Calgary Expo 2021 James Marsters Panel

September 11, 2021 at 6:17pm
By Joelle Rondeau

At the Calgary Expo 2021 there was a James Marsters panel at the BMO Center front stage where he went over his career. The showcase event started with noting his presence of being Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, to Smallville or Torchwood and The Runaways. His first gig was in Northern Exposure. Just a Bellhop, being a minor talking role and a priest as well. His origins were in stage plays prior to transiting to film later on.

From there a quick dive into the Buffy musical episode. Most of the cast had not publically sang prior, many were nervous about singing and the possible negative impacts on their careers. James is more into punk rock, so the music wasn’t really his style. With that, it just reinforced the theme of “Don’t Give Up” that Buffy was known for. What surprised the group was how well received the musical episode actually ended up becoming.

A good quote was then provided, ”bravery is not the absence of gear, it’s doing it in the face of fear”. Further discussion went over the fun that Spike had while slaughtering people. Then; onto a brief chat about wanting to direct Macbeth, but it requires a lot of money to get it off the ground and he hasn’t been able to yet.

There’s then a riveting discussion of Netflix streaming in the modern era versus the traditional TV style that was around during the filming of Buffy. On Netflix they’re not worried about offending people so writers are unleashed to their full potential. Back in the day, Joss Whedon had to fight with the network to get scenes such as the Willow and Tara kiss to happen, or the overall story arcs to happen as desired since shows were more about standalone episodes.

The discussion then shifts towards acting, and the craft. He notes it’s okay to study him, to see him. It’s about stopping the acting, and trying to give a real experience. The Spike role was a bit of luck, he was bottom of the barrel and happened to have a good English accent. Spike was originally meant to be killed off in five to ten episodes, but worked the role to connect with the audience. That particularly was displayed by not being a jerk to Drusilla despite being told to be.

It undercut some themes of evil, making it cool. Tony Head was a bit of a tutor for him by force after watching him pronounce some words with an English dialect. Some side notes from my perspective, he provided some great acting advice and in general insight from an actor’s perspective. It was easy to tell that he enjoyed his job, being quite a humble presence. That about sums everything up, we have additional panel and other coverage from the show in our hub.

View our David Hayter Panel Coverage
View our Calgary Expo 2021 Hub