually listens to her fans, and cares about their feelings. I'm also sure that, since she cared about Tara (more than ME), this was a decision that was right for her on a personal level.



I love Amber Benson. She's just...a Goddess.

[stereo33]

Don't even want to waste my energy talking about , I'll just go with . Thank god for Amber Benson

[WillowPowered]

Ok just read the transcript and it made me think.



From a producers and writers point a view or a casually watcher of the show it would seem like a good idea to bring Tara back in such a way. To you know, stir the pot and hay having Tara back in any way, shape or form is great right??



Well that is what I think the creators were probably thinking when they came up with that CRAP idea. I think that when Joss boy made the decision to kill Tara off he might have been thinking from a story line point of view (which I guess is good right??) but I really, really think he didn't realise what an integral part of the show Tara (and Amber) had become.



In the end while I am still a Buffy fan (well actually more of a Willow/Alyson fan) I think Tara's demise will and has had a detrimental affect on the show, it just feels so Taraless.



While I am not always the most articulate or express person I just wanted to really say thank you to Amber for her integrity to both herself, her fans and Buffy fans in general. While I would love to have Tara back on the show I am glad that she declined as I don't really think Joss was giving us much credit when he came up with that token effort. There are so many more ways they could have incorporated Tara into the story line without making her "bad".



Anyway I am a relatively new Amber fan (I stopped watching Buffy at the end of season 3 and only started watching again at the start of season 6 - long story) and her decision not to return with such a story line has increased my respect for her as a person and as an entertainter. Or to put it another way Amber Benson rocks.



Hope my rambling actually made sense!!



Jill

~~~~~~~~

Willow - Say, you all didn't happen to do a bunch of drugs did ya?

Willow - I'm a blood sucking fiend, look at my outfit . . . .

[Laika 27]

Wow ! So much integrity for such a small person !. Amber definitly made the right decision in not returning under those circumstances - what a woman!. and imagine putting Willow through being faced with a bad Tara after all she's been through. I guess from the Joss point of view, once you've shot yourself in one foot - why not go for a matching pair ?!!!

[Mrs Vertigo]

Er, Willowpowered, I don't think that when Joss decided to off Tara he was thinking from a "story point of view". He just wasn't thinking.



Its interesting to see how Amber focuses on gay-themed projects. It seems to me as though she understands she'd found herself a very loving and supporting niche of the audiance, and she's in no hurry to let go. I hope she's careful, though. Wouldn't want to see her get labled the "lesbian character" for all eternity. It might really narrow down her options.

Willow: "I'd just like to float something bigger than a pencil some day." …Prophetic much?

Edited by: Mrs Vertigo at: 2/24/03 4:17:29 am

[Jennpurr]

Quote:

---

“Like most gay relationships, it presents the possibility of living outside the traditional family, which I think is kind of groundbreaking. And what’s more, Willow and I were the most stable, long-term relationship on the whole show, which was important to me and to the producers, as well the other gay cast members.”

---

Does anyone know who Amber is talking about, when she mentions the other gay cast members? I'm curious now.



Jen

||My Fan Fiction and More!||
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"You're familiar with all my ways; Even the darkness will shine like the day, when you look into my heart..." ~ Jaci Velasquez, "Flower In The Rain."

[Domaris]

Curious too now Jennpurr



And.. I love this woman more and more each time I read an interview

"Rock my world!" - Gia

[Jennpurr]

Me, too. She's so... beautiful. That's the best word I can think of right now.



Jen

||My Fan Fiction and More!||
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"You're familiar with all my ways; Even the darkness will shine like the day, when you look into my heart..." ~ Jaci Velasquez, "Flower In The Rain."

[urnofosiris]

I get the impression the word gay might be a typo of some sort, I mean the way it is phrased now actually sounds like she is saying 'me and the other gay cast members', that suggests she is saying she is gay as well, which is not consistent with her past statements. It also means that there are other cast members who are gay, could be interesting to speculate about but that too would be off topic and from what we know, no one is. Maybe it was wishful thinking of the person transcribing the original article (I don't mean Saule, but if so, this would be a good time to confess. ).

-------------------------


Coffee, Food, Kisses and Gay Love........Get it while you are hot

Edited by: DrG at: 3/9/03 2:07:35 am

[Jennpurr]

Thank you, Garfield.



I wasn't interrupting Amber as saying she was gay, cause she has always said she is straight... I just thought she was saying that one of the other cast members was. The only person I could think of was Tom Lenk, but I have no idea if he is or not?



Jen

||My Fan Fiction and More!||
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"You're familiar with all my ways; Even the darkness will shine like the day, when you look into my heart..." ~ Jaci Velasquez, "Flower In The Rain."