James on Spike:
"Spike is a sociopath. Spike has fun hurting people. Spike is a man without guilt. Spike is a man for whom the world has been opened, and he can get what he wants when he wants it. Spike does not carry a wallet. When Spike sees something, he takes it." James
"On the one hand he's a sensitive boyfriend and on the other a ruthless killer." James
"Spike enjoys hurting people and he enjoys people being afraid of him." James
"I really think I would have a good time on Seventh Heaven. Spike could teach them all a lesson about life. 'Come here, Minister. Let me really teach you about Heaven.'" -
"I think basically people would like to be freed from the bonds of society the way Spike is. Spike gets what he wants, when he wants it. I think having a lifestyle that's that free is cool to people." - J
"A vampire takes everything when they take a girl, and there's something inherently sexual about that." -
"Inside my own mind, Spike is exactly the same guy," notes Marsters. "It doesn't feel any different. He's not good. He's just hot for Buffy. He's not going to do anything to piss her off. In a way, he's closer to the Spike we met in Season Two. Originally, I thought the interesting thing about Spike was the contrast between the fact that he was a psychopathic murderer and the most sensitive boyfriend you could ever imagine. These two things didn't seem to fit, and yet they were in the same character, which was kind of mysterious and cool. Later on, they took both of those elements away from the character. Dru left him and he became chipped, so he could no longer have fun killing people and he no longer had a girlfriend to be so gentlemanly for. So now, while I'm still chipped, I'm getting to fight demons and have fun with the violence, and I'm also back in love with a girl, which lets me explore that gentlemanly side that really hasn't been explored for about a year and a half. So, in a weird kind of way, I feel like I'm getting back to the original Spike. He still gets to throw out those nasty asides. So it's still the same guy; I just don't have the body count."
"As far as this last season, the word was that I was to be the new
Cordelia; I was going to be the one standing in the corner saying, 'We're
stupid, we're all going to die!' and that saves the show from getting too
Scooby Doo. I think Emma Caulfield [who plays Anya] fulfilled that place
much better and much cleaner and it was very good for them to go to her for
that purpose.
"So in this last season, Spike is not really a narrative character. He
doesn't drive stories; he's a bit of color over to the side just to give it
a little edge. But again, noting ever stays the same in Joss's universe, and
from what I know, we might find him a bit more in the mix this season,
although I would perfectly happy to do what I did last season."
"And I really didn't have to work. That's the other thing, is that everyone
else on the show was working like dogs and I'd come in, shoot a day out of
an episode and leave, and I still got wonderful writing."
"What Joss said was, 'You're going to be the new Cordelia.' Which meant to me that I'm the guy in the corner saying, 'You guys are all dumb. It's stupid and this is not going to work. We're all dead and I'm outta here,'"
"He's been taken down a peg. He is going through kind of a hero's journey of testing," Marsters said. "But, in typical Whedon fashion, it includes a lot of humiliation. And I just think it's brilliant."
"Yeah, he used to be a badass and now he's a wimp."
"I've learnt that he doesn't have to be killing people to be passionate,"
he replies. "He existed on a very simple level before. He killed people and
kissed Dru - and that was Spike. The thing that made him more interesting
than a normal villain was that he was truly in love - I mean profoundly and
beautifully in love with his girlfriend. Both of the things that drove him
have been taken away and he is still himself, which is a testament to the
writing.
"Spike is still basically the same person, he is just physically unable to
kill anybody. He has no loyalty to these people at all, so how do you work
him into the plot given that? Yet they are still able to do it, and it's
really interesting."
"Many people think Spike is impotent," the actor explains, "and we should
clear that up right now. We should put it in the first paragraph of your
article: he can have sex, but he can't kill humans!" ...
"It's not you, it's me' exchange by the, er, frustrated Spike and a very
confused Willow. (during the episode 'The Initiative') If a casual viewer
had switched on the episode after the commercial break, "It would've sounded
like a failed rape scene," claims Marsters. "I went as far with the
beginning of the scene, which was the beginning of the 'rape' and I was
remembering De Niro in Cape Fear [in which his character violently assaults
a woman] and tried to get as much as I could to get to that.
"It's very Shakespearean, he says it right out in that scene, 'This is what I'm going to do,' and we watch him do it. That's the thing, if Spike can't cause physical pain, at least he can mentally torture people."
"The way the last season ended (season 5)," Marsters says, "Spike had completely failed in protecting both Buffy and her younger sister, so that's going to play out. Big time."
"I don't have knowledge of what's happening in the next episode. Much less do I have control. I always try to keep a balance - when Spike does something really mean, I've always tried to give him a little warmth. I've always thought it was my job to keep the audience with the character."
"Spike and Dawn got in contact with each other, so maybe he's not so bad, which of course means they must be setting me up for something. My mind just spins! I don't know what the hell they're up to. I never know what Joss is thinking, I really don't. Nor do I really want to any more. I just want to go through this experience. They've softened me so much that it's made me think I'm going to go evil. Spike's never the same two seasons in a row. Maybe they're going to have to kill me... I have no idea."
"And they've (the fans) have a little gleam in their eyes, like it was going to be fun seeing who died (at the end of season 5). And I was like, 'Yes someone is going to die, and you're going to wish you never got excited about that. We're going to kill you guys.' I was just phenomenal. It just made me more and more proud to be on the show. It's like, all bets are off. Just when you think you know what the show is, it's something completely different. I don't know if Joss is showing off, or just testing himself, but if you notice, with every episode that he's directed, Joss has stripped away one of his strong points. People used to say that his dialogue was the best - and then he did 'Hush', the silent episode. Then they said his plots were fabulous, and he did 'Restless', a dream episode with no narrative whatsoever. Then they said he was marvelously funny, and he came up with 'The Body', with not one joke or laugh in the whole thing. I don't know - what the hell is he going to do next?"
"Okay, okay, okay," he says, sounding even more like Joe Pesci in the Lethal Weapon films, "here are two great questions: why is Riley such a stud that he can rip his chip out of his chest with his chest, and I just can't get to my little skull deal? This is not complaining, believe me. I'm not saying the writing's bad, but it's interesting. The other question is this: why does Angel get to walk around in sunlight and I burst into flames? Truthfully," , "if they really didn't bend that rule then the character would be constrained to only coming out at night. That means that wonderful ideas for scripts would be thrown out. It means that the production schedule as far as filming exteriors would be hellacious. I think it's because he's the lead. He has to drive the plot and it can't all be at night."
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